More new games now have Nvidia RTX support, which allows for ray-tracing using dedicated hardware within the RTX graphic cards. But it can be hard to discern what exactly the benefit of ray-tracing to the general public. Which explained why Nvidia made Quake II RTX.
And probably along the same train of thought, Nvidia has partnered with Mojang to deliver RTX support to Minecraft. They have announced this at gamescom today.
It may sound silly to add realistic ray-tracing lighting for a game with a very clear and blocky aesthetic. But it makes for a more compelling showcase on what ray-tracing can do. Gold blocks look shiny and have reflections, caves are darker, light seeping into a tunnel and lava are warmer and brighter, and carpets looks more like a carpet- as it absorbs some light and show its fluffy textures.
There have been community-made ray-traced shaders, but now with a free update, it should be easier for players playing on the Windows 10 version could see the benefits of ray-tracing in action. While you need an RTX card to actually enable this, there are plans to support ray-tracing via DirectX R for non-RTX Nvidia cards.
Source: Nvidia Blog