Microsoft is Bringing Brilliant Visuals to Minecraft

Microsoft today announced the Vibrant Visuals upgrade for Minecraft, which will dramatically improve the game’s graphics while staying true to its unique look. Vibrant Visuals will be released as a free upgrade later this year for Minecraft: Bedrock Edition on “selected platforms.”

“Vibrant Visuals is designed to evoke how Minecraft looks in your head,” Xbox’s Joe Skrebels writes. “This isn’t a total conversion, or a handbrake turn into a new visual style, but a deepening of Minecraft’s iconic look.”

Vibrant Visuals adds modern graphical effects like directional lighting, volumetric fog, reflections, and shadows while retaining the signature Minecraft pixelated look. Based on the sample images Microsoft provided, it looks natural and “normal,” in a Minecraft sense. But gamers can also disable Vibrant Visuals if they’d like, or simply ignore the upgrade.

Vibrant Visuals is coming first to Minecraft: Bedrock Edition, as noted. But it will be added to Minecraft: Java Edition in the future, too. And Mojang plans other visual updates that will also remain true to the game.

“Vibrant Visuals is not the end, it’s the beginning of our journey,” Mojang executive producer Ingela Garneij says. “We want to keep working to add more visual updates, as our goal is to reach players across platforms with approachable graphics. We’ll continue to build on these features while staying true to what makes Minecraft’s art style so special and beloved by our community.”