Reforj now looks noticeably sharper thanks to Rixels, a new rendering method that 4J Studios built into its Elements Engine. Rixels are the core of Title Update 8, also called the Rixel Update, and they replace the game’s earlier faceted art style with crisper, cleaner surfaces that hold their detail up close. The change touches nearly everything in the world, from terrain textures to mobs and player characters.
Quick answer: Rixels are Reforj’s new texture technology. To see them, launch the Xbox Insider Hub on an Xbox Series X|S console, go to Previews and join Reforj, then install Reforj Pre-Alpha and reboot the console to pull the latest build.
What a Rixel is
The name is short for Reforj Pixels. Where a normal pixel is always a square, a Rixel can take on one of several geometric shapes inside the same grid space. In the current build, a Rixel can be one of up to 23 shapes, and each shape carries its own material properties such as metallic level and roughness.
Technically, Rixels are stored much like ordinary pixel textures, but the texture data also records which shape sits at each location. 4J describes the breakthrough as combining vector-style shapes with traditional bitmap textures, using 2D versions of the game’s 3D Element shapes as the building blocks of every surface. This is the flat, two-dimensional counterpart to Reforj’s sculpted voxels, which already extend the basic cube into a wider range of forms.
What changes visually
The most practical benefit is clarity. Reforj’s earlier faceted look struggled with diagonal lines and fine detail, which could appear fuzzy or inconsistent. Rixels fix that by keeping textures sharp at any distance, so surfaces do not blur no matter how close the in-game camera gets to an Element.
The result reads as brighter and more vibrant than the pre-alpha footage from a year earlier. Textures keep their cubic, voxel feel but lose the hard angular edge, which gives the world a smoother look while staying readable. 4J frames Rixels as more than a graphics tweak, describing them as the visual foundation for the game going forward.
Why textures shrink by over 98 percent
Rixels also cut storage dramatically. Under the old system, a single material used a 512×512 texture that took roughly 4MB. The Rixelised version of that material is typically 20×20 and takes about 72KB, a reduction of more than 98 percent in texture memory.
| Detail | Previous textures | Rixel textures |
|---|---|---|
| Typical resolution | 512 × 512 | 20 × 20 |
| Storage per material | ~4MB | ~72KB |
| Texture memory saved | — | Over 98% |
| Sharpness up close | Can blur | Stays crisp |
The smaller footprint gives the team more room to add materials and content without inflating storage requirements. 4J says the game keeps a steady, fast frame rate across heavy scenes, including destroying the world with Boomblocks or running into swarms of Scavengers, and treats Rixels as one step in a broader performance roadmap.
How to play the Rixel Update on Xbox
The Rixel Update is free to play through the Xbox Insider Program and runs only on Xbox Series X|S consoles. If you already play Reforj, updating the build is enough to see the new look. If you are new, you join through the Xbox Insider Hub.
You know it worked when Reforj Pre-Alpha appears in your library and the world renders with the new sharp, Rixelised textures instead of the older faceted surfaces. If the update does not appear, the most common cause is skipping the reboot after enrollment, which is required to pull the current build.
Reforj is still a pre-alpha open-world sandbox survival game, built on the proprietary Elements Engine and planned for Windows, Xbox, and PlayStation. PC players who want to be notified as it develops can wishlist it on its Steam store page, while the current hands-on testing remains Xbox Series X|S only for now.
