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[3liteDragon]

Created by a core staff of just 12 developers, The Ascent is a visually stunning title shown in various forms as a next-gen showcase - but it's actually built to straddle the generational divide, and to deliver ray tracing via DX12 on PC! See how this game looks running on all Xboxes and PC in John Linneman's tech review.

 

[AnotherOne]

 

[mejin]

Oh just DF

 

[Rikkori]

Skip the video & save your time, thank me later. Half of it is loading screens, then half of the other half is explaining 30 fps XB1 vs 60 fps XBS in many more words, with only about 2 minutes of some actually cool footage.

 

[kiryani]

The cyberpunk game we have all been waiting for

 

[Riky]

Series S destroys One X in this comparison, that velocity architecture doing work.

 

[sinnergy]

Series S destroys One X in this comparison, that velocity architecture doing work.

Amen brother

 

[CamHostage]

Highlighting the water effects and destructibles kind of reminds me of how top-down ARPGs like Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance were showcases of FX back in their day. Kind of a fun throughline to follow, and top-down really lets you stare at and enjoy cool effects. It's good to see high-spec work in that genre again.

 

[DustQueen]

Series S destroys One X in this comparison, that velocity architecture

The Ascent does not use Velocity.

 

[Thief1987]

The Ascent does not use Velocity.

How about VRR, huh?

 

[R6Rider]

Did this need a separate thread?

 

[MrHydra933BR]

Loading NEEDS to be optimized. Even on Series X, the game doesn't look that good for these loadings.

 

[Fake]

The Ascent does not use Velocity.

I guess he is mistaking the CPU huge power, mobile Jaguar vs Ryzen.

 

[Stuart360]

Top 3 best looking game yet this gen, along with Flight Simulator and Ratchet and Clank.
Crazy what these 12 devs have achieved. Someone should buy them up quick lol.

 

[Mr Moose]

Did this need a separate thread?

DF videos get new threads (unless there's already one?).

 

[kingfey]

All hail DF

 

[Fredrik]

Highlighting the water effects and destructibles kind of reminds me of how top-down ARPGs like Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance were showcases of FX back in their day. Kind of a fun throughline to follow, and top-down really lets you stare at and enjoy cool effects. It's good to see high-spec work in that genre again.

Oh yes, started playing that glorious game last night on XSX through Retroarch, the water still impress even compared to modern games

 

[assurdum]

The Ascent does not use Velocity.

It's Riky. He is just about MS PR stuff without any tech basis.

 

[Tripolygon]

This is my kind of game.

 

[Evilms]

• Dynamic 4K on Xbox One X + Xbox Series X
• Dynamic 1440p on Xbox Series S
• Dynamic 900p on Xbox One S
• 60fps with some slowdowns on Xbox Series X + S
• 30fps only on Xbox One X + S
• RT not available on Xbox Series X + S
• PC : RT + DLSS (DX11 & DX12 options)
• No plan for AMD FSR
• Long loading time on Xbox One console (about 3 minutes).

 

[elliot5]

seems like a game I might give a spin in a year when its patched up and maybe reworked a bit

 

[MaKTaiL]

The Ascent is a visually stunning title shown in various forms as a next-gen showcase

 

[Riky]

The Ascent does not use Velocity.

The SSD and decompression blocks are half the equation so it's using elements of it.

 

[Silent Viper]

• Dynamic 4K on Xbox One X + Xbox Series X
• Dynamic 1440p on Xbox Series S
• Dynamic 900p on Xbox One S
• 60fps with some slowdowns on Xbox Series X + S
• 30fps only on Xbox One X + S
• RT not available on Xbox Series X + S
• PC : RT + DLSS (DX11 & DX12 options)
• No plan for AMD FSR
• Long loading time on Xbox One console (about 3 minutes).

So, i tested loadtimes on Xbox one X connected to T5 Samsung SSD (external) and loadtimes were around 1m:55secs. Initial loadtimes i meant.

So external is must if people don't have nextgen systems

 

[Great Hair]

All hail DF

Spoiler: memes that need to die

".. a showcase of what next system can offer..., the visuals on display, well see for your self"
10 seconds later

Spoiler

Why are they targeting 4K60 with custom high settings? and not 1440p+ with pc close to ultra? and John definitely needs to proof read what he writes before.

"mighty cpu power 1440p60fps" vs "slow cougar but 2x the pixel count@30fps"
"... ends up running a lot better .."

Guess the XBX could not run this at 60fps, according to John. Not at 1080p, 1440p ..
edit: just noticed, how low their views per video are.

 

[martino]

on pc i load ~in 10 sec max so far (first loading was ~15sec the other 6-8 sec)....(with 7700k and sata ssd)
if xbox use velocity i'm not impressed at all.

 

[MadchesterManc]

Anyone tried the PC version to see if the raytracing is working ok after what was mentioned in the DF article? Can't try it till later myself

 

[Superayate]

Spoiler: memes that need to die

".. a showcase of what next system can offer..., the visuals on display, well see for your self"
10 seconds later

Spoiler

Why are they targeting 4K60 with custom high settings? and not 1440p+ with pc close to ultra? and John definitely needs to proof read what he writes before.

"mighty cpu power 1440p60fps" vs "slow cougar but 2x the pixel count@30fps"
"... ends up running a lot better .."

Guess the XBX could not run this at 60fps, according to John. Not at 1080p, 1440p ..
edit: just noticed, how low their views per video are.

That's the problem to be CPU limited with such game. The one X GPU was nice, but it was clearly limited by its CPU since the start...

 

[Evilms]

 

[MadchesterManc]

How are you getting DLSS? I don't have that option at all on the latest driver with a 2080ti Watch it be some daft Windows store quirk...

 

[MonarchJT]

Skip the video & save your time, thank me later. Half of it is loading screens, then half of the other half is explaining 30 fps XB1 vs 60 fps XBS in many more words, with only about 2 minutes of some actually cool footage.

no thanks I love DF stuff

 

[GHG]

Have they got DX12 working on PC yet? Will probably hold off until that's patched up.

 

[elliot5]

How are you getting DLSS? I don't have that option at all on the latest driver with a 2080ti Watch it be some daft Windows store quirk...

It is. Steam edition only supports DLSS at the moment.

 

[MadchesterManc]

It is. Steam edition only supports DLSS at the moment.

Had a feeling that would be the case. PC GamePass can so ghetto sometimes

 

[elliot5]

Had a feeling that would be the case. PC GamePass can so ghetto sometimes

Yeah idk what's up. I guess the Windows Store version is built off the unified GDK and bc there's no DLSS on console it's not available .. and they had a separate branch or build for the Steam PC version which cropped out the DLSS support. Idk why else that would be the case. Even though games like Control have DLSS available on Windows Store.

 

[DarkMage619]

Series S destroys One X in this comparison, that velocity architecture doing work.

Imaging telling someone the X1X is more powerful than the XSS. Making them wait 3 minutes for this game to load is an eternity. I guess you can't trust haters on a forum to give good console purchase advice.

 

[alabtrosMyster]

Skip the video & save your time, thank me later. Half of it is loading screens, then half of the other half is explaining 30 fps XB1 vs 60 fps XBS in many more words, with only about 2 minutes of some actually cool footage.

The worst thing is that the game still takes a very long time to load on the series consoles for some reason.

 

[ss_lemonade]

Anyone tried the PC version to see if the raytracing is working ok after what was mentioned in the DF article? Can't try it till later myself

I only just finished the prologue at max with RT and without DLSS (I didn't even know that it had DLSS) and only saw stutters during explosions. Nothing like what the video showed so far.

 

[Shmunter]

Imaging telling someone the X1X is more powerful than the XSS. Making them wait 3 minutes for this game to load is an eternity. I guess you can't trust haters on a forum to give good console purchase advice.

Better take it up with DF, vid itself said One X has more powerful gpu than Series S.

 

[DarkMage619]

Better take it up with DF, vid itself said One X has more powerful gpu than Series S.

And he said the XSS had a much more powerful CPU which allows the game to run a 60fps vs 30. The only real advantage the X1X has is that it has more RAM. That means higher resolution, the one thing the XSS was designed to compromise. I wonder why you left out the important stuff? DF mentioned it but you did not...

 

[Shmunter]

And he said the XSS had a much more powerful CPU which allows the game to run a 60fps vs 30. The only real advantage the X1X has is that it has more RAM. That means higher resolution, the one thing the XSS was designed to compromise. I wonder why you left out the important stuff? DF mentioned it but you did not...

Wait, people have been saying the new gen has less cpu than last gen? Ahh ok, can’t believe you bothered taking that seriously enough to repeat it. Specs are well documented. Carry on.

 

[Negotiator101]

• Dynamic 4K on Xbox One X + Xbox Series X
• Dynamic 1440p on Xbox Series S
• Dynamic 900p on Xbox One S
• 60fps with some slowdowns on Xbox Series X + S
• 30fps only on Xbox One X + S
• RT not available on Xbox Series X + S
• PC : RT + DLSS (DX11 & DX12 options)
• No plan for AMD FSR
• Long loading time on Xbox One console (about 3 minutes).

You missed worse frame dips on Xbox One S and X.

 

[Low Moral Fibre]

Played it all night on both PC and XSX (cross saves are great) and while the asset quality is obviously much lower than a big budget AAA game it all comes together beautifully and is definitely one of the best looking games I've played this year. I can see why John liked it.

Loading is faster on PC so obviously brute forcing it and not using velocity as my CPU is way above what's in the consoles.

 

[Rikkori]

RT Reflections On vs Off:

The Ascent - RT Ref - Imgsli

imgsli.com

 

[Allandor]

All in all I'm impressed that this small team delivered a good working version on all current xbox consoles.
The DX11 PC version is also working well, but DX12 ... I guess it is to much for that small team. DX12 is like Vulkan really much more complicated, because if you do something wrong the API won't stop you. And it is really easy to get something wrong if you can manage everything (DX11 done before).

 

[Schmick]

Wait, people have been saying the new gen has less cpu than last gen? Ahh ok, can’t believe you bothered taking that seriously enough to repeat it. Specs are well documented. Carry on.

I have read in the past people suggesting that people should buy the XBX instead of the XSS. Madness.

Edit: I should add that this was suggested for those looking for a 'budget' console.

 

[SomeGit]

I have read in the past people suggesting that people should by the XBX instead of the XSS. Madness.

That is the one thing I never understood.
I like lower end hardware and don't really think you need 4K120 to enjoy a game, but even I couldn't enjoy the last gen of consoles.
Exactly because of the low framerates due to CPU bottlenecks and how much games took to load because of the mech HDD/slow CPU combo.

The XSS even at a lower resolution is much much much better experience that the XB1X, like it's not even on the same ballpark.

 

[PurpleDragon92]

Does this game not run in HDR on xbox ? Played it last night and noticed my tv was only in SDR Still a great looking game tho

 

[GymWolf]

In some locations, this game has more geometry density than ratchet space city, i'm really impressed.

To me, it honestly looks better than cyberpunk2077 or ff7 rerape (the last 2 cyberpunk\steampunk games i played). (except the characters, too plasticky)

 

[Markio128]

In some locations, this game has more geometry density than ratchet space city, i'm really impressed.

To me, it honestly looks better than cyberpunk2077 or ff7 rerape (the last 2 cyberpunk\steampunk games i played). (except the characters, too plasticky)

You typed that with a straight face, didn’t you?