The Ascent

[Peppermint Lounge]

Good stuff. I had some spare in my Humble Bundle wallet so bought the superior Steam version. The devs advise they're working to get the Game Pass version patched to parity. How are others finding it? I'm playing KBAM which works well. So far my four cores and 5700 XT are running the game at 70-100fps, 1440p, all ultra bar shadows which I've dialled down to high. Still early days so it will get a lot busier but after reading specs which list a RTX2080 for 1080p/60fps I'm pleasently surprised so far.

I planned to run it last night for a look and ended up staying with it for the evening. Pretty awesome effort for a 12 man team. Good character creator, deeper than expected skills system, gorgeous visuals and audio.

[Rorschach]

I got the Steam version as well. Let’s do coop. Running this with everything maxed out on a 3080. Does stutter with RT on. Turned it off, buttery smooth. Great game for $30AUD, puts big budget AAA games to shame

[Ambrose Burnside]

Set the Game Pass version to download when I left home for work this morning.

Why is the Steam version superior?

[flipswitch]

https://www.neowin.net/news/the-ascent- ... the-works/

Although the title has been fairly positively received so far, many have also noticed that the Game Pass for PC version is inferior compared to its Steam counterpart. However, a fix is in the works.

Multiple gamers across social media platforms have noted that the Game Pass version on PC lacks Nvidia's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) capability and the graphical option for it is not even present in the configurations. In the same vein, ray-tracing does not work at all. Meanwhile, both of these features exist in working condition on Steam.

In a series of tweets from The Ascent's development studio Neon Giant and signed by co-founder Tor Frick, the company has confirmed that a fix is in the works.

We are working on bringing them up to parity. [...] It is being looked at, with the intent of fixing it/bringing it to parity with steam across the board. [...] We are working with our partners on adressing (sic) this as soon as we can! Build processes are different for the two versions, not just a storefront swap.

[t0mby]

Sounds like two different versions were supplied if anything. Can't understand any other reason why features would be missing from the GP version unless PC and Xbox share the same game and PC got the gimped version used on Xbox.

[lestat]

Playing the GP version on PC and Xbox, they are basically the same version, I've seen the exact same UI bugs. Performance wise the XSX runs good, holds 60fps 99% although I have come across a few spots where the FPS tanks for a small time. PC version runs at 2x the FPS ~120~144fps, some of the effects look a little better at ultra and yeah the RT options don't work right now in the GP build, there is some initial stutter which I think is shader cache related that smooths out as you play. I'll finish my playthrough on PC.

I've played quite a bit and have been enjoying it, there are some bugs and rough spots here and there, gameplay once you unlock a few augs/mods and weapons it becomes quite fun. The cyberpunk world is incredible, they really nailed the aesthetic and attention to detail. I feel maybe if they delayed it and added some more polish the scores would have been better, I've come across 2 nearly game breaking bugs which I've luckily been able to quit and reload to get the triggers working. Just simple stuff like quit to main menu doesn't work and you can tell the XSX/PC are the same build because they both have this bug.

The reason 2 versions exist I think is due to nvidia sponsorship, this is only a 12 man team, looks like nvidia gave them some engineers to get RT working in this, they probably forked the builds really late in dev to allow nvidia to do their thing. Once again though seeing the RT in this, not worth the massive drop in FPS, screen space reflections and effects are decent enough, especially due to the games fixed camera/perspective.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Played again last night. This will feature on a few GOTY lists. It's not perfect and they need to fix some stuttering but what they've totally nailed blows the quibbles out of the water.

[Rorschach]

Just for anyone interestes, you can move your save from Game Pass over to Steam with a little editing. Happy to pay to support the devs. Doesn't get much better than this for a small team. Reminds me of Syndicate Wars to an extent.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[flipswitch]

Best way to play on PC , KB+M or controller?

[Peppermint Lounge]

Have yet to try my xbone controller but can confirm KBAM works well. You need to aim your shots so mouse would have an advantage there.

[Candy Arse]

I got it on GP but it is borked. Game is good enough within the first hour where I'm now downloading the Steam version. Really liked what I played last night.

[Peppermint Lounge]

First patch up. I played about an hour using DX12 (played DX11 only before having heard DX12 broken). It appears to be a lot smoother. Previously I'd hit a few seconds of profound slowdown in between long periods of smooth gameplay. Those choppy moments gone from my session.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Oh and RT now works for the GP version.

[Ambrose Burnside]

How do you even update Game Pass games for PC?

The Ascent appears in my Windows Store Downloads and updates page as version 2.0.1.0 last updated on the 02/08 which is the day I installed it?

The Xbox app doesn't seem to have a check for updates feature or anything.

[Peppermint Lounge]

I think you still have to go into the old Microsoft Store where there are options to manually push app updates including games. I generally find it just happens in the background in a timely enough manner though. Whenever I want to fire up a game via the XBox app it's updated.

[Ambrose Burnside]

Yeah sorry Microsoft Store is what I meant when I said Windows Store. No updates available.

What version of The Ascent does the Microsoft Store say you're running?

EDIT: Seems to be a common issue: here

Stuck at 2.0.1.0. Windows Store says everything is up to date when clicking get updates.

This is the issue I'm having.

This seems to be a common issue with the store - I don't know if they do some silly form of staggered release to slow down rollouts or if it's just outright broken.

Either way, if you can't wait and have the bandwidth to burn, uninstall the game entirely and reinstall from scratch - I did so and now have 2.0.5.0.

Bandwidth isn't an issue for me, but in 2021, this is pretty inexcusable

[lestat]

How do you even update Game Pass games for PC?

Xbox app,

Click on the my collection button in the top left. Then at the top right you should see a "Manage Installs" button, click that and it should check for updates and then show you updates you can install. You can also disable automatic updates here.

Got the new update, I haven't tried the RT options yet, exiting to the main menu now works though.

[lestat]

Ray Tracing settings still don't appear to work for me, not sure if a driver update is required or if it only works on NVidia cards.

[Peppermint Lounge]

A minor game design annoyance is when the indicated path to a mission takes you through an area of higher level enemies. When I'm suddenly mobbed by enemies six levels higher than me and die, my reaction is to try and try again. Eventually I get through and upon arriving at the mission area it's way too easy.

[lestat]

Yes I've experience that, there isn't any good indication either if you're in a high level area.

[Ambrose Burnside]

Got the updated version, thanks gents.

[lestat]

Another patch hit today, not sure what fixes it contains. I need to fire it up and finish it off.

[Ambrose Burnside]

Yeah, downloaded automatically for me this time.