While The Ascent features NVIDIA’s DLSS and ray tracing on Steam, it does not currently fully support either on Xbox Game Pass for PC. Fortunately, developer Neon Giant has confirmed it is working to bring these features to the Game Pass version.
As reported by Eurogamer, Neon Giant has been responding to PC players of The Ascent on Twitter who have noticed these differences between the two versions, sharing that build processes are different for the two versions. On Xbox Game Pass, DLSS is simply not present. Ray tracing is available as an option, but turning it on appears to make no difference to the game.
“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,” Neon Giant wrote in response to @ezekiele2517.
To @SR_Chep, Neon Giant said that “it is being looked at, with the intent of fixing it/bringing it to parity with steam across the board.”
@MrChrisBee also noted that the Game Pass version takes “over twice as long to load a level as the Steam version.” Neon Giant thanked the user for bringing it to its attention, while also confirming the work to bring both versions to parity.
Unfortunately for those playing The Ascent on Xbox Series X/S, the game does not support ray tracing or DLSS, as those are PC-only features for the cyberpunk-themed RPG-shooter.
These storefronts having different versions is nothing new, as NieR: Automata’s Steam version was noticeably worse than the Xbox Game Pass for PC version. Luckily, the Steam version has been patched to bring the versions closer together.
In our review of The Ascent, we said, “story isn’t its strong suit, but the rest of The Ascent delivers a wonderfully realized cyberpunk world mixed with satisfying twin-stick gunplay to create an enjoyable action-RPG.”
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.