The Ascent's broken Game Pass edition is getting fixed, developer promises

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The Game Pass release was missing the DLSS and ray-tracing goodness available in The Ascent's Steam edition.

The Ascent
(Image credit: Neon Giant)

The Ascent's cyberpunk metropolis is a gorgeous thing to behold. Unfortunately, on release it was slightly less stunning on Game Pass than Steam, with the former missing ray-tracing and DLSS features afforded to the latter. Fortunately, it looks like developer Neon Giant is on the case, with plans to bring the Microsoft version up to parity with Steam.

Posting in response to a disappointed player, the official Neon Giant account promised fixes to the absent DLSS and broken ray-tracing implementation—along with a lesser-known issue that was causing load times to take twice as long on Game Pass.

As our Jacob noted, the Game Pass edition was missing options for DLSS outright. And while the Nvidia .dll libraries to support it have since emerged online, the way Game Pass titles are packed has made adding them a whole lot harder than simply dragging and dropping them in. Ray-tracing, while ostensibly supported, appeared to be completely broken on Game Pass.

It's a shame, too. The Ascent's Arcology is a grand, monolithic urban sprawl that easily puts Cyberpunk 2077's Night City to shame. All rain-swept and glistening with neon, it's the sort of thing you'd want to see with all the visual bells and whistles cranked up—except that, on Game Pass, you'd never see it all the way maxxed out.

Hopefully, Game Pass subscribers shouldn't have to wait too long to see the Arcology at its best.

Natalie Clayton
Natalie Clayton
Features Producer

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.