The Ascent’s Game Pass PC version is currently inferior to the game’s Steam release

Earlier this week, The Ascent release on PC through Steam and the Microsoft Store, arriving on the Microsoft Store as an Xbox Game Pass for PC title. Strangely, these two PC versions are not identical, as the game’s Steam version supports multiple exclusive features that are missing from the Microsoft Store version. 

Right now, The Ascent’s Xbox Game Pass version on the Microsoft Store lacks support for ray tracing and Nvidia’s DLSS technology, features that can deliver improved visuals and higher framerates, respectively. This omission has left many Xbox Game Pass for PC users confused, especially those with Nvidia RTX series graphics cards. 

Nvidia’s DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) technology is a resolution enhancement feature that is designed to deliver near-native levels of image quality and higher framerates to users of Nvidia’s RTX series graphics cards. For Nvidia GPU users, this feature allows gamers to achieve significant framerate boosts when playing supported titles on their systems, especially if they are targetting high resolutions like 4K. 

Thankfully, gamers without ray tracing compatible hardware will not be able to utilise either of these advanced features. That said, Game Pass subscribers with the latest graphics hardware are annoyed that they cannot play The Ascent with all of the game’s graphical features enabled.