A few days after the Playstation Showcasewe had learned a news not so surprising considering the marketing strategy of Sony Interactive Entertainment, but whose announcement was still surprising due to its timing. In effect, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart will be released on PC no later than July 26, next week, time flies! The features of this port of the gameInsomniac Games sign Nixxes Software had then been introduced on video. There was really only one thing left to know: the configurations necessary to run the beast in the best conditions, with the storage medium as a major question mark, since one of the arguments of its PS5 exclusivity when it was released was the possibilities offered by the console’s SSD.
Well, yes, in most cases you will need an SSD to store the 75 GB of game data, unless you are satisfied with the minimum configuration. And even then, it is recommended to have one. Like what, everything is possible in the end, and this thanks to the decompression by GPUs of DirectStorage 1.2. The article of PlayStation-Blog insisting on this point at its very end, it is clearly not insignificant. The latter does not yet specify what AMD-GPUs it will be necessary to possess to play with the ray tracing activatedlet’s hope this does not bode well for future technical problems just a few days before the launch.
Next week, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is coming to PC! Many of you have asked us for more information on the technologies used and the system requirements. Today we answer all your questions and we have some cool bonus features to announce.
In order to guarantee you an optimal interdimensional experience, our team implemented DirectStorage 1.2 in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on PC, with GPU decompression.
Richard van der Laan, Senior Lead Programmer at Nixxes Software, explains, “To enable fast loading and instant transitions between dimensions, the game must be able to load assets quickly. Thanks to DirectStorage, loading times are reduced. Additionally, if high graphics settings are applied, GPU decompression is used to stream background assets during gameplay. Usually this decompression is handled by the CPU, but at some point it is better to let the GPU manage it to benefit from greater bandwidth in the transfer of resources from storage to the graphics card. We can thus load high quality textures and environments with a high level of detail. »
Alex Bartholomeus, Lead Programmer: “For Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on PC, we added variable streaming tied to the amount of hardware bandwidth available. It allows us to better adapt the strategy of distribution of textures on any configuration. With DirectStorage, the use of a fast NVMe SSD, and GPU decompression, we get very responsive texture streaming even at the highest settings. »
DirectStorage is designed to take full advantage of NVMe PCIe SSDs, but the technology is also compatible with SATA SSDs and conventional hard drives. In other words, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on PC can use this technology for loading data regardless of the storage device in your system.
Ambient occlusion by ray tracing and XeGTAO
In our first announcement, we told you that Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on PC would integrate ray-traced reflections and new ray-traced shadows to transcribe natural exterior light. Today, we’re revealing another option that will add realism to the lighting in the game: ambient occlusion by ray tracing, with several quality levels to choose from.
Graphics programmer Menno Bil explains, “Ambient occlusion is a technique used in games to simulate the effect of ambient lighting in a scene. Ambient lighting is a form of indirect lighting. It is the light that is reflected by the surfaces. This effect is mainly visible in creases, cracks and recesses where the surfaces are close to each other. Common ambient occlusion techniques are SSAO (screen-space ambient occlusion) and HBAO+ (horizon-based ambient occlusion). They are not very greedy in hardware resources, but do not give physically exact results. RTAO uses ray tracing to increase the realism of ambient occlusion in-game. We’ve implemented RTAO as an option for high-end systems with ray-traced capable cards and sufficient computing power. »
Menno and the team also incorporated XeGTAO, Intel’s ground-truth ambient occlusion implementation. Like SSAO and HBAO+, this solution applies to screen space. Therefore, this technique does not achieve the level of realism offered by RTAO, but the performance cost is significantly lower and comparable to that of implementing HBAO+. The XeGTAO is selectable in the game options and works with graphics cards from all manufacturers.
“The XeGTAO generates very high resolution ambient occlusion that displays the smallest details of the geometry. Overall, the output quality of the XeGTAO is very high and produces a pleasing visual. »
System requirements
Now that we’ve covered all the features of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on PC, it’s time to tell you more about the system requirements. When we port a game to PC, we pay special attention to scalability. Additions like ray-traced shadows, ray-traced ambient occlusion, and triple-screen support are aimed at gamers with the latest and most capable machines. By providing highly customizable graphics options and features, we ensure that the game can be run on less powerful machines and is accessible to as many players as possible. Below are the recommended configurations for various graphics presets.
Although Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart can be enjoyed with a regular hard drive and the minimum system requirements, we recommend that gamers use an SSD with the recommended system configuration or higher to experience the interdimensional gaming experience as it was originally envisioned.
Details regarding ray-tracing support for AMD GPUs will be coming soon.
As a reminder, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart will be compatible with the technologies SLR, DLSS-3, DLAA and the ray tracing of NVIDIA. You can pre-order your copy at the house of Gamesplanet at the reduced price of €53.99.
Read also: TEST of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, an amazing interdimensional adventure!
| Alexandre SAMSON (Omega Law) Responsible Corrector – Editor | ||
| Addicted to Assassin’s Creed and Destiny, great fan of RPGs and passionate about video game experiences in general. Reader of comics (DC) and various manga (One Piece!). Chemist by training and Whovian at heart. | ||
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