To ensure a smooth dimension-hopping experience, our team implemented DirectStorage 1.2 in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on PC, including GPU decompression.
Richard van der Laan, Senior Lead Programmer at Nixxes Software, explains:
\u201cTo enable quick loading and instant transition between dimensions, the game needs to be able to load assets quickly. DirectStorage ensures quick loading times and GPU decompression is used at high graphics settings to stream assets in the background while playing. Traditionally, this decompression is handled by the CPU, but at a certain point there is an advantage to letting the GPU handle this, as this enables a higher bandwidth for streaming assets from storage to the graphics card. We use this to quickly load high-quality textures and environments with a high level of detail.\u201d
Principal Programmer Alex Bartholomeus:
\u201cFor Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on PC we added adaptive streaming based on live measurement of the available hardware bandwidth. This allows us to tailor the texture streaming strategy for the best possible texture streaming on any configuration. With DirectStorage, the use of a fast NVMe SSD and GPU decompression, this results in very responsive texture streaming even at the highest settings.\u201d
DirectStorage is developed to fully utilize the speed of fast PCIe NVMe SSDs, but the technology is also compatible with SATA SSDs and even traditional hard disk drives. This means Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on PC can use the same technology for loading data, regardless of the storage device in your system.
Ray-Traced Ambient Occlusion and XeGTAO
In our initial announcement we shared that Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on PC will feature ray-traced reflections and newly added ray-traced shadows for natural outdoor light. Today we can reveal the addition of another option that will further enhance the realism of light in the game: Ray-Traced Ambient Occlusion, with various quality levels to choose from.
Graphics Programmer Menno Bil explains:
\u201cAmbient occlusion is a technique used in games to simulate how ambient lighting affects a scene. Ambient lighting is a form of indirect lighting: the light reflected from other surfaces. This effect mostly appears at creases, cracks, and corners where surfaces are close to each other. Commonly used AO techniques are SSAO (Screen Space Ambient Occlusion) and HBAO+ (Horizon-Based Ambient Occlusion). These are not very demanding on the hardware, but they do not provide physically accurate results. RTAO utilizes ray-tracing to further enhance the realism of ambient occlusion in the game. We have implemented RTAO as an addition for those with high-end systems with ray-tracing compatible hardware and processing power to spare.\u201d
Menno and the team also implemented XeGTAO; Intel\u2019s implementation of Ground-Truth Ambient Occlusion.
Like SSAO and HBAO+, this solution is based on screen-space. Therefore, this technique does not enable the level of realism that RTAO does, but the performance cost is much lower and comparable to that of the HBAO+ implementation. XeGTAO is selectable as an option in the game and works with graphics cards from all vendors. \u201cXeGTAO generates a very high-resolution ambient occlusion that shows even the smallest details in geometry. Overall, the output quality of XeGTAO is very high and results in a pleasant look.\u201d
PC features:
- Blast your way through an interdimensional adventure as Ratchet and Clank make their way to PC for the very first time!
- Wrap your eyes around delightful, diverse dimensions, with ultra-wide support for 21:9, 32:9, and 48:9 (triple monitor support) resolutions!*
- See the omniverse brought to life with the option of unlocked frame rates! You can also enjoy ray-traced reflections, as well as newly added, ray-traced shadows for exteriors.**
- Witness the very latest, performance-enhancing upscaling technologies for yourself, including NVIDIA DLSS 3, AMD FSR 2, Intel XeSS and Insomniac Games\u2019 Temporal Injection. NVIDIA Reflex and image quality-enhancing NVIDIA DLAA are also supported.
- Play with the DualSense\u2122 controller to experience haptic feedback and dynamic trigger effects.*** Or choose mouse and keyboard \u2013 with a wide range of control customization options.
- Includes support for achievements and cloud saves on PC game launchers.
