Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart will make its PC debut on Steam from July 26 with a whole host of new features including Microsoft DirectStorage support and GPU decompression technology.
Using Microsoft DirectStorage 1.2 and GPU decompression technology, and as far as we can tell, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart will be the first game ever to incorporate GPU decompression through the DirectStorage API. DirectStorage support is set to significantly boost game load times and real-time asset streaming.
Unlike previous games that feature GPU decompression technology, like Portal: Prelude RTX which used Nvidia's Vulkan extensions Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart's gameplay requires Microsoft's DirectStorage GPU decompression to run the game at playable frame rates. As players blast their way through interdimensional portals, new game worlds, textures and assets are streamed in real-time, which wouldn't be possible without GPU decompression. For more details be sure to check out our previous coverage here.
- NVIDIA DLSS 3 - AI-powered performance multiplier. At 4K, with all ray tracing effects enabled, and settings maxed, GeForce RTX 4080 and 4090 desktop GPU gamers can experience 140+ FPS gameplay.
- NVIDIA Reflex - reducing system latency in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart by up to 48%.
- NVIDIA RTX IO - GPU-accelerated storage technology enables rapid loading of assets.
- NVIDIA DLAA - an AI-based anti-aliasing mode for users who have spare GPU headroom and want higher levels of image quality.
- Ray tracing - Ray-traced shadows, ambient occlusion and reflections will run at the highest speeds possible on dedicated ray tracing cores on each GeForce RTX GPUs
Besides GPU decompression, the game has received an extensive amount of PC upgrades to differentiate it from the original PS5 version. These upgrades include DLSS 2/3, DLAA, AMD FSR 2, and Intel's XeSS technology integration for boosting performance with image upscaling/downscaling. Support for ultrawide aspect ratios like 21:9, 32:9, and 48:9, and improved ray-traced graphics including RT reflections and RT shadows have also been added.
The game focuses on Ratchet and Clank, a pair of intergalactic adventurers who are focused on taking down an evil power and preventing a dimensional collapse before it destroys their own universe.
Thankfully, if you want a shot at playing the game tomorrow, the game's system requirements are not monstrous, depending on what graphics setting you want to play at. For the bare minimum experience, you don't even need an SSD to play, with the minimum requirement demanding 75GB of hard drive space. But if you want to play the game at any of the higher settings, especially the RT settings, you'll need a modern Intel/AMD hexa core CPU based system with an RTX 3060 Ti/RTX 3070 class GPUs at a minimum to turn most of the eye candy on.
