Ascendant Studios’ Immortals of Aveum is currently enjoying a new lease of life as a ‘free’ game on PlayStation Plus – and two major upgrades are coming soon. The first – patch 1.0.6.3 – adds support for high dynamic range and should be rolling out to all console versions of the game today. Perhaps more exciting is the upcoming 1.0.6.4, which brings AMD’s FSR 3 frame generation to consoles for the first time, increasing frame-rate via inserted, interpolated frames.
When the console versions receive their FSR 3 upgrades, the PC version will also be updated to support the latest rendition of AMD’s frame generation technology. Ascendant is working with development partner Enduring Games to bring this eagerly awaited feature to consoles and we’re intrigued to see just how good the implementation will be.
The PR doesn’t give much away about how frame-gen changes or improves Immortals of Aveum on consoles, saying only that “Patch 1.0.6.4 will also extend FSR 3 support for Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) monitors and TVs on both PC and consoles, which will improve frame pacing and reduce occurrences of judder or screen tears”.
The existing implementation of FSR 3 on PC doesn’t support VRR and has profound frame-pacing issues under load – issues AMD has addressed in more recent FSR 3 updates. It should be pointed out that while FSR 3 is a catch-all term for AMD’s latest upscaling tech, developers do not need to implement frame generation. However, we’re assured by the Ascendant that frame-gen is in for the console builds.
Based on our experiences with Immortals of Aveum – and indeed our own tests on console-equivalent hardware using the existing PC version – our educated guess would be that Ascendant Studios and Enduring Games will be building on the existing experience targeting 60fps, increasing frame-rate for 120Hz display support. Additionally, VRR on consoles would allow for a smoother, more consistent experience even if there are frame-rate fluctuations below 120fps. Expect the 1.0.6.4 upgrade with FSR 3 support “in just a few short weeks”, according to PR material shared to us by the developer. HDR support for PC is due “in a future update”.
At Digital Foundry, we’ll be doing our best to bring you more about FSR 3’s first console deployment as soon as we can.
