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Ascension-R v0.1.0-alpha.5

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@rigaz29 rigaz29 released this 11 Nov 16:46
v0.1.0-alpha.5
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Ascension-R 0.1.0-alpha.5: the Kit builds on any drive, frame generation no longer stops the game at its start, EDGE takes two more steps to the GPU, and the sound goes 5.1 and 7.1. A native Windows port of God of War: Ascension (PS3) made by static recompilation: the game's PPU and SPU code runs as x86-64 code and the RSX is drawn with Direct3D 12, with no emulator running while you play.

This download holds no code or assets of the game. You need your own copy (the digital US release NPUA80918 at version 1.12, with every update from 1.04 installed) and its license. The launcher builds the game's code on your PC from that copy, once for each version.

This is still an alpha. It boots, plays the cinematics and goes through the menus into the levels, but it has not been played from start to finish, and it has been tried on few PCs so far.

Fixed

  • The Kit's build on another drive (#1, #6). With the program on D: or E: and its data folder on C:, the build stopped after its first step with path is on mount 'C:', start on mount 'D:'. It now builds wherever the two are. If you made a portable.txt to get past it, you can keep it or remove it.
  • An incomplete game, said before anything is built (#2, #3). The launcher checks the game's archives and the lists that name them, by size and content, before it decrypts or builds, and says what is missing or different. A copy with only some of the updates installed stopped on a black loading screen. This game's updates are not cumulative: install the base game, then every update from 1.04 to 1.12, oldest first.
  • Frame generation stopping the game at its start. On a laptop whose display runs through its other GPU, a start with frame generation on stopped at the boot logos about every other time. What set it off was how the session before had ended: the game ended its own process. A second copy of the exe now ends it, as if from outside, and in 14 starts since it has not stopped once. Should the GPU still stop behind frame generation, the next start offers to turn it off.
  • Controllers in the log. The log now says when an XInput controller connects or drops off, as it did for SDL3, so a pad that falls off its USB port shows in a report.

EDGE on the GPU: two more steps

EDGE, Sony's geometry library, is the heaviest work in an Ascension frame. The PS3 runs it on its SPUs; Ascension-R moves its math to your GPU one step at a time, each step checked against what the SPU code makes. The 0.1.0-alpha.3 notes have the first five. Two more:

  • Rigid meshes' transforms in the vertex pass. A mesh that is not skinned no longer depends on its matrix, so in the first fight 92% of these jobs repeat a result kept on the GPU, against 41-43% before. The transforms run in the vertex pass, the CPU's version of them checked bit for bit against the SPU's over 1.34 billion vertexes.
  • The velocity jobs kept. With FSR 3.1's moving objects on, the game makes each moving mesh's previous position for its motion vectors. Those jobs were never kept; now 95% of them are, with both of their transforms in the vertex pass (393 million vertexes checked, the positions bit for bit).

Speed

On a laptop with a Ryzen 5 4600H, a GTX 1650 Ti and 16 GB, with FSR 3.1 at 1.5x, its moving objects on, borderless 1920x1080, frame generation and VSync off:

Step off Step on
The gate after the first fight (rigid meshes) 40.1 FPS 44.3 FPS +10%
The first fight, Megaera (the velocity jobs) 26.7 FPS 30.5 FPS about +10%

Each row is the same build with the step switched off and on. The fight's runs move by up to 10% with the laptop's heat and the boss's moves, and those were not run in alternation, so read its row as a range. One PC.

Sound

  • Speakers (System tab): Auto, Stereo, 5.1 or 7.1. The game mixes up to 7.1; Auto sends it as Windows has your output device set up. Pick 7.1 for Windows Sonic or Dolby Atmos for Headphones, which make surround for headphones out of it. The game fills the surround channels only with its own Sound Mode (Options, Audio) on 5.1 or 7.1 Surround.
  • Bypass sound effects (System tab, off): the game's sound skips Windows' and the sound card's effects, such as equalizers, loudness and virtual surround, where the driver has a way past them.
  • A change of output device (headphones plugged in, a Bluetooth headset, another default device in Windows) moves the sound to the new device within a second. Before, the sound stopped until the next start. So far this has been tried with a simulated change.
  • The sound is marked as a game's, which some audio suites use to pick their game profile.

Mods

  • A mod folder (paths.mods in ascension-r.ini): a folder laid out like the PS3's paths, dev_hdd0\game\NPUA80918\USRDIR\.... A file there is read in place of the game's, or added where the game has none, and the game's folder is left as it is.
  • The game's text and subtitles are plain UTF-8 inside its archives, so a translation can go in as a seventh update. The repository's docs/notes/2026-11-11-game-text.md has the formats, and gowa.py text exports the text and builds a translation into a mod folder from a source build.

Install

  1. Download Ascension-R-0.1.0-alpha.5-kit-win64.zip below and unpack all of it into a folder of its own. Keep the kit folder next to Ascension-R.exe.
  2. Start Ascension-R.exe. The exe is not signed, so Windows SmartScreen may stop it the first time: More info, then Run anyway.
  3. The launcher looks for the game on every disk. If it does not find it, open the System tab and pick the game's folder with Browse.
  4. If your copy still has to be decrypted, the same row says what is missing: pick your rpcs3.exe or press Download RPCS3, and pick the .rap file if it asks for one. Your game's folder and your RPCS3 are only read.
  5. On the Play tab, press Build: ten minutes or more, at a low priority, with the time left on screen. It needs about 1.5 GB free while it works.
  6. Pick a preset and press Play.

Updating from 0.1.0-alpha.3: unpack this version over the old folder, or into a new one. Your settings and saves stay where they are, and the launcher builds the game's code again for this version.

Settings, saves, shaders, logs and the game's code you built are in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Ascension-R. To keep them in the program's folder instead, put an empty file named portable.txt next to Ascension-R.exe.

Status

What Status
Boot, cinematics, menus ✅ Works
The opening: the prison, the first fight, the gate ✅ Plays: about 30 FPS in the first fight with FSR 3.1 on the laptop above
Further in: the Hecatonchires and on ⚠️ Played in parts, not from start to finish
Saves ✅ Works, with a backup before each overwrite
Keyboard ✅ Works
Controllers ⚠️ One wired Xbox 360-style pad tried, through XInput and SDL3
Sound, stereo ✅ Works
Sound, 5.1 and 7.1 ⚠️ Tried on a stereo laptop only, which Windows folds it down to
FSR 3.1 frame generation ⚠️ Tried on a 60 Hz display only
Ultrawide ⚠️ The pause menu's dimming stops short of the screen's sides
Other releases of the game (European, disc) ❌ Only the US digital release NPUA80918 at 1.12 (#4)
Online ❌ Not supported: single player

Known issues

  • A freeze in the Grotto (#7): one of EDGE's jobs takes a path this build has no compiled copy of, and the game waits for it for good. It is being looked into. If you get there, try it with Disable Mesh Trimming (Game patches) off, and say in #7 whether it gets past.
  • One player saw a crash after playing a while. Its cause is not known yet: if you see one, Report a problem in the launcher's sidebar makes the zip to attach to an issue.
  • Fragment shaders are compiled the first time the game reaches them, so a new place can stutter once.
  • Decrypting and then building in one go has not been run on a PC whose copy was not decrypted yet.
  • The first ultrawide session compiles part of the shaders again.

For testers

What helps most is a report from a PC unlike the one above: another CPU, an AMD or Intel GPU, a desktop, a real 5.1 or 7.1 system. Report a problem in the launcher makes the zip to attach.

The game's code comes out the same on every PC. To check yours, in PowerShell:

Get-FileHash "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Ascension-R\game-code\ascension_game.dll"

It should be 44EE25B2C2F426DFB4844C0C3A1680E34817E2486BA9A7EA894CDD3F30087525 (with portable.txt, the DLL is in the program's own game-code folder). If yours is not, say so in an issue, with the report.

Files

  • Ascension-R-0.1.0-alpha.5-kit-win64.zip: the download, 144.6 MB. SHA-256 8dd27aa98c08ed6dc9218bd21002a6af9d93f5eafbe3b7ea6b6d8470a0b2a77b.
  • audit.txt: what the package was checked for before it was zipped, and what was found: no file of the game or made from it, no PS3 keys in the port's files, nothing of the PC it was made on.
  • ffmpeg-8.1.3.tar.xz: FFmpeg's source, as its license asks. You do not need it to play.

Credits

Built on ps3recomp by sp00nznet. RPCS3 decrypts your copy, and its patch list was the map for the game patches. The program carries AMD FSR, SMAA, SDL, FFmpeg, zlib and Zstandard, and the Kit carries Python and LLVM's clang and lld; their licenses are in the zip's licenses folder, THIRD-PARTY.txt first.

The port's own code is under the MIT License. God of War is a trademark of Sony Interactive Entertainment; this project is not affiliated with or endorsed by it.

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