Next-generation consoles are arriving in less than a month and a half. Yet surprisingly there's been relatively little focus on how the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X's upcoming games truly take advantage of next-generation hardware. A recent update to PlayStation's official website is trying to correct that absence of information, however. In Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart's case, a "PS5 features" section of the game's listing details just how the next-gen game is pushing the PS5's hardware to the max.
Five separate features are discussed in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart's PS5 features section on the PlayStation 5 website. But it's just the first two that are particularly exciting. The first two focus on how the PS5's hardware will improve Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart's performance and visuals in specific ways. Namely, the bullet points deal with frame rate, resolution, loading times, and visual features.
It's those visual features that are particularly exciting. The listing confirms that Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart will indeed feature ray tracing. Ray tracing being the new lighting and reflection technology that makes for a more realistic visual presentation by tracing paths of light. This feature was speculated on early after Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart was announced. That first trailer showed what appeared to be ray-traced reflections in water and metallic surfaces, so it's nice to have it officially confirmed.
As for other important performance features, the listing also confirms that Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart will support dynamic 4K resolution with HDR. These features require a TV or monitor that supports them, of course. The listing also states that Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart will offer a Performance Mode with a targeted 60FPS frame rate. Note the language here, however. 60FPS in a performance mode heavily implies that the non-Performance Mode, the mode that prioritizes visual fidelity, very likely won't have 60FPS.
The last important feature listed for overall performance is Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart's loading system. The listing notes that Insomniac is creating "near-instant loading" using the PS5's SSD. Fans have seen examples of this in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart's trailers so far, as Ratchet and friends shoot between dimensions with very brief, dynamic loading sequences.
Other PS5 features listed in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart's profile include adaptive triggers via the DualSense controller that make each weapon respond in unique ways, the DualSense's Haptic Feedback that creates rumble for in-game explosions and movement, and support for Tempest 3D AudioTech for 3D audio. These are features that players will have to feel and hear for themselves. Needless to say, though, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart will be a step beyond any Ratchet & Clank prior.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is coming to the PS5.