[SOLVED] The Ascent keeps crashing on PC

The Ascent is final out! As a solo and co-op Action-shooter RPG set in a cyberpunk world, The Ascent has attracted tons of PC gamers. However, just like any other games released recently, the game is not immue to errors and performance issue. These days, many PC players are reporting that The Ascent keeps crashing on their PC, which makes the game unplayable.

But don’t worry. If you’re running into the same issue, you’ve come to the right place! After reading this article, you should be able to fix this issue on your own easily!

The system requirements of The Ascent

You should ensure that your PC meets the system requirements of The Ascent. Just take a quick glance at the system requirements of The Ascent and check if your PC meets its system requirements:

If your PC fails to meet the minimum system requirements of the game, you may need to upgrade your PC first.

If The Ascent still keeps crashing on your powerful PC, just read on and try the fixes below.

Try these fixes

Although the causes of The Ascent crashing issue vary, here we’ve put together the latest fixes that solved this issue for many PC gamers.

Whether The Ascent crashes on startup or crashes in the middle of the game, you can find a fix to try in this article.

1. Verify integrity of game files
2. Update your graphics driver
3. Install the latest game patch
4. Run The Ascent with DirectX 11
5. Disable Movie / Film Grain, Depth Of Field, Post-Process Effects
6. Update MS Visual C++ Redistributables
7. Temporarily disable anti-virus software
8. Perform a clean boot

Verify integrity of game files

The Ascent may crash if its game files are corrupted or incomplete. But don’t worry. You can follow the steps below to verify and repair the game files in Steam:

1. Launch Steam and go to your Library.
2. Right-click on The Ascent and select Properties.
   
3. Click LOCAL FILES on the left, then click Verify integrity of game files…. It may take some time to finish verifying the game files. If Steam finds anything wrong with the game files, it will re-download them from official server.
   

Depending on the size of the game files, it may take some time to verify all your game files.

When the verifying process completed, launch the game again and check if this fix works. If it still crashes, try the next fix, below.

Update your graphics driver

Graphics driver is essential to the functioning of video games. If The Ascent keeps crashing on your PC, it’s likely that you have the corrupted or outdated graphics driver on your PC. So you should update your drivers to see if it fixes the game crashing issues.

If you don’t have the time, patience or skills to update the driver manually, you can do it automatically with Driver Easy.

Driver Easy will automatically recognize your system and find the correct drivers for it. You don’t need to know exactly what system your computer is running, you don’t need to be troubled by the wrong driver you would be downloading, and you don’t need to worry about making a mistake when installing. Driver Easy handles it all.

You can update your drivers automatically with either the FREE or the Pro version of Driver Easy. But with the Pro version it takes just 2 steps (and you get full support and a 30-day money back guarantee):

1. Download and install Driver Easy.
2. Run Driver Easy and click the Scan Now button. Driver Easy will then scan your computer and detect any problem drivers.
   
3. Click Update All to automatically download and install the correct version of all the drivers that are missing or out of date on your system. (This requires the Pro version – you’ll be prompted to upgrade when you click Update All.)
   
   Note: You can do it for free if you like, but it’s partly manual.
4. Restart your PC for the changes to take effect.

Install the latest game patch

The developer of The Ascent releases regular game patches to fix bugs and improve gaming performance. It’s possible that a recent patch has caused the game crash issue, and that a new patch is required to fix it.

If a patch is available, it will be detected by Steam, and the latest game patch will be automatically downloaded and installed when you launch the game.

Launch The Ascent again to check if the game crash issue has been resolved. If it didn’t work, or there was no new game patch available, move on to next fix, below.

Run The Ascent with DirectX 11

Many PC players report that The Ascent would stop crashing after they swtiched to DirectX 11. Maybe the game hasn’t been fully optimized for DirectX 12. So try run the game with DirectX 11 and see if it crashes. Here’s how to do it:

1. Lauch Steam and go to LIBRARY.
2. Right-click on The Ascent and select Properties.
   
3. In the GENERAL section, enter -dx11 under LAUNCH OPTIONS. By doing that, Steam will run the game with DirectX 11 next time.
   
4. Launch The Ascent and see if this issue persists.

If the game still crashes, try the next fix, below.

Disable Movie / Film Grain, Depth Of Field, Post-Process Effects

The in-game graphics settings like Movie / Film Grain, Depth Of Field and Post-Process Effects are common in video games. However, those in-game graphics settings are also the main cause of FPS drops and crashing.

The game doesn’t provide options to disable those in-game graphics settings. If you need to disble those settings, follow the instructions below:

1. On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and R at the same time to invoke the Run dialog box. Copy the path below and paste it to the Run dialog. Then click OK to open it.
   %LOCALAPPDATA%\TheAscent\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor
   
2. Open the file Engine.ini in Notepad.
3. To disble Moive / Film Grain, add the following and save the file:
   
   [SystemSettings]
r.Tonemapper.Quality=3
r.Tonemapper.GrainQuantization=0
   
4. Add the following to the Engine.ini file and save it to disable Depth of Field:
   
   [SystemSettings]
r.DepthOfFieldQuality=0
   
5. If you’d like to disable all of them, then don’t add these commands separately. Do it like this:
   
   [SystemSettings]
r.SceneColorFringeQuality=0
r.Tonemapper.Quality=3
r.Tonemapper.GrainQuantization=0
r.DepthOfFieldQuality=0
   
6. Launch the game again after you save the Engine.ini file.

See if it crashes after you disable those in-game graphics settings. If this issue persists, try the next fix, below.

Update MS Visual C++ Redistributables

To ensure compatibility, you may also need to update your Microsoft Visual C++ redistributables, because the outdated Visual C++ redistributables may also trigger The Ascent crashing issues.

You can download its installation files via the links below on your own and manually install them on your PC.

• Visual C++ Redistributables

Restart Windows OS after you installed the Visual C++ Redistributables. Then launch the game and see if the game crashes.

If not, congratulations, you’ve resolved this issue! If this issue reappears, try the next fix, below.

Temporarily disable anti-virus software

Some 3rd party antivirus software would interfere with the game, and may even block the game files. Sometimes it may also lead to the game crashing issues.

Try adding both Steam and the game folder as an exception to your third-party antivirus application. Before running the game, try temporarily disabling your 3rd party antivirus software.

Run The Ascent and check if this issue persists after you disabled the anti-virus software on your PC.

If this fix didn’t work, try the next fix to perform a clean boot.

Perform a clean boot

The Ascent may also crash if there is a certain program conflicting with the game. To find out the problematic program that crashes the game, you need to perform a clean boot. Here’s how to do it:

1. On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and R at the same time to open the Run Dialog. Type msconfig and press Enter to open the System Configuration window.
   
2. Navigate to the Services tab, check Hide all Microsoft services and then click Disable all.
   
3. Select the Startup tab and click Open Task Manager.
   
4. On the Startup tab in Task Manager, for each startup item, select the item and then click Disable.
   
5. Go back to the System Configuration window and click OK.
   
6. Click Restart to restart your PC.
   

Restart your PC and launch The Ascent to check whether the game crashes again. If not, you need to open the System Configuration window again to enable services and applications one by one until you find the problematic software.

Once you find out the problematic software that crashes The Ascent, you need to uninstall it to avoid game crashing issues in the future.

If the game still crashes after you disabled all the 3rd party apps and services, try reinstalling The Ascent. Normally, after reinstalling the game, you’ll be able to fix the crashing issue.

Tips:

If these common fixes on this article didn’t help you fix the The Ascent crashing issue, you can also try investigating Windows crash logs to analyze and troubleshoot the causes of the crash. For more details, see the article: How to view crash logs in Windows 10.

Hopefully, one of the fixes above helped you fix the The Ascent crashing issue. Feel free to drop a line in the comment area below if you have any questions or suggestions. Thanks for reading!

• game crash
• Windows