<s>
Ashes	B-Application
of	I-Application
the	I-Application
Singularity	I-Application
is	O
a	O
real-time	O
strategy	O
video	O
game	O
developed	O
by	O
Oxide	O
Games	O
and	O
Stardock	O
Entertainment	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
game	O
was	O
released	O
for	O
Microsoft	B-Application
Windows	I-Application
on	O
March	O
31	O
,	O
2016	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
standalone	O
expansion	O
pack	O
,	O
called	O
Ashes	B-Application
of	I-Application
the	I-Application
Singularity	I-Application
:	I-Application
Escalation	I-Application
was	O
released	O
in	O
November	O
2016	O
,	O
but	O
was	O
later	O
merged	O
into	O
the	O
main	O
game	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Ashes	B-Application
of	I-Application
the	I-Application
Singularity	I-Application
is	O
a	O
real-time	O
strategy	O
video	O
game	O
,	O
featuring	O
two	O
primary	O
factions	O
:	O
the	O
Post-Human	O
Coalition	O
and	O
the	O
Substrate	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
is	O
achieved	O
through	O
a	O
newly	O
developed	O
engine	O
called	O
Nitrous	O
designed	O
to	O
fully	O
leverage	O
modern	O
64-bit	B-Device
multi-core	B-Architecture
processors	I-Architecture
,	O
reflected	O
in	O
the	O
relatively	O
high	O
system	O
requirements	O
(	O
which	O
include	O
a	O
quad-core	B-Architecture
processor	I-Architecture
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Ashes	B-Application
of	I-Application
the	I-Application
Singularity	I-Application
is	O
powered	O
by	O
Oxide	O
Games	O
 '	O
in-house	O
Nitrous	O
Engine	O
,	O
and	O
was	O
the	O
first	O
video	O
game	O
to	O
implement	O
DirectX	O
12	O
support	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
is	O
also	O
one	O
of	O
the	O
first	O
to	O
support	O
Vulkan	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
Because	O
of	O
the	O
game	O
's	O
early	O
DirectX	O
12	O
support	O
and	O
extensive	O
use	O
of	O
parallel	B-Operating_System
computation	I-Operating_System
,	O
it	O
is	O
commonly	O
used	O
as	O
a	O
benchmark	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Controversy	O
erupted	O
when	O
Nvidia	O
GPUs	O
were	O
found	O
to	O
perform	O
poorly	O
relative	O
to	O
their	O
AMD	O
counterparts	O
on	O
early	O
beta	O
versions	O
of	O
Ashes	O
;	O
this	O
was	O
due	O
to	O
the	O
game	O
's	O
use	O
of	O
asynchronous	O
compute	O
and	O
shading	O
features	O
which	O
are	O
implemented	O
in	O
hardware	O
on	O
AMD	O
Graphics	B-Architecture
Core	I-Architecture
Next	I-Architecture
GPUs	O
but	O
had	O
to	O
be	O
performed	O
in	O
software	O
on	O
Nvidia	O
GPUs	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
On	O
November	O
10	O
,	O
2016	O
,	O
Ashes	B-Application
of	I-Application
the	I-Application
Singularity	I-Application
:	I-Application
Escalation	I-Application
was	O
released	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Ashes	B-Application
of	I-Application
the	I-Application
Singularity	I-Application
received	O
an	O
"	O
average	O
"	O
reception	O
from	O
critics	O
according	O
to	O
aggregate	O
review	O
website	O
Metacritic	O
.	O
</s>
