In this week’s DF Direct Weekly, we talk about the mooted PlayStation handheld (spoilers: it won’t run native PS5 games) but it’s our second news topic of the week I’ll be writing about in more depth today. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora has arrived on PlayStation 5 Pro and its spec points look impressive – you’re getting the quality mode visuals of the base console version at 60fps. There’s just one problem: the Pro version looks a lot worse than the standard console’s quality mode and even its performance mode has some quality advantages over the Pro version. In which case, what’s the point?
We should expect to see some outlier software with the arrival of any enhanced console – games that aren’t quite delivering what they should. In fact, we saw it with the launch of PlayStation 4 Pro back in 2016. If memory serves, The Last of Us Remastered could run at a lower frame-rate on Pro than it did on the base PS4 – and Watch Dogs 2 also had similar issues. However, these were generally exceptions and were quickly patched. While the quality of Pro versions could vary dramatically, a noticeably worse image wasn’t the issue – and yet, this is clearly happening with PS5 Pro. So many titles are affected now that many users are asking for the ability to run PS5 Pro-enabled games without the Pro features enabled. Instead, those games would run with standard model features, with only the extra CPU and GPU horsepower of the new console in use.
My personal feeling on this is that it’s a short term “solution” of sorts to a problem that will likely be resolved in the medium term, but to understand the problem is to focus on Sony’s machine learning-based upscaling solution: PlayStation Spectral Resolution, or PSSR. This is essentially the PlayStation team’s answer to Nvidia DLSS or Intel XeSS, where game engine inputs and a lower resolution are fed into a neural network, delivering an upscaled output fit for a 4K screen.
0:00:00 Introduction0:01:19 News 1: Potential portable PlayStation in development0:18:08 News 2: Avatar PS5 Pro patch shows PSSR struggles0:31:25 News 3: Star Wars Outlaws patch brings PC fixes0:37:47 News 4: Intel Arc B580 GPU leaked0:49:42 News 5: Light of Motiram takes heavy Horizon inspiration1:00:47 News 6: Valve celebrates Half-Life 2 20th anniversary with update, new documentary1:19:42 News 7: Dynasty Warriors Origins demo drops1:25:31 News 8: Highlighting Brazil Pixel1:36:33 Supporter Q1: Will CD Projekt Red be able to fix UE5 stuttering?1:44:08 Supporter Q2: How will Microsoft configure their business if Steam can run on Xbox?1:51:21 Supporter Q3: Why does Windows 11 cause so many headaches?2:01:58 Supporter Q4: Why haven’t we heard more about a PS5 Pro patch for Black Myth: Wukong?2:07:45 Supporter Q5: How does Nintendo avoid technical issues in their games?2:14:19 Supporter Q6: What would a theoretical PS3 Pro look like?
PSSR has delivered many excellent results: Stellar Blade looks absolutely phenomenal, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is a game transformed, while all of Insomniac’s games enjoy substantial upgrades thanks to PSSR. There are many others, including Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part 1 and 2. However, Silent Hill 2 did – and does – have issues despite being patched, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor can look pretty hideous at times, while Star Wars Outlaws also has some profound issues. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is especially impacted because PSSR has issues with transparency effects – most notably foliage – and also seems to have quality problem with ray tracing inputs. It’s also shown to lose a lot of quality the higher the upscaling factor. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora seems to operate with a 720p to 1800p dynamic resolution window, which paired with foliage and RT combines to create a ‘three horsemen of the apocalypse’ effect which ultimately makes the game look worse on Pro than it does on the standard console.