According to Tymon Smektala, Dying Light Franchise Director at Techland, while the increased GPU power of the PS5 Pro will be very nice, PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution) may be even more important for game developers. Speaking to GamingBolt, he stated:
We’re just starting to discover the full capabilities of PS5 Pro, but it’s already exciting as it gives us a lot more flexibility with graphics and performance. The boost in GPU will allow us to push visual fidelity, especially with complex environmental details like weather effects, which are very core to Dying Light: The Beast’s experience. This kind of power also means generally smoother gameplay at higher resolutions, and that’s something very important for a game like ours, where the highest level of immersion is of utmost importance.
Sony’s PSSR is a substantial push for the supersampling tech that other companies are experimenting with. It’s a great initiative as, in the future, this can allow developers to focus slightly less on performance and have bigger creative liberty. If what Sony is proposing will become a new standard, then PSSR could potentially turn out to be even more important than the direct increase in GPU power that the console delivers.
As a reminder, PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution is an AI-based upscaling technique that leverages machine learning to reconstruct pixels from a lower starting resolution. According to recent testing from Digital Foundry, PSSR is superior to AMD FSR 3.1 but inferior to NVIDIA DLSS. This is not surprising since AMD FSR 3.1 isn’t based on machine learning, whereas DLSS premiered the usage of AI in image reconstruction techniques several years ago. However, not all games will support it; Empire of the Ants, one of the launch titles, will not. On the upside, PS VR 2 games will soon be able to take advantage of PSSR.
The PS5 Pro will launch next week, on Thursday, November 7, for the considerable price of $699/£699/€799. You can learn more about the console here. As for Dying Light: The Beast, check out our Gamescom 2024 Q&A with Techland if you haven’t already.
