PS4 Pro Requires Very Little Investment from Developers

I like to imagine Cerny carries around a whole manner of mathematical apparatus as he goes about this business.

Well dur, it's not that big of a leap from the regular models so development wouldn't be either.

Bit confused at a bit of the quote

and it's 0.2 or 0.3 per cent for these projects – some of them.

What exactly does the "some of them" part mean? Also if we take something like Destiny and assume the rumours of a $500 million budget are true, then even 0.2% is $1 million. So if the some of them part refers to games like destiny it is still beyond most smaller developers and indie developers. I have a calculator too

What does "Support for the Pro" mean? Is there a set guideline? Can it just be a bump from 30fps to 60fps or does it also have to support above 1080p?

If it says "supports Pro" on the box, what does that mean, at minimum?

@kyleforrester87 Yeah, I'd heard that, but it made for an easy to work out example in my head. The entire quote is a bit meaningless though as it is just too vague, either he's being non-committal or there was visual context in what he was saying which doesn't translate into just writing up what was said ('these projects', what projects? and the bit I already mentioned about 'some of them' stand out).

@rjejr Just means it runs better... somehow, on PS4 Pro. Could be frame rate, could be better textures, increased resolution - anything like that.

@kyleforrester87 Maybe, I'm just a bit of a cynic and know that people in positions like his are always very careful about what they say. By giving vague answers they protect themselves from being quoted in the future, but the flip side is I always wonder what they are avoiding saying

I'd consider picking up and re playing TLOU

@Bad-MuthaAdebisi tlou confirmed 4K 30 fps

Really easy huh. Explains the ober half a dozen first party games being patched to support it then. Hire an intern to do it Sony. Ganes may be past their prime but you can do a budget reprint with Pro support.

@ranjas sweet potatoes

@get2sammyb @ShogunRok "Just means it runs better... somehow, on PS4 Pro."

So, it's basically meaningless, as probably any game running at 30fps locked could run 40-45 unlocked just by virtue of the better hardware w/o any optimization at all besides turning off the 30fps "lock". No wonder the cost is so cheap, one line of code, "30fps off", done.

Not trying to be a jerk, more like trying to decide if Cerny is being a jerk. Trying to decide if "Pro support" means a game is worth replaying for a majority of people. I can imagine a 720p 30fps game at 1080p 60fps being incentive enough, but 720p 30fps at 720p 40fps not really worth it.

Of course for people who have a 4k tv that could be incentive enough, but you guys haven't done the 4k TV ownership poll yet.

@ranjas I read that also, but forget. Will 1080p 60fps max settings be an option?

I am a bit worried that a bump up in resolution will hurt framerate. So, basically we would be in the same boat we are all ready in with some PS4 games.

I'm hoping more games with be like Tomb Raider were you can pick between a few options.

@BLPs Yes, for games that already old like infamous 2nd son, the last of us remaster, or bloodborne sony can just add a pro patch and maybe discounted it a little on ps4 pro launch to sell a few more copy.

I do think if some third party developer not interested on patching their old game, sony should hire someone to do it, some high-end 3D game like the witcher 3 and gta v can be used to show ps4 pro power to gamer.

Sounds too generic to me for be usable, I mean, I'm no devellopper, but for that little that I know changing stuffs like resolution and frame-rate can be super easy or very complicated depending the game.
Resolution can completly mess up things like the UI depending how it's programmed and some games heavily rely on the frame-rate for many in-event stuffs (from input management to how the game act in different situations and obviously how fast) meaning that some 720p-30fps games could require to be fully retested and adjusted from start to end before managing a proper 1080p-60fps jump.
Add any possibile graphic, particle or whatever addition that the more power allow and we are in for quite a long work for some games.

That "it's gonna cost a fraction to some of them" really sound to me like those "some of them" are a fraction too (Not that I want to disagree with an expert that surely know A TON more than me, but...well, too late I'm afraid I did it XD; ).

According to Cerny, the SDK for the Pro had a number of built in solutions for enhancing the games. Most AAA Games these days are built to offer 4k with much greater visual effects as well as higher frame rates than even a high end PC with the best GPU can comfortably run so the information is already there.

A game like 'Doom' for example can run at 4k with ultra (even higher) settings and at over 60fps (if a PC can cope with this) and yet the PS4, even XB1 (which runs at slightly lower resolutions), all have relatively similar file sizes - slight variations probably due to coding differences etc. That means that the higher resolutions, higher visual settings etc are in-built to the console versions but limited by developers to achieve the performance on lower powered consoles. Its not like developers would need to patch in the extra details 4k allows or higher quality textures, lighting, particle effects, shadows etc. - just a patch that adjusts these settings if running on a Pro.

For example that could be just a case of amending the output resolution to 1800p or maybe turning up the lighting effects, shadows, reflections etc to Max.

I get the impression though that the developer tool kit for the Pro has a lot of built in options to enable games to be enhanced with little 'relative' effort. 0.2/0.3 of a budget may be just 1 or 2 staff working on a game in the latter stages for a few weeks that with the PS4 wasn't required - they still have to pay a salary and no doubt could or would use this time elsewhere.

I figured it would just be like the setting sliders on PC games. Maybe I'm totally wrong though.

@NintendoFan4Lyf Games or game? Pretty sure there's one new 3ds exclusively

It sure requires a lot of investment from gamers though!

@rjejr It means, in simplest terms, that the game is configured to enable the second GPU.

@AG_Awesome there can be quite a bit more to it than that. A couple points:
1. The Pro is (mostly) just a second identical GPU, similar to say, how CrossFire and SLI work. It doesn't just double to speed of the GPU, it is a separate entity that has to be worked with. Its not just a "double GPU speed switch." It took many years (and its still not perfect) for developers to actually utilize CrossFire and SLI correctly on the PC.

2. A low poly model in 1080p is still low poly in 4k. The models have to be designed (generally they are, and scaled down) for higher poly counts, and the game has to be tested/checked throughout to make sure that the higher poly counts of the models do not negatively impact performance in some situations. This is also true for non-actor models, scenery, textures, lighting, shadows, draw distance, etc..., and trying to find the right spot where you get the most out of it, but it doesn't drag the FPS down, is non trivial. The point of a console game (for the end user) is plug and play and have an experience thats tweaked to your machine, out of the box.

Even if you designed the game for the Pro and then scaled it down for the classic model, it still requires all of the same testing with various "slider" values until they get the optimal experience on the classic machine. Its probably a bit easier to do it this way, since thats how they generally design anyway (shoot too high, scale it back until it fits).

@Splat I am hoping that the Pro games will offer a 1080p option on 4k TVs, that still uses the extra power of the secondary GPU. Maybe take that 30-40 FPS 1080p game to a solid 60 FPS 1080p, rather than a 30 FPS ~4k.