We’re slowly beginning to see PS5 Pro show its true colours.
While the launch slate was strong, some sceptics complained that the $700 system wasn’t offering an obvious upgrade. But with Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Ubisoft has tapped into the hardware’s horsepower, and offered a “generational upgrade”.
But the French firm’s not done with Sony’s supercharged system yet: it’s already committed to adding PSSR support in the future, and in an interview with Digital Foundry, it’s explained a little more about its thought process.
“In terms of PSSR, we analysed PSSR and TAA at the time of shipping Shadows and found better results with our TAA solution,” the studio explained.
“However, PSSR is a new upscaler and after an in-depth collaboration with Sony over the past few months, many issues have been addressed, mostly around moving vegetation and water: problems that other titles have faced.
“We’re now confident that the image quality with PSSR will always be better than with TAA.”
For those who don’t know, PSSR is Sony’s AI-based upscaler which allows it to resolve a crisp 4K image from a lower base resolution.
This allows developers to spend computational resources elsewhere, boosting framerates or visual settings without needing to worry about rendering native resolutions.
Obviously, as Ubisoft itself admits, PSSR has had some teething problems, but it’s been designed to be updated – and it looks like we’ll be seeing some wonderful results in Assassin’s Creed Shadows moving forwards.
Considering the game already looks miles better on the PS5 Pro than the standard PS5, that’s something to look forward to while you hunt for the game’s legendary weapons and armour.
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 55
Keep improving guys. It’ll really be great by the time the PS6 is out and I get my hands on it.
I always said that the pro should be judged on the games that release after its release (games that were therefore developed with the pro in mind) and not for patched games that had released well before the pro’s conception. People love to hate though, so I got shouted down for this smh.
@graymamba It’s definitely a fair point!
That’s great, now get on with it please.
Do I stop playing and wait, how long until we get the PSSR patch.
I feel good now having waited buying it. By the time the game is in its best Pro form it will be a lot cheaper.
I’m not sure AC Shadows is a system seller, as such, but with games having this much improvement, it might prove to be a reason to upgrade.
However, I think it should be noted that the solid 60fps on base PS5 and the still good graphics you get with it, kinda make it so that you don’t have to upgrade.
I always thought the Pro would make developers lazy and that we’d get terrible PS5 base versions. But Ubisoft have actually delivered on both consoles in terms of graphical fidelity and performance, which is very impressive.
System Seller? Really?
The game has a lot going on but even on Pro with TAA at 60fps VRR on, there is definitely fizz when panning around on certain foliage and the bamboo and jaggies.
Again like other games it is in the mid distance, seems to be a thing.
Being an image perfectionist would’ve be great if PSSR would get rid of this and give a perfect clean mid distance panning around image, when it gets implemented.
I think it happens with TAA and trying to upscale things from a low resolution, I think 1080p in this case.
When you do the same with same HFW burning shores there is no fizz, and we all know that is because of the incredible game engine and developed upscaling owned by the developer and I think the 60ps higher starting resolution of about 1800p.
Many disagree with me on this but if you can achieve a high graphical level of say Assassins creed shadows at 60fps with pure native 4K, then the fizz and jaggies are not there.
Anyway apart from all that, great game and really enjoying.
It’s makes sense to wait to buy this game. It will be 30% off in a couple of months and patches will improve it.
dont really think this is a system seller, but it looks promising for the future of the Pro. I was looking forward it but the price put me aside (the money went for upgrading my PC), but glad to hear Sony is working with third parties on getting the most of the Pro.
The hate for this game is unjust but... system seller? Really?
Let us please not tip too far into hyperbole here.
@LifeGirl
Not sure why there is so much hate for this game. Ubisoft delayed to make it better and have released a massive open world game which so far playing is amazing.
How many games release nowadays unfinished and full of bugs and don’t even look that good or play that well.
This game deserves much credit.
System seller hahahahahaha. You crack me up sometimes.
@Apollo2212 @LifeGirl I think the system-seller moniker is being used here in regards to how equitable the ps5 pro version is to the PC version running on a £2500+ rig, rather than the game itself.
@graymamba That's it exactly. Inference - we hardly knew ye.
Maybe they meant people SELL their systems after the release of AC Shadows xD
just kidding btw................
but joking aside they're lucky many people don't understand japanese culture enough to see all the flaws. How people talk to one another, how people bow when they shouldn't and don't when they should. They did fix a few season and shrine related stuff, but oh well. Of course it's just a game with a fake story, but I don't see this having a good rep in Japan at least
What do people here have against the term system seller? The same reactions were given when PS called Starfield a system seller, while in fact that game almost was the definition of system seller.
As for Shadows: the Pro images/videos get lot of promotion currently and it already was a popular game. This naturally means more people will consider the Pro and some will actually buy it. That’s what a system seller is, folks.
Game already looks really, really nice on PS5 Pro so I'd be very interested in seeing what the PSSR upgrade is like. Nice to hear that the devs worked closely with Sony, too.
Moving vegetation they say , could they get rid of some in the forests it's far to dense im constantly getting stuck , surely that would also improve performance, also Naoe is probably the worst assassin in the history of assassin's, i like the little firecrackers fighting skills , but her climbing skills leave a lot to be desired , she struggles to climb over a rock, altair would be turning in his grave.
System seller.
AC Shadows.
Those two things do not go together.
@Apollo2212 Oh, surely it’s the western shills playing it up for clicks, I’m SURE no actual Japanese person is bothered by this game…after all, that’s what we’ve been told in these comment sections over and over, that Japanese people LOVE this game.
Now I hope silent hill 2 will get these PSSR updates to fix how that game looks as Quality mode on PS5 Pro is full of visual glitches with shimmering puddles, shadows and moving vegetation
Like others have said, It was brave of you to say "System seller", I've watched a ton of reviews and the general consensus is the open world is very pretty, stealth has improved.... but the combat is dull the writing/voice acting is awful oh and let's not forget the cringe worthy MTX store.
@ShogunRok are we thinking it will allow for an unlocked performance pro mode ala SIE first party games, and then some kind of balanced mode that looks even better at a locked 40, and then potentially an even more detailed quality mode?
If they can get the full suite of RT at 60 and improve image quality on top of that it must be heralded as the biggest third party success of the pro so far.
Yet to play it, so not sure exactly where they will tweak things to get more from it, but I've seen that it indeed looks stunning already. All this on top of it having some really nice physics based elements that I feel people have been missing in games for a long time
Just looked at Pushs' video, NPCs just knew which system to kowtow to~
Clear winner which has better Shadows~ 😙
@graymamba I agree. I wasn’t sold on the Pro at all especially for the cost and the upgraded grass on the reveal video… but looking at AC I think you are spot on… the games that come out built for Pro will define it. Is it worth pulling the trigger on a Pro? Have you got one?
I don’t understand the hate for this game and does it matter if every Japanese person loves or hates it? It’s a game. It’s entertainment. It’s looks great, seems to be selling well and the media seem to love it and give it a lot of air time. AC is always a great time. A franchise a lot of gamers would miss it if it disappeared.
I am waiting for it to be 50% off. Should take a month or two. Buying a ubisoft game at launch is stupid when they drop this fast.
@Darude84 "system seller" doesn't apply here, so people are poking.
A true system seller is usually a tent-pole franchise that is exclusive to one console manufacturer, meaning if people want to play that game they have to buy that console. AC Shadows isn't console exclusive, so "system seller" doesn't apply in the conventional terms.
The alternative application, and the one PushSquare have gone for, is that as the game utilizes the PS5 Pros hardware to make the game look better, that must inherently mean people will buy the PS5 Pro because of this game. The problem with that approach though is that correlation isn't visible - there is no visible proof that there has been or will be an increase in PS5 Pro sales because of AC Shadows. Put that aside and the game has been labelled a "system seller" based purely on the fact that it utilizes the PS5 Pro hardware, and so every game that utilizes the hardware to improve over base console version now has to be labelled a system seller. Those horrendous "Jump Jump" games? Get them to run at 120fps with 4K resolution and Ray Tracing on the PS5 Pro and you've got a system seller!
@Ravix
All games should allow an unlock to 120hz in performance mode as a choice - if a game is running well at 60fps there is often a fairly big overhead at times/locations.
RE your other questions, the article simplifies the matter a bit too much:
As I understand it PSSR has a cost in terms of the frame time, so in order to reach the same framerate you need to spend additional system resources.
However, the whole point of upscalers is that you then save significant resources by reducing the pre upscaler resolution which more than balances this, and (particularly with AI/ML upscalers like PSSR) still gives you a better image quality even with the lower pre upscale resolution.
PSSR seems remarkably good, even compared to other AI/ML upscalers, at improving the image detail / clarity in motion.
Alternatively you can lower the pre upscale resolution even further, freeing up further resources, to give a comparable image quality to the base line, but at a better framerate.
There is however a limit to all this, and you can only push the pre upscaler resolution so low before image quality is affected (or worse dont push it low enough and framerate gets affected).
1080 is already quite low to start from, so it will be interesting what they do here.
@ZeroSum Well, that’s just A definition. The first hit I get is this one: “A killer app or system seller is a game that makes a consumer want to purchase a console primarily for that game. It can be because of a significant leap forward in graphics or because a game offers something unique, never seen before, critical acclaim, or appeals to an entirely new audience.”
This definition describes the case at hand pretty well.
The term 'System Seller' is perfectly well used here, and some people need to get off the hate train.
The IMPROVEMENT is the system seller, not necessarily the GAME.
The author is not saying people are buying the PRO just to play ACS...
They are saying that the more than significant improvements this game is showing from Base PS5 to PRO are helping to convince those not already convinced to buy the PRO, to buy one (irrespective of any interest in this game).
I read only yesterday multiple comments of people who were on the fence about Pro, but had now decided to buy one because of the improvements, not the game.
(Meanwhile, Ubisoft wins because they get more positive headlines.)
@Rich33 I mean, I have a Pro and will vouch for it, but ACS is not the only game that deserves this praise. Stellar Blade, Rebirth hell in even RE4 remake are god tier on the Pro. I think people are too keen to give Ubisoft their flowers for a truly middling game. no hate just saying
I wonder if they’ll sell the pssr update in one of the in game stores.
@Darude84 I acknowledged that...
"The alternative application, and the one PushSquare have gone for, is that as the game utilizes the PS5 Pros hardware to make the game look better, that must inherently mean people will buy the PS5 Pro because of this game. The problem with that approach though is that correlation isn't visible - there is no visible proof that there has been or will be an increase in PS5 Pro sales because of AC Shadows."
Just making the game look better doesn't make it a system seller - people would have to actively go out and buy a PS5 Pro because of AC Shadows, for it to be a system seller. Currently there is no evidence that that has or will happen.
@ZeroSum I see plenty of reactions (including pictures) on Reddit that prove exactly that.
@OldGamer999 “ The game has a lot going on but even on Pro with TAA at 60fps VRR on, there is definitely fizz when panning around on certain foliage and the bamboo and jaggies.”
Even on PC at 4k with DLSS native AA I still see the fizz when panning around foliage and bamboo. PSSR probably isn’t going to help.
@Oram77
I agree with you about the games you mention, definitely including RE4r, and would even add others like SM2, HorizonFW, and Hogwarts - and probably KCD2 (I just havent played that myself).
The problem Sony have had with most of these (except Rebirth and now ACS), is that the differences are not easily visible on a phone screen running a Youtube video... which seems to be the way some people think is best to analyse the capabilities of a new console. Lol
I mean the main boost in RE4r is a massive increase in framerate which is barely visible if at all on a Youtube video.
Some people also, apparently, dont care about patched old games, only new releases - but I was never convinced how genuine some (not all) of these opinions were.
But the more games that come out with improvements like ACS, the more the Pro is seen to be a really good upgrade, worth the price, by those who are not currently as convinced as you and I are.
I was just trying to say that I think the author was extolling the virtues of the Pro improvements, not the game itself as a whole when they wrote the article.
@McBurn the thing that got me was the romance with oichi like they couldn't have chosen a worse person to use in that setting the woman who historically is the most loyal to her husband that I've ever seen documented
@AverageGamer
That is great to know from a PC, thank you.
Can you tell what causes this fizz please?
Is it just to many dense objects close knitting like gaps in foliage etc.
Still not interested, PlayStation sucks now. Definitely goin to pc, the mods alone is worth it but then they have awesome games like soft 2 and star citizen that shames anything crap consoles can produce.
Is what they are doing on PS5 Pro really not possible on normal PS5?
This is even another reason to wait for it to go on sale 😌
Also ngl the main story looks very boring.🥱
@Can-You-Believe-Sith Not boring at all. If you liked Shogun, you'd like this story. Not the same but similar tone in regards to leaders fighting for power and twists and turns here and there.
Thank god I am too busy with Wilds atm.
@Drago201
We've been able to romance Oichi for years in Samurai Warriors. No one complained about that.
@Kienda Base PS5 doesn't get RT GI on its performance mode and that's a huge loss as the GI in Shadows is a massive leap to the point quality mode and performance mode could be a generation apart. The Pro having full GI in its performance mode is a massive upgrade over base PS5.
@HMazzy111
"Is what they are doing on PS5 Pro really not possible on normal PS5?"
With this engine, and this dev team, the improvements here are likely not close to being possible on base PS5 - Ray Traced GI is pretty resource hungry, and the Pro at its most basic is 1.67x the size in terms of GPU resources. The Pro also includes other upgrades in its hardware including better hardware for Ray Tracing.
Now, if the base PS5 version ran at literally flawless 60fps, there may be an argument to say they could have had the overhead to do a bit more on base PS5, but Ray Tracing would still seem out of the question.
Could a different dev team / engine have done more on base PS5 - Insomniac managed full RT (including reflections) at >60fps in all the Spiderman games and R&C, which are open world in structure.
But as far as I can remember, no one else has got Ray Tracing working in open world on base PS5 at 60fps without massive dips in framerate which ruin the experience (I have played a few games purporting to have RT in performance mode and the fps was so bad, I wouldnt have even called them performance modes - unlocked fps Quality modes would have been closer).
If PSSR is added later, the base PS5 does not have the hardware to run this.
GTA 6 will sell some Pro’s but again that price point at what you get is debatable. Not for me as this hobby i have enough income to cover. But for mainstream players on a tighter budget assassin’s Creed won’t push many units of Pro. If GTA 6 knocks it out of the park, that could. I held back on the Pro even tho i did want one. However i am looking to build a high end PC rig as that will be my PS device going forward. Throw a Xbox downstairs on the larger tv and get a Swtich 2 for playing in bed and that will set me up for the future. Sony could bleed my money dry if they had off set sticks on their controller. But those thumb sticks placements are TRASH!
System seller 😂🤣😂🤣😂 woke game
It's barely selling itself nevermind selling systems.
System seller? yeah nobody is spending nearly a grand to play assassins creed
Play it on a high end PC and its a different league again...
Already looks gorgeous on pro imagine with pssr support how much of an improvement there could be ,I bought a pro for this game ,and extravagance maybe but I'm glad I did
@dskatter I reckon being debated in Japan's parliament speaks otherwise!
@neillaw I am shocked, SHOCKED, I say!
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