Sony has just announced that the highly anticipated new version of the PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution) upscaler for PlayStation 5 Pro is ready and will roll out next month, with CAPCOM's Resident Evil Requiem (out today and already doing well on Steam) as the first game to implement it.
The announcement came with a statement from CAPCOM's Masaru Ijuin (Senior Manager, Engine Development Support Section, R&D Foundational Technology Department), who said:
The upgraded PSSR has allowed us to elevate our expressiveness by successfully processing these details and textural particularities, which are traditionally difficult to upscale because of their intricacy. We hope you will experience this unprecedented level of horror and visual fidelity, and the new gameplay feel it delivers.
Digital Foundry has already tested the new PSSR in Resident Evil Requiem and reported that it's a major improvement over the first-generation upscaler, which often wasn't nearly as clean and sharp as it should have been, given that it was a machine-learning algorithm. When compared to AMD FSR 4 and NVIDIA DLSS 4.5 on PC, PSSR "2.0" still showed more aliasing; however, it also showed less ghosting and better sharpness than AMD FSR 4 in some instances. Still, the team added that Resident Evil Requiem might not be the best game for this kind of comparison, given its dark atmosphere, continuous use of depth of field, and heavy film grain.
The good news is that the new PSSR will be available as a system-wide toggle called "Enhance PSSR Image Quality", which will activate the new model.
PS5 Pro Lead System Architect Mark Cerny noted in a blog post that this is the latest fruit of the ongoing Project Amethyst collaboration with AMD, the next stepping stone after AMD FSR 4 (and therefore likely in part derived from it):
The algorithm and neural network used in the new PSSR stem from our Project Amethyst partnership with AMD. Through AMD’s FSR 4 upscaling technology, PC gamers have already seen the benefits of our collaboration. With the updated PSSR, we’re delivering the very latest of this co-developed technology with a further six months of refinement for PS5 Pro players.
Meanwhile, AMD's Senior VP and GM of Computing and Graphics, Jack Huynh, congratulated Sony on the launch and teased that these advancements would be available on AMD FSR 4 for PC in the next few months.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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