What is PSSR? PS5 Pro’s AI-upscaling explained

Nice console games September 27, 2024 Consoles & PC, Gaming, Playstation, PS5

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Sony‘s
PSSR
technology
(Playstation
Spectral
Super
Resolution)
is
the
first
of
its
kind,
bringing
AI-driven
upscaling
to
a
home
games
console.

PS5
Pro
preorders
are
now
live,
and
Sony’s
mid-cycle
upgrade
to
the
PS5
adds
incredible
new
technology
that
will
make
supported
games
run
at
60fps
with
a

4K
resolution
–
and
one
of
the
key
upgrades
is
PSSR.
But
what
is
AI-driven
upscaling,
and
why
should
you
even
care?

Here’s
everything
you
need
to
know
about
the

PS5
Pro’s
PSSR
technology,
and
why
it’s
going
to
make
a
huge
difference
to
your
favorite
games.

What
is
PSSR?

A screenshot from the PS5 Technical Presentation highlighting the big three graphical-focused upgrades — (Image
credit:
Sony/PlayStation)

PSSR
is
one
of
the
three
main
reasons
why
Sony
thinks
you
should
spend
your
hard-earned
cash
on
the
PS5
Pro,
but
Sony
doesn’t
do
much
to
explain
what
the
technology
actually
is.

AI-driven
upscaling
basically
analyzes
the
image
on
your
screen
and
improves
the
resolution
using
machine
learning.
Essentially
the
PS5
Pro
will
make
original-resolution
images
appear
higher-resolution,
while
still
maintaining
the
same
level
of
performance.
This
isn’t
new
in
the
world
of
gaming
–

NVIDIA’s
DLSS
has
been
improving
resolution
in
games
on
PC’s
for
a
few
years
now
–
but
Sony
is
the
first
to
bring
this
type
of
AI
technology
to
the
home
console
space.

What
does
PSSR
do?

Mike
Fitzgerald,
Director
of
Core
Technology
at
Insomniac
Games,
spoke
to

IGN
about
the
impact
of
the
PS5
Pro’s
new
technology
on
game
development.
He
said:
“We
can
render
at
a
lower
resolution,
bring
it
up
to
a
full
4K,
and
get
tons
of
extra
detail
out
of
the
picture.”

IGN
also
spoke
with
Travis
McIntosh,
Naughty
Dog’s
Head
of
Technology,
who
talked
about
how
using
AI
upscaling
differs
from
upscalers
that
have
been
used
in
console
gaming
in
the
past.
McIntosh
said,
“[PSSR]
produces
just
a
way
better
result
than
previous
upscalers
because
it
can
be
trained
not
only
on
our
game
but
on
lots
and
lots
of
other
games,
and
it
learns
and
it
improves
at
each
iteration
can
improve
and
fix
graphical
errors,
fix
artifacting,
and
it
learns
how
to
make
things
look
good.

“Foliage
for
instance
is
one
example
in
our
game
that
looks
really
good
after
the
upscaler
because
the
neural
network
is
trained
to
do
foliage
really
well.”

This
is
a
really
exciting
step
for
console
gaming
which
should
see
optimized
games
benefit
from
higher
resolutions
and
better
frame
rates,
and
essentially
improve
over
time
the
more
game
developers
implement
the
tech.

We’ve
seen
some
side-by-side
comparisons
of
the
PS5
Pro
and
its
predecessor
which
show
improved
graphical
fidelity
as
well
as
the
implementation
of
ray
tracing,
but
due
to

YouTube
video
compression
it’s
hard
to
really
see
just
how
impressive
the
graphics
on
the
PS5
Pro
really
are
with
PSSR.
We’ll
be
testing
the
PS5
Pro
closer
to
launch,
so
stay
tuned
for
our
PS5
Pro
review
to
hear
our
first
impressions.

PlayStation
5
Pro
Hands-On:
11
Games
Tested,
PSSR
and
RT
Upgrades
Revealed,
Developers
Interviewed!
–
YouTube
PlayStation 5 Pro Hands-On: 11 Games Tested, PSSR and RT Upgrades Revealed, Developers Interviewed! - YouTube