One of the most intensive additions to the PS5 Pro Enhanced library is Codemasters’ F1 24, bringing massive visual enhancements such as ray-traced reflections, lighting and shadows. However, with the game’s 8K mode, Codemasters isn’t relying on the Pro machine’s awesome PSSR reconstruction technology, but it could in the future.
F1 24 may add more PSSR modes in the future
In an interview with VideoGamer for the launch of F1 24 Season 4, technical producer Si Lumb explained that the team opted to go with the team’s internal TAA solution for the game’s 8K mode on PSSR. With PSSR having a render budget cost of around 2 milliseconds, it was a safer bet to rely on TAA for this release.
“In our 8K mode, we’re not using PSSR at the moment,” Lumb explained. “We use PSSR in our 4K quality mode, and we use our own temporal anti-aliasing solution, TAA, in 8K. We have explored using PSSR and that’s one of the opportunities for the future”
Lumb revealed that the initial plans for F1 24 on PS5 Pro weren’t going to use PSSR at all. However, with the 4K quality mode pushing more effects, the team decided to try out PlayStation’s reconstruction tech and implement it into the EGO Engine.
“When we initially got the Pro, we hadn’t actually intended to use PSSR,” Lumb said. “We got up and running with our own TAA. We were quite happy with what it looked like in [terms of] performance. PSSR was then something we experimented with: we added it to see whether it gave us opportunities that we hadn’t seen in our own TAA.”
Lumb explains that PSSR in the quality mode ended up giving the team a “clarity” that the studio’s TAA solution didn’t offer. However, the cost of PSSR and the time it takes the team to implement means that the technology has not been implemented in every mode on PS5 Pro, but the team is looking to use it more in future titles.
“So we are looking at PSSR in the other modes: 4K 120, the Performance Mode, and in the 8K 60 mode for future titles,” we were told. “In development, you make sensible choices about how much risk you want to take on in pushing new technologies and then closing them out. We understood our TAA very well, [but] we did have to do some optimizations that allowed us to hit that 8K 60.”
Lumb revealed that the team is “definitely” interested in adding more PSSR support “to future titles” as Codemasters continues to learn more about the limits of the new PlayStation console.