Alan Wake 2 on PlayStation 5 Pro – Behind The Scenes

Shake Your Rump said:
The base PS5 is doing native 1440p. Taking nearly half that and turning into a 4K image?

I'm curious what framerate the base PS5 would get running at that same ~800p resolution.
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Wrong. Base PS5 was roughly same internal res as PS5 Pro with a 1440p output. PS5 Pro is using PSSR to reach a 4k output in it's new performance mode.
 
so the RT is severely cut back on Pro compared to PC, with a shorter BHV range and slower BVH update. if I got this right.

I bet both of these are CPU related adjustments.
 
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It still needs a 40fps mode. It needed one on the base consoles and it should have one here. A 40fps mode with a lower internal resolution but with the ray-tracing of quality mode would be a nice addition.
 
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Zuzu said:
It still needs a 40fps mode. It needed one on the base consoles and it should have one here. A 40fps mode with a lower internal resolution but with the ray-tracing of quality mode would be a nice addition.
Click to expand...

40 FPS is a big jump from 30 FPS and should honestly be the minimum for gaming.
 
The perf mode doesn't look too hot. Even with the little they show, shimmering is pretty visible. Looks like a lazy patch.
 
kevboard said:
every PC. the game only has a toggle for each effect, no granular adjustments.

if I read the info they gave correctly, the BVH is reinged in and updates slower compared to PC.
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kevboard said:
a 3070 beats this. if you want to know specifics.

but even then you can't compare this as the PS5 Pro version gets a lower quality RT reflection setting than what's even possible to enable on PC
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It sounds like you are simply saying that PC has more settings available. That's fine, but you can't make comparisons like this without knowing how it impacts performance.
 
Shake Your Rump said:
Tell it to the OP. I'm just going by what is there.

You are saying they both render at ~800p?
Click to expand...

The internal resolution profiles for PS5 and PS5 Pro respective modes are virtually identical. The biggest difference is trading FSR 2 out for PSSR and specifically for Performance mode, boosting the output resolution from 1440p to 4k. It should be a very tangible IQ difference between base vs Pro performance modes.

 
Kangx said:
At 860p, there is no way the pro can match the image clarity of the fidelity mode even with a bad upscaler like FSR2.
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The actual developers of the game disagree...

Performance Mode

The Performance Mode on the PS5 Pro features significantly higher output resolution and has more visual detail compared to the base PS5. The Pro Performance mode uses approximately the same image quality (render) settings as the base PS5's Quality mode.

The overall image stability, fog, volumetric lighting, and shadow accuracy have been improved on the Pro.

  • 60fps
  • Using approximately the same render (image quality) settings as the base PS5 Quality mode.
  • Base PS5 Performance mode version runs at lower render (image quality) settings
  • Render resolution 1536 x 864
  • Output resolution 3840 x 2160 (4K)
  • Base PS5 version outputs 1440p.
 
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Topher said:
It sounds like you are simply saying that PC has more settings available. That's fine, but you can't make comparisons like this without knowing how it impacts performance.
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that is now what I'm saying. what I'm saying is that the RT reflections they use in the Pro version are lower than what you can set them to on PC.
on PC it's an on/off switch for reflections, which render at a set quality that you can not change.

the PS5 Pro version reduces the BVH radius and update rate (probably also runs half-res). something you can not do on PC. meaning RT reflections as seen on PC are far more demanding.

if you only enable RT reflections and you targeted 30fps with optimised settings, you should be able to match this on a 3070.
 
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ChiefDada said:
Wrong. Base PS5 was roughly same internal res as PS5 Pro with a 1440p output. PS5 Pro is using PSSR to reach a 4k output in it's new performance mode.
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- Quality mode outputs 2160p FSR2 from 1270p
- Performance mode outputs 1440p FSR2 from 847p

The main factor here is that FSR2 sucks compared to PSSR: we already know this
 
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They made the right call focusing on ray-traced reflections. There are a lot of bodies of water and reflective surfaces in Alan Wake 2 so it provides the biggest bang for buck as far as visual improvements go.

From what I remember of Digital Foundry's path-tracing PC breakdown, the lighting improvements it offers is pretty subtle and they blend it with the rasterized lighting system anyway. You don't get the generational leap you get with Cyberpunk 2077's path-tracing.

It also brings a 4070 to its knees at 1440p even with DLSS.
 
ChiefDada said:
Wrong. Base PS5 was roughly same internal res as PS5 Pro with a 1440p output. PS5 Pro is using PSSR to reach a 4k output in it's new performance mode.
Click to expand...
Wrong again. Base PS5 has less internal resolution upscaled to 1.440p. Jesus, it's in the summary people. It isn't that hard!
 
MisterXDTV said:
The actual developers of the game disagree...

Performance Mode

The Performance Mode on the PS5 Pro features significantly higher output resolution and has more visual detail compared to the base PS5. The Pro Performance mode uses approximately the same image quality (render) settings as the base PS5's Quality mode.

The overall image stability, fog, volumetric lighting, and shadow accuracy have been improved on the Pro.

  • 60fps
  • Using approximately the same render (image quality) settings as the base PS5 Quality mode.
  • Base PS5 Performance mode version runs at lower render (image quality) settings
  • Render resolution 1536 x 864
  • Output resolution 3840 x 2160 (4K)
  • Base PS5 version outputs 1440p.
Click to expand...
It uses the same image quality render setting, I presume this is mostly graphic setting, effects and post processing.

What I am worrying is image clarity/blurriness. Usually, lower internal res will not eliminate shimmering and I see really bad example in the 30sec performance clip.
 
SolidQ said:
Too much you want. Here is lower resolution,, than on PS5 pro. Even XTX and 4070 can't give 60 fps
cb5fc7223cbb39650d8a94150847b3ab.png
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Bear in mind that DLSS quality at 1440p means it's using a base resolution of 960p compared to the Pro's 1224p prior to the PSSR pass.

There's a reason it's dropping some of the other ray-tracing effects and is shooting for only 30fps.
 
Not interested in the game personally. But I am interested in that PSSR is doing well with low base resolutions. And we're getting quality preset equivalent's at 60fps instead of 30fps.

Good stuff.
 
Pedro Motta said:
How do you know this?
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read the article by Remedy that they posted.
www.remedygames.com

Alan Wake 2 on PlayStation 5 Pro – Behind The Scenes

Take a deep dive into how Remedy’s Northlight engine team updated the technology behind Alan Wake 2 to support the new features of PlayStation 5 Pro.
www.remedygames.com www.remedygames.com

the RT reflections are half res CBR.
the BHV updates anything that isn't a character at half rate or lower (depending on distance), distant objects are culled from the BVH, and light sources are culled based on some parameters that determine if they are important.

on PC the BHV updates at full rate and I'm pretty sure the reflections are full resolution. culling is also not as aggressive on PC.
 
Mister Wolf said:
That's an extremely low resolution to upscale to 4K with. Lower than DLSS's Performance Mode.
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Alan Wake 2 DLSS performance mode should be a good comparison against PS5 Pro performance mode. But it should be noted that this is simply Remedy's decision to leave the render resolution the same as quality mode and add more visual details.

It would be interesting to know what the render resolution required for PS5 Pro performance mode would be minus those visual enhancements.
 
MisterXDTV said:
Of course they can use the 60 CUs if they are patched specifically for this machine

That's the point of patching the game
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what I would like to know is if an unpatched game can use the full number of CUs.
In the end it would "only" require some kind of "giveMeNumberOfCus()" function to enable this. No idea if this exists...
 
Mahavastu said:
what I would like to know is if an unpatched game can use the full number of CUs.
In the end it would "only" require some kind of "giveMeNumberOfCus()" function to enable this. No idea if this exists...
Click to expand...
No, on Sony's consoles you target certain version of SDK, which means that unpatched version does not have access to whole HW, this is to prevent some kernel panics, when you do some whacky stuff, which you can on PS. But you can still benefit from improved overall HW, like better memory system, more CPU power, etc.
 
Topher said:
Alan Wake 2 DLSS performance mode should be a good comparison against PS5 Pro performance mode. But it should be noted that this is simply Remedy's decision to leave the render resolution the same as quality mode and add more visual details.

It would be interesting to know what the render resolution required for PS5 Pro performance mode would be minus those visual enhancements.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't be surprised if Alex uses that DLSS mod to force the same internal resolution or uses DLSS 4K Ultra Performance(720p) to prove a point.
 
Pathtracing though? The PC version has this! If it was mentioned, my apologies!

If it matches the PC's graphics, I'm double dippin'!
 
I'm just not seeing a nearly £400 cost difference between base and Pro with the graphics being shown. Sure it's better but it's hardly significant and not worth IMO the premium price.
 
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