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[Zuzu]

Performance mode pixel counts:

Quality mode pixel counts:

Summary

Performance mode

- Pro receives RTGI in performance mode compared to the baked lighting on base PS5. Base PS5 version uses an evolution of the Anvil engine's baked GI solution from prior Assassin's Creed games but it can't capture the lighting detail of recent AC games such as Mirage.
- Image quality on Pro isn't really improved over base machine. Both suffer from significant pixel crawl, blocky patterns on moving edges and poorly upscaled transparencies.
- Mostly 60fps but there are drops into the lower to mid 50s in some sections
- The hideout section still runs at 30fps

Quality mode:

- Pro receives RT reflections
- But there isn't much detail in the RT reflections. Foliage doesn't animate in the reflections.
- RT reflections suffer from a lot of pop-in
- More granular detail is only represented in screen space
- All other settings are pretty much the same though Pro present a lot more specular detail at times due to the additional RT.
- Image quality is similar to base
- Vast majority of gameplay is locked 30fps.

Balanced:

- 40fps at 120hz output
- No RT reflections (it has RTGI though)
- Has the same visual settings as base PS5 Balanced mode
- Pixel counts suggest higher resolution on Pro and it looks cleaner on Pro
- Mostly holds to 40fps but cutscenes and hideout run at 30fps.

Other:

- Pro is using TAAU in all modes rather than PSSR

 

[Luipadre]

Nice improvements just sucks that the image quality is kinda bad in perf mode.

 

[Zuzu]

Ah, should've put "DF" at the beginning of the title. Oh well, maybe a mod can edit it in...

Edit: thank you mods for editing in "Digital Foundry"

 

[viveks86]

Cutscenes and hideout capped at 30 fps? :/

Overall a good upgrade though. Balanced mode sounds like the best way to play, if your TV supports it. The low res RT reflections on quality as well as the low res performance mode (and missing hair strands feature) make the 40 fps more attractive for me. Sucks that I don't have a TV that supports it

 

[Lucifers Beard]

The graphics are superb from what I can see there on the Pro. I almost want to buy it just to walk around and take it the scenery.

 

[LordOcidax]

PS fanboys are going to love Digital Foundry and AC games again…

 

[damidu]

hmm, i was going to wait, but general positive reception and superb pro implementation might push me now

 

[Lokaum D+]

best deal in gaming

 

[adamsapple]

There seems to be a bit of a disconnect in the video's title and what he's actually saying in the video, lol.

Performance mode - Same IQ as base, pixel crawl, no PSSR despite Ubi promising it last year, 30fps hideout and notable dips from 60fps. RTGI is the only differentiator, which is present in base Quality and Balanced.

Quality - The RT reflections also don't look that different than SSR, miss capturing foliage animation and suffer from a lot of pop-in, doesn't really sound like much of an improvement, and it mostly relies on SSR for further geometry.

Balanced - Was supposed to have RT reflections but edited out in the official blog a few days ago, feature-wise it's identical to base but with higher DRS.

 

[Alebrije]

It has begun , the era of PRO has arrived...

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

RTGI is the only differentiator

Nice downplay

 

[StereoVsn]

Do animations seem a bit stiff? Especially on Yosuke just some moves seem a bit weird. Kind of feels Valhalla and Odyssey were better somewhat in that regard.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Crazy to see that he says an unbelievable upgrade at the end of the video when both the standard ps5 and pro look pretty much the same at 40fps.

If the pro was delivering the base balanced version at 60 fps I would call this an unbelievable upgrade.

Then using pssr to upscale to 4k.

 

[Horseganador]

One of the games where the improvement on PS5 Pro is most noticeable at first glance, the difference with PS5 and Series X is quite large and the usual ones giving it their all to scratch something negative.

 

[adamsapple]

Nice downplay

Kudos on picking out a few words from the post

Watch the video yourself, you'll see what I'm talking about.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Kudos on picking out a few words from the post

Watch the video yourself, you'll see what I'm talking about.

RTGI is a massive deal dude, they obviously prioritized that over other areas

Nice cope and spin though

 

[Shmunter]

I’m recycling my reply…..

I don’t understand the fapping here by DF over the pro upgrade. It’s the ps5 30fps quality at 60 on pro which is the expected baseline. But it’s not even that because no hair tech on pro at 60, which is present on ps5 30fps.

Fail, and total BS by DF and a Ubifail

 

[MatrixReloaded101]

Is the PS5 pro and PS5 both running the game on medium settings?

Nice to see the pro getting some improvements but I think I will get the game on PC.

 

[Zuzu]

Here's another video by GamingTech about the Pro and base console version for anyone who wants more:

 

[adamsapple]

RTGI is a massive deal dude, they obviously prioritized that over other areas

Nice cope and spin though

You are either willfully misinterpreting what I said or just doing it out of spite.

I've already said this is a good example for "Is RT necessary" as a positive for RTGI in the game in the other DF topic.

Clearly that's not the point I'm making here. The "this is the most transformative Pro upgrade" seems like hyperbole in light of other Pro patches over the months.

Base PS5 has the same features, albeit at 40fps max, and the unique distinguishing element, the RT reflections, seem to be rather poor going by the video.

 

[Skifi28]

I think I'm going with the balance mode for this, gotta have my eye candy.

 

[sncvsrtoip]

How its one of biggest upgrade when in 60fps (even though nice that have rtgi) resolution is low and image quality is not good enough. Two other modes that are the way to go are very similar to base ps5.

 

[Shmunter]

RTGI is a massive deal dude, they obviously prioritized that over other areas

Nice cope and spin though

What’s troubling is how little effort went into the baked lighting. That’s why the difference stands out, a delta between shit and acceptable will always be large.

There were no such issues in prior AC games when effort was spent on the lighting.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

You are either willfully misinterpreting what I said or just doing it out of spite.

I've already said this is a good example for "Is RT necessary" as a positive for RTGI in the game in the other DF topic.

Clearly that's not the point I'm making here. The "this is the most transformative Pro upgrade" seems like hyperbole in light of other Pro patches over the months.

Base PS5 has the same features, albeit at 40fps max, and the unique distinguishing element, the RT reflections, seem to be rather poor going by the video.

Again, nice try

 

[DenchDeckard]

RTGI is huge and great to see all consoles getting it at 40FPS modes.

Now I want to see the PC version.

 

[Zacfoldor]

Ugh, I'm torn. I'm so torn. My favorite thing is doing GREAT by playing something very well that I detest. Noooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Buggy Loop]

oh mY goD DiGITaL fOUndrY arE suCH Sony ShiLls.

Spoiler

Promoting RTGI? Wait that's Nvidia tactic to sell high end gpus? Unsubscribe!

 

[rickybooby87]

XSX/PS5/PS5Pro owners are the real winners here, I haven't played it yet but I might give it a go on balanced mode on the Pro as it looks to offer the cleanest IQ+RTGI.

On the Xbox Series S version, the only thing I have to say is this:

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

The graphics are superb from what I can see there on the Pro. I almost want to buy it just to walk around and take it the scenery.

For the same amount of money you can actually buy a ticket to Japan and enjoy real life Japanese scenery.

 

[Camper182]

Will there be a performance mode with a higher resolution and NO RTGI. I'm serious.
I find the low res more jarring than having no RTGI.

 

[adamsapple]

Again, nice try

Alright, clearly you've already made up your mind. Have fun.

What’s troubling is how little effort went into the baked lighting. That’s why the difference stands out, a delta between shit and acceptable will always be large.

There were no such issues in prior AC games when effort was spent on the lighting.

I agree with this, the baked lighting looks incredibly washed out. Previous AC games have not had this issue.

It's like it was an afterthought for them during development.

 

[WoodyStare]

Pro Bros feasting

 

[balls of snow]

That small snippet of Ac Mirage in contrast to the none rtgi Ac Shadows.

Ac Mirage is the silent goat of classical graphics tech

 

[GHG]

Pro Bros feasting

adamsapple weeping.

 

[onQ123]

One of the games where the improvement on PS5 Pro is most noticeable at first glance, the difference with PS5 and Series X is quite large.

This is the type of stuff most devs should start using extra power for. Change the look of games instead of turning knobs to a higher number.

 

[graywolf323]

XSX/PS5/PS5Pro owners are the real winners here, I haven't played it yet but I might give it a go on balanced mode on the Pro as it looks to offer the cleanest IQ+RTGI.

On the Xbox Series S version, the only thing I have to say is this:

remember how his schtick was VRR until PS5 added it?

 

[Gaiff]

Quality mode pixel counts:

Didn't watch the video yet, but curious as to why the Pro's resolution, especially in Quality Mode, isn't higher? Does it offer better visual features?

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Didn't watch the video yet, but curious as to why the Pro's resolution, especially in Quality Mode, isn't higher? Does it offer better visual features?

RT reflections

 

[adamsapple]

Didn't watch the video yet, but curious as to why the Pro's resolution, especially in Quality Mode, isn't higher? Does it offer better visual features?

Other than reflections, no.

Outside of the RT reflections divergence, other visual settings appear fairly similar. RTGI is present on both machines and generally looks comparable. You can notice some improvements in terms of specular detail on Pro from the additional RT. Other PC tweakables seem pretty similar across both consoles, without an obvious divergence in my tests.

 

[Markio128]

Didn't watch the video yet, but curious as to why the Pro's resolution, especially in Quality Mode, isn't higher? Does it offer better visual features?

It adds ray-traced reflections on the Pro in quality mode, but I personally don’t think there is much benefit to not going with performance mode on the Pro.

 

[Zacfoldor]

What’s troubling is how little effort went into the baked lighting. That’s why the difference stands out, a delta between shit and acceptable will always be large.

There were no such issues in prior AC games when effort was spent on the lighting.

The PS5 Pro is the best value in gaming and it's getting harder to argue against it.

First you have to look at Xbox. What a waste of money to buy a console that is dying. It isn't the best value in gaming and if you buy today you know you are buying the console that was the least popular but also had the least games. It just isn't a smart buy right now, correct?

Regular PS5. Have you seen monster hunter wilds on it? If you like to play indie games, get a Switch. PS5 is not something I could recommend to anyone when the Pro is so cheap and only a few dollars more.

PC. You have stutter and hitching on UE5 games with no real path to fix it. On top of that, the system has been a garbage dump for Japanese publisher who now make the best games. The quality of the ports and the performance on the system has been terrible. The port quality, ie MHWilds is terrible. Especially with older games, a few years ago all ports on PC were just bad dumps by jaded devs. That's not even the beginning of the issues, look what nvidia has done to the space. This isn't the EVGA era of PC anymore, things are not as good as they once were, even the most jaded PC gamer would agree with that. Consoles are getting mouse support and hopefully user mods. The next xbox is a PC and is trying to take over steam. PC could become Xbox. As MS relies more heavily on PC for gamepass, the landscape in PC gaming will change over the next few years. Change is scary. Not great to invest in unknown change.

Then there was one. PS5 Pro. The pinnacle of gaming. The future. The rock. It also will get GTAVI for a long time before it goes to PC. PC gamers will be expected to wait and buy old PS5 Pro games at full price. The elevator pitch is real. PS5 Pro is the only recommendable hardware until Switch 2 comes out.

 

[rodrigolfp]

What’s troubling is how little effort went into the baked lighting. That’s why the difference stands out, a delta between shit and acceptable will always be large.

There were no such issues in prior AC games when effort was spent on the lighting.

Very true.

 

[mckmas8808]

You are either willfully misinterpreting what I said or just doing it out of spite.

I've already said this is a good example for "Is RT necessary" as a positive for RTGI in the game in the other DF topic.

Clearly that's not the point I'm making here. The "this is the most transformative Pro upgrade" seems like hyperbole in light of other Pro patches over the months.

Base PS5 has the same features, albeit at 40fps max, and the unique distinguishing element, the RT reflections, seem to be rather poor going by the video.

So what if we don't think the RT reflections are poor, going by the video?

 

[omegasc]

...this is a good example for "Is RT necessary" as a positive for RTGI in the game in the other DF topic...

It might not be a good argument, though: as Oliver said in the video, it seems that they took RTGI as base. If done the other way, I believe we would probably see better results on base consoles. Performance mode on base look like what Forspoken looked at first, remember that? After they worked on it, it got way better lighting. I'm not saying it would be just as nice as the RT version, but it wouldn't feel so 'flat'. So RT is not really necessary, but no way a worthless addition.

 

[Gaiff]

RT reflections

Other than reflections, no.

It adds ray-traced reflections on the Pro in quality mode, but I personally don’t think there is much benefit to not going with performance mode on the Pro.

I'm not sure how much Ubisoft is really putting the Pro's power to good use. It has much faster RT hardware acceleration and 45% more GPU grunt. I know RT is cool and all, but I think I would have liked better visuals and a resolution bump. All those resources just for RT reflections seem like a waste.

 

[viveks86]

It's like it was an afterthought for them during development.

And it will be going forward. Come next gen, any game that does RTGI will not bother with a fallback solution. It's obsolete tech and a net waste of development time. This is how companies will gain efficiency and speed up dev cycles. Hopefully, the gen after that, we can go full path tracing and avoid baked lighting altogether.

 

[OverHeat]

The PS5 Pro is the best value in gaming and it's getting harder to argue against it.

First you have to look at Xbox. What a waste of money to buy a console that is dying. It isn't the best value in gaming and if you buy today you know you are buying the console that was the least popular but also had the least games. It just isn't a smart buy right now, correct?

Regular PS5. Have you seen monster hunter wilds on it? If you like to play indie games, get a Switch. PS5 is not something I could recommend to anyone when the Pro is so cheap and only a few dollars more.

PC. You have stutter and hitching on UE5 games with no real path to fix it. On top of that, the system has been a garbage dump for Japanese publisher who now make the best games. The quality of the ports and the performance on the system has been terrible. The port quality, ie MHWilds is terrible. Especially with older games, a few years ago all ports on PC were just bad dumps by jaded devs. That's not even the beginning of the issues, look what nvidia has done to the space. This isn't the EVGA era of PC anymore, things are not as good as they once were, even the most jaded PC gamer would agree with that. Consoles are getting mouse support and hopefully user mods. The next xbox is a PC and is trying to take over steam. PC could become Xbox. As MS relies more heavily on PC for gamepass, the landscape in PC gaming will change over the next few years. Change is scary. Not great to invest in unknown change.

Then there was one. PS5 Pro. The pinnacle of gaming. The future. The rock. It also will get GTAVI for a long time before it goes to PC. PC gamers will be expected to wait and buy old PS5 Pro games at full price. The elevator pitch is real. PS5 Pro is the only recommendable hardware until Switch 2 comes out.

Good job warrior!

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Nice downplay

There's also a very clear difference in draw distance between base PS5 and Pro Performance in the section starting at 3:14 (the distant tree in the fog in the middle of the sceen).

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

I'm not sure how much Ubisoft is really putting the Pro's power to good use. It has much faster RT hardware acceleration and 45% more GPU grunt. I know RT is cool and all, but I think I would have liked better visuals and a resolution bump. All those resources just for RT reflections seem like a waste.

They probably only cared about the 60fps mode, since that’s the one most people play

 

[adamsapple]

So what if we don't think the RT reflections are poor, going by the video?

I wish you god speed then. This is how the article describes them, pop-in is probably going to be more distracting than a lower resolution cube-map, imo.

RT reflections are instead limited to the quality mode on PS5 Pro, though the effectiveness of these reflections is a little limited - with little evident detail, no foliage animations and no distant geometry. These RT reflections also suffer from a fair amount of pop-in, which can be distracting. Therefore, Shadows uses a hybrid approach in its quality mode with SSR still enabled to fill in specular detail, though having RT means that you do fall back to a perspective-correct technique when screen-space information isn't available.

And it will be going forward. Come next gen, any game that does RTGI will not bother with a fallback solution. It's obsolete tech and a net waste of development time. This is how companies will gain efficiency and speed up dev cycles. Hopefully, the gen after that, we can go full path tracing and avoid baked lighting altogether.

Sure, agree. But if they're gonna put the mode in, at least make it not be notably worse in comparison to their own previous game from a year or two ago.

I'm gonna be playing this on the 40hz Balanced mode myself, the visual sacrifice in the Performance mode on base consoles is too notable.