The possibility of playing games in 4K is part of the appeal of next-gen games consoles like the PS5 and the Xbox Series X. But a recent rumour claimed that Sony's PS5 might struggle to run 4K visuals in their truest form.
This suggestion came to us from Dusk Golem aka Aesthetic Gamer, a prominent voice in the gaming Twitter community, who develops games for the Portland-based company Yai Gameworks.
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But since that claim came out, there has been interesting development. Keep reading to learn exactly what's going on...
Will the PS5 deploy "fake 4K" graphics?
Speaking about Capcom's upcoming Resident Evil 8: Village and the fact it is meant to run in 4K, Dusk Golem said this: "The thing is, apparently the game runs perfectly on Xbox [Series] X, [but] they've been having some troubles getting the frame rate stable on PS5."
Dusk Golem went on to add: "I used RE8 as an example, but I've heard from other devs that PS5 struggles with 4k games in particular so you'll see a lot of fake 4k. That doesn't matter to some, but get ready for that too. Xbox [Series] X doesn't have the same problem."
If we believe what these Tweets are saying, it sounds like the PS5 could have a harder time than the Xbox Series X when it comes to full-4K visuals. Although the Tweeter made sure to mention, "Of course RE8 will run fine on launch".
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What is "fake 4K"? Checkerboard rendering explained
As reported by SVG, a rumour on Reddit suggests that the PS5 will use "checkerboard rendering" to cover the gaps in 4K graphics that it can't quite handle.
This form of "fake 4K" has been used by the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X in the past, and it's a process that allows hardware to mimick 4K visuals without going all the way. Part of this process involves filtering sections of the screen which aren't the primary focus, thereby freeing up some rendering power to give a sharper image in the more important areas.
For example, "checkerboard rendering" might focus in on a character's face, during a close-up, to give you a nice sharp image. But if you happened to look away from the character's face and focus on the area around them, that background detail wouldn't be quite so sharp.
A lot of people might not even notice this process being used, unless they went looking for it, but it is interesting to hear that the Xbox Series X is not experiencing the same difficulties as the PS5 in this regard - at least according to this story, that is, which probably still worth filing under 'rumour' for now.
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UPDATE: Quantum Error develops shuts down the rumours
As you can see in the Tweet above, the official Twitter account for the upcoming horror game Quantum Error has now put these rumours to bed, explaining that Teamkill Media's PS5 horror game is having no trouble hitting 4K 60FPS.
It's great to hear, straight from the horse's mouth, that developers are not actually having problems with 4K on PS5. At the very least, we can plainly see that the Quantum Error team is not having any problems. Here's hoping that's the end of it...
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