Black Myth Wukong was a phenomenon. The UE5-powered action epic sold millions of copies when it launched earlier this year, impressing with its fast gameplay and sophisticated visuals. However, its setup on PS5 left a lot to be desired, employing strange frame rate locks and frame rendering with a base frame rate of 30 fps. Developer Game Science has addressed at least some of those issues as of the latest patch, and the studio has also added support for PS5 Pro, using PSSR to improve image quality for pro gamers. So is the console version finally in reasonable condition? And should we expect any issues with the Pro upgrade?
Let's start by taking a quick look at the PS5 patched code. The most obvious superficial change here is that there is now a sharpness slider. Without applying sharpening, the image looks smooth but relatively free of aliasing edges. Dialing it up to five, which is the default, gives the image a look fairly typical of current-gen low-resolution console titles. Turning the slider up to 10 provides maximum sharpness, for players who want to maximize local contrast. Compared to the launch code, a value of about seven matches the base PS5 in its performance settings.
Aside from the sharpening adjustment, the most obvious visual change is that the game's Lumen GI presentation is slightly altered. Basically, there is more obvious occlusion present in certain parts of the game world. Shadow maps sometimes look slightly different too. The other modes also have some IG differences relative to the release code, although they are less obviously affected.
Other visual settings seem similar, at least in my testing. That includes the resolution, which remains internally at 1080p, with no apparent upsampling to a higher output resolution. Unfortunately, frame-shifting is still a given here, and overall performance is also similar in my tests, usually holding 60fps pretty well. The game's intro runs with frame generation disabled and mostly crashes in the 40s and 50s, and there are some occasional crashes during other segments as well. I suspect the game may be disabling frame generation during especially sudden changes in camera position, which is likely the source of some of these drops. No matter how you look at it, basing a performance mode on frame rate, which affects input lag, is not a good choice for a fast-paced action game running at just 60fps, and probably isn't even necessary. for 60 fps gameplay, as we demonstrated in testing. a few months ago. Lean more on FSR or TSR and you should be able to achieve a reasonable 60fps experience, even on the PS5's CPU and GPU.
The performance mode is similar then, but the other two modes differ more dramatically. Quality mode clearly affects image quality, with less definition and detail in foliage and fine geometry. It's a substantial loss relative to the previous code. A quick pixel count reveals the problem: Quality mode appears to render at 1080p, compared to about 1440p on average before. The old quality mode was being upscaled to 4K, while the new quality mode is more like 1440p or 1620p. It's a puzzling choice.
However, other visual settings appear to have been modified. Shadows are obviously higher resolution and have less aggressive cascades, while foliage draw distance has improved a bit. Basically, you're trading a higher resolution in the release version for better visual settings in the current version. The frame rate has improved over the base game, at least in some ways. The original quality mode ran at an unstable frame rate, often between 30 and 30 seconds. Quality mode now has a more sensible 30fps cap, producing a smooth, drop-free frame-rate experience.
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However, Balance mode receives a very different visual treatment. The new image obviously has more details and the finer geometric lines manage to be presented without artifacts. A pixel count reveals a setting similar to Quality mode: an internal resolution of 1080p, with an output subjectively similar to 1440p. Performance-wise, it spends most of its time at or near 45fps, which is still, surprisingly, the default frame rate limit in this mode. That means an unstable procession of frames at a 60Hz output, with a mix of frame times of 16ms and 33ms in a typical playback.
New in this patch is an alternate version of balance mode. With the PS5 set to automatically enable 120Hz output, Balance mode now targets a flat 40fps readout, with each frame essentially tripled to evenly accommodate a 120Hz refresh. In my experience, this actually maintains Stable 40 fps, with relatively rare and small drops. In my opinion, this small change makes this mode very useful. The other modes can also run at 120Hz output with a compatible display, but still aim for 60fps and 30fps respectively.
To summarize, Quality mode and Balance mode now look very similar, although Quality mode has a higher setting for shadows. However, Quality mode and Balance mode have a very similar Lumen GI presentation, and Performance mode seems a little rougher. Then there are the expected differences in image quality: Performance mode is visibly similar to 1080p, while Quality and Balance modes have greater clarity. Of these modes, I really think the 40fps @ 120Hz balance mode is the best. It has good input response, a consistent frame rate, and feels reasonably smooth. Quality mode is fine, although the impact on frame rate is a little pronounced and the performance mode's frame rate is still too much for my taste. However, you might prefer a 60fps targeting mode without frame generation, if one were available.
On PS5 Pro, let's start with quality mode. The biggest change here is the introduction of PSSR, which typically runs at an input resolution of around 1296p, but produces a 4K-like final image. It's noticeably sharper, especially during motion, and holds up very well on a 4K TV. Some elements that weren't smoothed out effectively with FSR are cleaner here, such as the noisy hair on the first boss and the newly revealed details in general. There's a bit of that characteristic PSSR noise if you look closely, although it's not obvious from normal viewing distances.
Even though this is a UE5 game, the lighting is generally stable and consistent with PSSR, with no Silent Hill 2-esque glare. That said, the lighting was already pretty stable with FSR, so perhaps that's a minor issue overall for the content of this title. I again noticed some Lumen changes between the PS5 and PS5 Pro code, although they seemed more substantial than the adjustments I noticed between the different PS5 versions. Performance is in line with the base console at a locked 30 frames per second in my testing, which feels good on a controller with motion blur turned up to maximum.
Balance mode is quite similar to Quality mode, with a typical internal resolution of around 1296p upscaled to 4K using PSSR. The most noticeable visual difference here comes down to the shadows, which have a higher resolution in quality mode. The setup is similar to the PS5 split back then, with a fairly conservative update for the 30fps targeting mode variant. However, there are some Lumen settings that also somewhat reflect the quality mode. Frame rates around 45fps are typical with a 60Hz output, and the game delivers a more or less straight 40fps with a 120Hz output. I'm not a fan of how the game looks on a 60Hz panel. in this mode, but at 120Hz you get a constant frame rate and consistent controller response.
The performance mode has not changed much. It's still a 60fps targeting mode that uses frame-gen and still runs at 1080p resolution. Compared side by side, it looks very similar to the old mode in performance, minus some discrepancies in lumens. This mode still appears to use FSR 3 as well. It also works very similar to the base console's performance mode. Again, we see the same procession of 33 ms frames if the camera position changes rapidly and nonlinearly, suggesting that frame generation may be disabled at these times.
It's a shame that this mode hasn't been substantially revised, because it's probably the most missing mode on the base console. Between the PS5 Pro's larger GPU and the improved CPU, I hope there are resources for a decent 60fps targeting mode without frame generation. Perhaps this is something Game Science can consider for a future update, although we're still baffled as to why generating frames from a 30fps baseline can be considered a good idea.
All in all, I'm reasonably satisfied with Black Myth: Wukong's technical evolution on PS5 since its launch, as both Quality and Balance modes seem to make reasonable compromises and are able to achieve stable frame rates. There are still some unusual elements in the mix, such as 60fps frame rate and 45fps frame rate targets, which spoil the game and make certain mode and refresh rate combinations difficult to use. That's not a death sentence for more sophisticated players, but it will negatively affect the vast majority of players who leave the game at its default settings or who don't understand what the mode changes are intended to accomplish.
The Pro upgrade is conservative, but represents a clear improvement over the base game. The quality and balance modes range from a 1440p-like image to a 4K-like one, and PSSR provides a nice upgrade for Pro users. There are no wild changes to settings here or attempts at additional ray tracing, but the The image quality looks clearly better in typical gameplay, something we can't always say for the Pro upgrades. So Black Myth: Wukong has taken several steps in the right direction, even if I think some setup calls are still wrong. . I now feel pretty comfortable recommending the PS5 and Pro versions of the game, just with a few caveats.