Horizon Forbidden West has received a patch for PS5 Pro and the game represents one of the most engaging and interesting efforts we've seen on the new console. After all, developers Guerrilla Games are famous for their use of checkerboard rendering on PS4 and PS5, and now they've moved on to something new, but it's No PSSR, the scaler introduced in PS5 Pro that has been used in many other PS5 Pro enhanced games. Instead, it is its own solution, a sort of 'Guerrilla Super Resolution', so to speak, and represents one of the image qualities Cleanest rebuilds we've seen on consoles. How good is it? We decided to find out.
To refresh your memory, Horizon Forbidden West on PS5 includes Performance and Resolution modes, which have been combined into a Performance Pro mode for the new console. Since a patch in summer 2022, Performance Mode on the base PS5 has run on a checkerboard of around 1800p with dynamic resolution scaling, trading a bit of image quality and stability for a refresh rate of 60 fps which makes the game much smoother.
The new Performance Pro mode maintains the same 60fps but substantially increases clarity with an internal resolution of around 1440p. This mode features improved subpixel detail, better texture clarity, and better anti-aliasing, which is particularly noticeable on transparencies such as foliage. Temporal stability is also improved, meaning the image suffers from fewer instances of artifacts or tearing. Finally, screen space reflections and depth of field effects have also been noticeably improved, without the characteristic checkerboard pattern in SSR or glare in depth of field.
Combining all this, you can examine the image from just a few centimeters away without detecting any imperfections, except for some small ghosting with the foliage – it's impressive stuff.
Of course, the PS5 already had a mode that had better image quality and stability: resolution mode. This is limited to 30fps, of course, but how does it compare to the new Pro mode for performance? In short, the difference is minimized, but still exists. The old resolution mode, which was often native 4K, is a bit sharper and has better reflections in the screen space, but the Performance Pro mode still has its benefits in terms of image stability and anti-aliasing.
There's also a Pro Resolution mode on the PS5 Pro, offering the same native 4K 30fps refresh rate as the previous Resolution mode, but with the new anti-aliasing method. This looks a little sharper and has better reflections in the screen space, but the sacrifice of halving the frame rate is ultimately too expensive to really recommend, and as even the CTO of Guerrilla told us at the PS5 Pro preview event, “friends don't let your friends play at 30Hz.”
Fortunately, both Pro and Resolution performance work with near-perfect lock-in for your chosen frame rates; We only managed to get the game to drop a single frame in an intense fight at 60fps, while the 30fps mode was 100 percent perfect outside of the usual frame drops in camera cuts we see in many games. You can also unlock the frame rate in Performance Pro mode by turning on 120Hz VRR support in the PS5 menus, which has the game hitting the 70s at some points, but also dropping below 60fps at times. With VRR to smooth things out, you're making the most of the power on offer with slightly higher internal resolutions or frame rates, but it's not a big change by any means.
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The game also comes with a balanced pro mode if 120Hz is enabled, offering a 40fps refresh rate and settings between pro resolution and pro performance modes. This mode seems a little superfluous on the PS5 Pro, but it offers another trade-off between fidelity and performance if you're interested. However, for most people, the 60fps performance pro mode is the obvious recommendation.
Given that Horizon Forbidden West has an excellent PC port with support for other upscalers, it seemed natural to compare Guerrilla's new method on PS5 Pro with Nvidia's DLSS and AMD's FSR 3, using similar upscaling from 1440p to 4K. This isn't the most challenging scenario for a climber (we generally see larger differences between different techniques when input resolutions are much lower), but it's still an interesting point of comparison for what Guerrilla has achieved.
Based on side-by-side comparisons, it has managed to offer something extremely similar to DLSS on PC, although machine learning is most likely not involved (such a solution already exists, PSSR, and we doubt Guerrilla would have trained its own neural network). Nvidia's solution handles particle trails better, but Guerrilla's handles reflections in water better, with smoother results and less aliasing. The improved Guerrilla also fares slightly better in terms of motion, although the small amount of forced motion blur on the PS5 version confuses the comparison a bit. The comparison between FSR and 'GSR' is more in favor of what Guerrilla has achieved on PS5, as FSR tends to over-cluster, resulting in blurry grass when the camera is stopped and softer results overall, but it's still a perfectly fine resolution. generally acceptable. .
It's an impressive result for the local solution and its effectiveness perhaps explains why Guerrilla opted not to use Sony's PSSR for its PS5 Pro upgrade. The studio said it developed the technique for its own future titles and then reported it to Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered and Horizon Forbidden West, so it will be fascinating to see if it will be implemented elsewhere, or even at other internal Sony studios. – in the future.