DICE Devs On PS4 Pro: Proper Checkerboard Implementation Is Complex, EQAA Can Bring Great Savings

A lot has been said about the PlayStation 4 Pro and the custom technique developers can use to achieve “4K” resolution. The technique is called checkerboard rendering and its has been used in several PlayStation 4 games such as the recently released Horizon Zero Dawn to achieve a 2160p checkerboard resolution. To make it simple to understand, checkerboard 4K resolution isn’t native 4K resolution. It’s a process of using a complex pixel algorithm to generate an image that resembles a 4K image buffer but in reality it isn’t. However it’s isn’t a mere upscale either.

Johan Andersson who looks after the FrostBite engine at DICE shared his thoughts on using checkerboard rendering on the PS4 Pro. When asked whether already released games like Star Wars Battlefront can employ this technique, he stated that method will be too “complex” and “time consuming” for older titles. He thinks that most games or engines that use this technique will use “EQAA Depth Resolve” optimization technique (possibly as an alternative). For those who are unaware, EQAA allows better smoothing of edges at a lesser performance budget (you can consider it as an optimized version of MSAA).

Graham Wihlidal‏, senior rendering engineer at Frostbite who is looking after the above mentioned solution also shared his thoughts on checkerboard rendeirng. He stated that implementing a proper checkerboard technique is far more complex than a bad implementation. This falls in line with what some of the developers have stated to GamingBolt in the past.

What are your thoughts on this matter? Let us know in the comments section below.

@samberto yes, unfortunately it is rather complex and time consuming to retrofit this type of tech to older games (at least in our case)

— Johan (@repi) March 6, 2017

Think most PS4 Pro games & engines that do checkerboard will adopt @gwihlidal 's EQAA Depth Resolve optimization with similar great savings!

— Johan (@repi) March 4, 2017

@MikeNicolella trivial shadertoy checkerboard is bad checkerboard. Doing a proper implementation is far more involved and complex

— Graham Wihlidal (@gwihlidal) March 6, 2017