While many recent games with PS5 Pro enhancements have also been supporting the newer version of PSSR – often referred to as PSSR 2 – it looks like Sony is taking it upon itself to force support for the AI-based image upscaler to more games in the PS5 library. According to ResetEra user Nicoreese, Sony has started sending emails to invite PS5 users to try a beta version of a new system software update for PS5 Pro that would enable the “Enhance PSSR Image Quality” feature by default.
While the update will still allow users to disable the feature through the console’s settings, by default, it will be turned on automatically and be applied to all games that support even the previous version of PSSR.
Currently, Enhanced PSSR is only available for games that have been updated by the developers to support it. Even the lead architect for the PS5 Pro, Mark Cerny, had said earlier this year that the company’s policies revolve around giving developers the agency to manually update their games to support it.
“The current strategy is that it will be fixed, i.e., even if there are updated network parameters for the most recent PS5 Pro games, those parameters will not be applied when the Enhance feature is used,” he explained. “That allows the PS5 Pro community to provide clear guidance on how and when to use the Enhance feature – conversely, if the parameters were continually being updated then that guidance would be much harder to provide. Having said that, we are in very early days here at PlayStation with these ML libraries, and I’m certain our strategy will evolve over time.”
However, things have seemingly changed, and the general positive feedback that Sony has gotten for Enhanced PSSR is likely an indication for the company to spread its use to as many games as it possibly can. It is worth noting that, even with this new beta system software, games that didn’t previously support PSSR won’t automatically be able to tap into Enhanced PSSR. They still need to support the older version of the technology to be able to use the newer one.
Since Cerny had previously referred to the company as still being in its “early days” when it comes to its PSSR and machine learning libraries, the fact that Sony is looking at pushing Enhanced PSSR to a wider audience indicates that the technology has been growing at a steady pace behind the scenes.
“The new PSSR is something like 100 microseconds faster than the original,” Cerny said. “Which in turn allowed us to implement the ‘Enhance PSSR Image Quality’ option to force-upgrade all PSSR-supported games. If you use it, frame drops should become oh-so-slightly rarer.”
Sony has been working quite closely with AMD for quite some time now, which has likely helped the former’s efforts in improving its image upscaling technology. Back in March, Cerny had spoken about the development of FSR Redstone, which was also helping with improvements to PSSR. Frame Generation is also in the works for PlayStation hardware, with Cerny calling it “co-developed technology” between the two companies.
