Not many people had high hopes from Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’s visuals. Nonetheless, Infinity Ward did a pretty good job with the anti-aliasing and high resolution textures. The Xbox One and PS4 versions both employed dynamic resolution buffers with the former running between 960x1080p and 1390x1080p while the latter runs between 960 X 1080p and a full 1920 X 1080p. Frame rate performance is pretty good on the PS4 with V-sync on, maintaining the 60 FPS frame cap while also avoiding any screen tearing. Then there are the excellent volumetric and alpha effects that make the game quite the looker even on consoles (even with the 30 FPS pre-rendered cutscenes).
As one of the games to advertise PS4 Pro support at the console’s reveal back in September, it’s a given that Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare would be one of the bigger games to look out for. Is it worth all the hype though? As it turns out, even with multiplayer snafus and other annoyances, Infinity Ward still knows its graphics and does a good job of translating Infinite Warfare’s visuals into 4K.
Witnessing the visuals on a 4K TV presents a more crisp picture than the base game. Infinite Warfare actually uses a dynamic buffer before utilizing checkerboard rendering to present the final product in 4K. While it’s not native 4K, image quality looks very good as a whole and the frame rate manages to stay at 60 frames per second (with a few intermittent drops). Lack of aliased edges and no visible shimmering further add to the visual appeal.
When running the PS4 Pro version on a 1080p display, the image is super-sampled to present even better image quality and sharper visuals. Anti-aliasing is noticeable better and the picture just comes across as crisper overall. It also helps that the frame rate is solid and improvements in alpha and particle effects were also noticed at specific times. There’s just enough additional effort here to justify playing it on an HDTV with PS4 Pro if you don’t own a 4K display. Those with a 4K TV will benefit the most but it’s good to see Infinity Ward catering to your average 1080p TV owner as well.
For all the flak we’re willing to give Infinite Warfare, there’s no denying that the PS4 Pro version looks pretty. Strong performance combined with stellar image quality and post processing effects make Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare one of the best looking Call of Duty titles of all time. Is that really saying much considering all the other visually impressive games currently available on the Pro (and upcoming ones like Horizon: Zero Dawn)? Probably not but if you’ve ever wanted to experience Call of Duty in 4K then the PS4 Pro with Infinite Warfare is a great option.