Hard specs aren’t everything—when consoles get as sophisticated as modern machines like the PS4 Pro, Xbox One X, and even the Switch, there is more to how capable they are than just numbers. Hardware and software tricks can often make them punch above their weight.
For instance, take the PS4 Pro—it has functionality such as an advanced work distribute, and Polaris features like delta colour compression. These are pretty great functions from the development perspective—but according to Constantine from Fazan Studios, working on Egress, as impressive as they are, they won’t make much of a difference to the end user.
“The PS4 Pro features like Delta color compression, 2X16 bit operations, of course, give us more freedom in work,” he said. “However, I do not think that these advantages will be very noticeable to the average player – we are talking about additional effects, slightly more complex materials and other details.”
He also talked about how much extra work optimizing a game for the PS4 Pro or Xbox One X takes—which is to say, not much, given that they develop for PC first.
“We create the game taking into account the high-end PC, so that in terms of content, no additional work is required for PS4 Pro and Xbox One X. Technically, in our case, most of the problems with PS4 Pro and Xbox One X versions are solved by the engine which we use – Unreal Engine 4. So, I think that quoted figures [by Mark Cerny regarding PS4 Pro development] are quite real.”
In the end, the PS4 Pro is an impressive machine that is developer friendly, and has a variety of tricks it utilizes to seem even more impressive. Plus, as far as Sony’s games, which are some of the best in the industry, go, you literally won’t get a better version of them anywhere than the PS4 Pro. Specs are important, sure, but nothing matters more than games in the end.
