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 even more. According to ResetEra user Nicoreese, Sony has invited users via email 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, it will be enabled automatically and 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 update their games and add support.
“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. 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 positive feedback Sony has received for Enhanced PSSR likely encouraged it to spread its use to as many games as possible. It is worth noting that, even with this new beta system software, games that didn’t previously support PSSR won’t automatically tap into Enhanced PSSR. They still need to support the older version to use the newer one.
Cerny had previously referred to the company as still in its “early days” with PSSR and machine learning libraries. “The new PSSR is something like 100 microseconds faster than the original. 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 to improve PSSR. Frame Generation is also in the works for PlayStation hardware, with Cerny calling it “co-developed technology” between the two companies.
