Sony has rolled out AI upscaling technology for the standard PS5, with "Marvel's Wolverine" and "Ghost of Yōtei" being the inaugural games to integrate this advanced feature

Screenshot of QSSR comparison using Ghost of Yotei

Image credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment/Sucker Punch Productions

Sony Interactive Entertainment has rolled out a new AI-based upscaling technology named Quick Spectral Super Resolution (QSSR) for the standard PlayStation 5. This latest enhancement is part of Sony's continuous AI graphics endeavors in collaboration with AMD. QSSR is equipped with advanced neural network architecture and expertly crafted implementation to boost image clarity and optimize frame rates on the PS5.

Meanwhile, PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) remains exclusive to the PS5 Pro, setting what SIE terms as the "gold standard" for this tech.

"Enhancing the PS5 at this stage to allow developers to produce visually superior games is an exciting development," stated Daniel Craig, the principal engineer responsible for graphics R&D at SIE, in an interview with Digital Foundry.

He further noted, "The PS5 Pro is designed specifically with 300 TOPS of dedicated hardware for such tasks, allowing for greater flexibility in balancing cost and quality."

Craig elaborated that while the PS5 Pro was built specifically to handle these tasks, QSSR leverages FP16 math extensively. Additional non-obvious hardware features were utilized to maximize efficiency, a hallmark of console development. The key challenge, according to Craig, lies in maintaining an efficient pipeline and balancing the computational costs associated with the math processes.

QSSR will be broadly available to PlayStation developers and serves as a straightforward substitute for existing PSSR-supported titles. Craig added that fine-tuning game settings could require a few days, as teams might have to tweak streaming configurations to accommodate better-quality mips.

The first games to utilize AI upscaling with QSSR on the basic PS5 are Insomniac Games' Marvel's Wolverine and Sucker Punch Productions' Ghost of Yōtei.

Jasmin Patry, lead rendering engineer at Sucker Punch Productions, remarked, "QSSR provides unmatched clarity in character and environment details and offers a temporal stability previously unattainable on the PS5." He added, "We have aspired to deliver the PSSR-improved image quality experienced on PS5 Pro to all PS5 users, and QSSR marks a significant step towards achieving that vision."