With the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X out in the wild, we’re back to the waiting game. When will Sony discuss the PS5 in detail? When will it release? These questions remain in the back of our minds as we move into the future of gaming. While we wait, it’s time to level our expectations. What can we realistically expect from the PS5? Join us as we separate reality from fantasy. 5 Things You Can Expect From The PlayStation 5 When we dream about the PS5, it’s easy to let our imaginations get away from us. It’s always fun to dream big, but what should we expect from the next PlayStation? Where do we draw the line between what is realistic and what is not? Below are five things we believe you can expect from the PS5 1. Native 4K Resolution (And Higher) The battle for 4K is a hot topic right now in gaming. Both the Xbox One X and the PS4 Pro have a strong focus on 4K resolution. The Xbox promises true 4K, but it doesn’t always hit that mark. While Microsoft will make it a focus on their games, other titles may not opt for a 4K enhancement. Other games like Overwatch use a dynamic scaler to change the resolution based on the situation. In action-heavy sequences, the resolution drops below 4K and then rises back to that threshold when the action dies down. Meanwhile, PS4 Pro is using a technique called Checkerboard Rendering that can push resolutions much higher than 1080p, but it still doesn’t hit 4K all the time. Here’s the takeaway: 4K gaming is an illusion right now unless you’re a PC gamer with a powerful rig. No one is getting all 4K all the time, regardless of the console. You can expect this to change on the PS5. Sony and Microsoft are talking about teraflops more than ever. The higher the number, the more likely that the console can support 4K gaming. Microsoft is in the lead with Xbox One X, which boasts 6 teraflops. Many analysts, including Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities, believe that Sony will push as many teraflops as possible to beat Microsoft’s console. A reasonable range would be 8-10 teraflops for the PS5. This would be sufficient to facilitate 4K gaming far more often than current consoles. With the entire industry obsessed with 4K, you can bet this will be a major feature on the new system. 2. Next Generation Virtual Reality (PSVR 2) Virtual reality was nothing more than a pipe dream for the longest time, but in 2017 it finally hit the mainstream in a big way. Oculus Rift and HTC Vive were slowly picking up steam, but it wasn’t until PlayStation VR launched that we really saw a lot of discussion surrounding the technology. In the first year, Sony moved over 2 million VR headsets and sold 10 million VR games. Those are some seriously impressive numbers for a new peripheral that costs … Read More
What Is 4K UHD and Will the PS5 Utilize It?
If you’ve ever gone television shopping, then you’ve probably been exposed to all kinds of confusing terms. Do any of these sound familiar? LED/LCD Refresh Rates (120Hz, 240Hz) The Soap Opera Effect 1080p Full HD And so on. Now we’ve been exposed to yet another term which is Ultra High Definition or UHD. This simply refers to anything with more pixels than a HDTV in addition to more realistic colors and higher frame rates. Currently, one of the steps forward in this regard is 4K resolution. Television makers are scrambling to make units that support this new resolution, but there isn’t a whole lot of support from the software side of things. Image via Wikipedia, TRauMa [CC0] The question on all of our minds is of course: is this the future? Will PS5 utilize 4K displays?. First we’ll discuss the details of this resolution, and then we’ll look into the future to see if this is indeed the resolution that will present your PS5 games to you. What is 4K: A Crash Course on Digital Resolution These days you’ll see most HD televisions advertising a 1080p resolution. 4K is actually 2160p. The term refers to a minimum resolution of 3,840 pixels wide and 2,160 pixels high which makes it the equivalent of two 1080p screens in height and length respectively. In essence, it is another jump in both visual clarity, color, and frame rate. The origins of 4K began in the movie theaters, but when you bring that technology home, it becomes far less of a difference to the average viewer. The jump from standard to high definition was huge, but 4K at a normal viewing distance on a home television doesn’t look that much different than 1080p. 4K sets are extremely expensive compared to 1080p offerings. One of the main features they tout is the compatibility of HDMI 2.0 which promises faster data transfer and 60-frames-per-second visuals. Unfortunately, nothing on the market, save for PC games on powerful machines, can support this resolution. PS4 does not support 4K gaming. Streaming video (possibly games in the future) is the current push for utilizing 4K more commonly. Current 4K sets will upconvert lower resolutions, giving them the ability to push the resolution of current HD games and blu-ray movies. The real question is whether or not this technology will be the standard going forward like high definition has been for the last ten years. The answer is still up in the air seeing as how LG and Toshiba were showing 8K resolution televisions at CES 2012. Will the PS5 Utilize 4K Resolution? While 4K and 8K resolutions are being used right now, the entire picture involves a lot more than simple visuals. It’s one thing to watch a movie in 4K, but to play a game in that kind of resolution, you need some serious hardware. That’s why only high-end PC systems are able to support this resolution for games. It’s for this very reason that the PS4 doesn’t support the … Read More
PS5 Graphics – Indistinguishable From the Real Thing
Realism is a bad word. In a sense everything is realistic. I see no line between the imaginary and the real. – Federico Fellini Each time a new generation of consoles is release, the graphics move up a notch. The leap from PS1 to PS2 was perhaps the largest, but the changes from PS3 to PS4 are no slouch either. What comes next? What will PS5 graphics be like? That’s the question we’re here to answer. With the rate at which technology and graphics are progressing, we’re thinking we could make that next big leap when the PS5 releases. Photo-realistic graphics, anyone? The Current State of Video Game Graphics The term “Uncanny” or in the original German translation “Das Unheimliche” is a concept generally known to been Freudian in nature. It has to do with things that are both familiar and alien all at once. Things that we recognize, but not in the form we expect. Would it be so much of a stretch to say that video game graphics are “uncanny” in a number of ways? It really depends on the game. We’ve been able to make huge strides forward in facial rendering and animation. Environments look spectacular, but people and characters have never looked better. Take a game like Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, for example. Check out the video below: This is an early tech demo of the amazing technology that went into Hellblade on the PS4. Having played the full game myself, I can safely say that this is the closest I’ve seen to what the PS5’s graphics could be like. This is all based on new technology from Epic Games, developers of the Unreal Engine 4. This same engine is used in a lot of modern games, but Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice really showcases how realistic human characters can be. Now, a game like Hellblade is the exception, not the rule. We still have many games on the PS4 that fall deep into the uncanny valley. Games like Mass Effect: Andromeda, and even acclaimed titles like Horizon: Zero Dawn can sometimes suffer from less than human appearances. We’ve really nailed down realistic environments and physics, but lighting and believable humans still leave a bit to be desired in many games. Hopefully PS5 vs PS4 graphics will showcase a major difference in this regard. Let’s examine the uncanny valley concept, and then move into the possibilities that we could see in the PS5’s graphics. Close, But no Cigar: An Examination of The Uncanny Valley One of the largest obstacles (beyond technology limitations we will discuss later in the article) in achieving photorealistic graphics, is creating people in games that look, sound, and act completely real. We’re close, but it isn’t perfect yet. The same goes for computer generated imaging, and for robotics. A graph representing the Uncanny Valley By Smurrayinchester [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons Sigmund Freud described the uncanny as something that creates a repulsive response. Think of it like an odd feeling in your gut. He … Read More