There’s more new footage from the PlayStation 5 Pro Enhanced version of Gran Turismo 7, with fresh, 4K video showing how the game performs side-by-side with the base console version.
The footage, released as high-quality ProRes files, has been provided to outlets which attended the hands-on event in California earlier in the month — such as Digital Foundry — and allows for a direct comparison between the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Pro versions of the game.
Although the various attendees were able to get a hands-on with the new console, it seems that they weren’t able to take away their own direct captures of the footage. However, the videos are representative of the experience at Sony Interactive Entertainment’s headquarters in San Mateo, and several outlets have subsequently reported their impressions.
We already know quite a fair bit about what Gran Turismo 7’s PS5 Pro Enhanced update will support. The game on PS5 runs in 4K60 everywhere except replays, with the option of enabling ray-tracing outside of race events. There’s also 120fps modes available, which can run up to 4K with variable refresh rate (VRR) enabled at the console level.
The Pro version also gives you the option of ray-tracing on track, and while this does drop the native resolution quite a bit it’s then upscaled back to 4K by the new PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) AI upscaler. Alternatively PSSR will work on the native 4K60 and bump it up to 8K60, if attached to a display capable of it, as revealed by Polyphony Digital earlier today.
It is actually pretty tricky to really tell the two versions apart at first glance — especially in snapshots or slow-motion — but you can see some obvious changes.
The real-time calculation of vehicle reflections was shown off a little in previous footage by way of whole car bodies reflecting in others (mainly bright colours and black cars, to show it off best), but we can see that this also has a dramatic effect on the car’s mirrors as they now show correct reflections in the new Pagani Huayra shots.
There is a downgrade in the resolution, but the PSSR upscaler looks to be doing a solid job of filling in the blanks. As far as we can see, the only loss of detail looks to be in some of the darker areas, where the weave of the Huayra’s carbon-fiber components is not so clear.
However, in both of the new modes the reviewers were impressed, with Kat Bailey of IGN declaring “holy moly, 8K is legit” from her experiences of GT7 in San Mateo, and colleague Bo Moore saying it was weird that the 4K version was the worst-looking one there and wanting to go back to 8K already…
One thing we don’t yet know about the PlayStation 5 Pro’s additional graphics power, or GT7’s specific enhancements, is if PlayStation VR2 performance is affected. It’s a subject SIE has been notably quiet on to this point, so doubtless there is still more to come.
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