Sony’s PlayStation 4 Pro Still Has ’Secret Sauce’ Features Yet To Be Revealed
Sony's prepping for a busy holiday shopping season with its PlayStation 4 Pro, an upgraded version of its PlayStation 4 released in 2013. The PS4 Pro has a 30 percent faster processor along with an onboard GPU that's twice as powerful as the one it's replacing, paving the way for 4K HDR gaming. But as it turns out, raw horsepower isn't the only developers have to play with. There's a bit of "secret sauce" that Sony has yet to reveal.
The hint of greater things to come originates from Eurogamer's invitation to spends on hands-on time with Mantis Burn Racing on Sony's forthcoming console refresh. Despite not running on the technologically most advanced game engine on the market, Mantis Burn Racing managed to hit 60 frames per second at a 4K Ultra HD resolution.
Mantis Burn Racing uses a forward renderer to help deliver 60fps at 4K. Most of the visuals effects are identical to the PC version, save for the lack of anti-aliasing—while you get 2x MSAA on the regular PS4, anti-aliasing isn't really required for an awesome visual experience when bumping up from 1080p to 4K, so why waste the horsepower?
What's interesting here is that VooFoo Studios, the U.K.-based developer behind the title, was able to quadruple the resolution of Mantis Pro Racing over the standard PS4 using a GPU with around two times the compute power and only 25 percent more memory bandwidth. One way that would be possible is if the PS4 was being fully utilized, but that's not the case. Instead, the team behind the game say they've tapped into enhancements made to the PS4 Pro's GPU.
One of the things the new enhancements make possible is being able to complete two 16-bit floating bit operations in the same time that it would take the original PS4 to complete just one. That bit alone gave the GPU enough throughput for the developers to hit its 4K performance target for Mantis Burn Racing.
"In short, there's more to PS4 Pro's enhancements than teraflop comparisons suggest - and we understand that there are more 'secret sauce' features still to be revealed," Eurogamer said.
It's not yet known what those additional features might be, but whatever they are, things are looking promising for the PS4 Pro.
The hint of greater things to come originates from Eurogamer's invitation to spends on hands-on time with Mantis Burn Racing on Sony's forthcoming console refresh. Despite not running on the technologically most advanced game engine on the market, Mantis Burn Racing managed to hit 60 frames per second at a 4K Ultra HD resolution.
Mantis Burn Racing uses a forward renderer to help deliver 60fps at 4K. Most of the visuals effects are identical to the PC version, save for the lack of anti-aliasing—while you get 2x MSAA on the regular PS4, anti-aliasing isn't really required for an awesome visual experience when bumping up from 1080p to 4K, so why waste the horsepower?
What's interesting here is that VooFoo Studios, the U.K.-based developer behind the title, was able to quadruple the resolution of Mantis Pro Racing over the standard PS4 using a GPU with around two times the compute power and only 25 percent more memory bandwidth. One way that would be possible is if the PS4 was being fully utilized, but that's not the case. Instead, the team behind the game say they've tapped into enhancements made to the PS4 Pro's GPU.
One of the things the new enhancements make possible is being able to complete two 16-bit floating bit operations in the same time that it would take the original PS4 to complete just one. That bit alone gave the GPU enough throughput for the developers to hit its 4K performance target for Mantis Burn Racing.
"In short, there's more to PS4 Pro's enhancements than teraflop comparisons suggest - and we understand that there are more 'secret sauce' features still to be revealed," Eurogamer said.
It's not yet known what those additional features might be, but whatever they are, things are looking promising for the PS4 Pro.
