One small caveat: players will need to download a title update (available shortly after release) to enjoy the full 1080p native resolution.
Even without the title update, the game is undeniably stunning on next-gen consoles. Indeed, as Associate Producer Sylvain Trottier suggests, some players might not even be able to tell the difference. That’s because the game, as shipped, is being rendered on next-gen at a resolution that’s very close to 1080p (900p, if you’re curious), and the upscaling process barely adjusts the image.
“If it’s running at 720p vs 1080p, you’re going to notice the difference, by far,” Trottier explains. “But if it’s set at a resolution that’s very close, where most of the pixels are already there in internal processing, most people won’t see any difference.” Those who can spot the differences might note that the game would be, in some very subtle ways, slightly less crisp but a tiny bit smoother.
But why ship at 900p in the first place? To meet an essential goal: deliver a visually brilliant game at a steady 30 frames per second (the industry gold standard for open-world games). Finishing the game at 900p gave the development team the extra room in terms of the GPU and CPU usage to ensure the framerate never dips below 30 frames per second. The team then used the time between the ship date and the release to focus on a title update that could deliver native 1080p resolution on the PS4.