Case in point a post on Twitter from former Naughty Dog technical art director Andrew Maximov. Maximov posted a series of tweets alongside a single graphic, intending to “explain to people why I’m excited for an SSD for rendering.” He’s talking about why the PS5’s SSD and the console design around it are so important.
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Maximov’s graphic is surprisingly simple. It shows two screenshots, one of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and one of The Last of Us. Both games were originally released on the PlayStation 3 and both were limited by the same graphical constraints. Yet, as those who have played can attest, The Last of Us’ visuals are significantly stronger. There’s no trick to this, Maximiv’s graphic shows. The Last of Us simply prioritizes the fidelity of objects that are close to the player and de-prioritizes those further away, compared to Uncharted.
This ties into the PS5 and its SSD in a very specific way. The reason The Last of Us could prioritize close-up visuals in a way Uncharted couldn’t, despite using the same hardware, is due to data management. “Tons of work went into improving the look by graphics engineers and the artists, but all of this has to be facilitated by managing a lot more data fast,” is how describes it. In simpler terms, it took a generation for developers to learn how to harness the hardware of the PS3 to create such a massive jump in visual quality.
What the PS5 is offering, comparatively, is going to be a huge leap forward. That ability to create extremely high-quality objects at short range, like in The Last of Us, could be extended to further ranges. “The ability to load in the highest resolution version of any asset just in front of you and drop it immediately as you turn around means that every tree can have 3d bark and moss and ants marching on it just when needed without blowing up the budget. It’s going to be great.”
Mark Cerny described the PS5’s SSD loading throughput as 100x that of the base PS4’s. He didn’t provide a visual example of what that means, but hopefully PlayStation fans now have an idea. If Naughty Dog can go from Uncharted to The Last of Us on the same hardware, imagine what getting incredibly more powerful hardware can add to the equation. Next-generation consoles are going to be very exciting to experience.
The PS5 is planned for release in holiday 2020.
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