PS4 Pro tech video for Rise of the Tomb Raider discusses resolution settings, frame-rates, more
The latest game to star Lara Croft is forward compatible with PlayStation 4, and in this development video, Crystal Dynamics discusses how the team enhanced Rise of the Tomb Raider for the upgraded console.
Rise of the Tomb Raider is just one of many games forward compatible with PlayStation Pro, which releases on November 10.
In the video, Crystal Dynamics' chief technology officer Gary Snethen discusses working alongside Nixxes Software to add three unique visual modes to the 20 Year Celebration edition of the game: 4K Resolution, High Frame Rate, and Enriched Visuals.
4K Resolution mode targets 30 frames-per-second; Enriched Visuals caps the frame-rate at 30fps and displays in 1080p resolution; and High Frame-rate mode targets 60fps and also displays in 1080p.
Other areas worked on include hardware tessellation, anisotropic filtering and additional dynamic foliage.
The entire list of Pro tech features is below:
- Displacement Maps and Tessellation: This greatly improves the detail of rough surfaces in the ground, rocks, and bricks. Silhouettes and surface features are geometrically-represented when viewed up close, making the surfaces feel even more tangible and realistic.
- Anisotropic Filtering: The graphics power allows anisotropic filtering across all surfaces, so when viewed from an angle, the quality of the textures in the distance are greatly enriched.
- Additional Dynamic Foliage: Even more of the plants and trees are dynamic, the plants bend when Lara walks past, and the trees blow in the wind.
- Increased LOD: Enhanced geometry in objects like buildings means they have significantly more detail when viewed at a distance. As a result hub spaces feel even larger now and aid the player’s exploration.
- +10m LOD bias: All level-of-detail distances were retuned so that objects retain higher resolution as they recede into the distance.
- Cinematic Hair: Lara’s hair during gameplay has been upgraded to use the same higher quality hair used in cinematics.
- Sun soft shadows: Sun shadows were softened to further improve the natural look in outdoor environments.
- Improved depth of field: An improved depth of field effect creates a nice Bokeh effect on bright highlights.
Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration was released for PlayStation 4 worldwide on October 11.