- The first real look at Crimson Desert running on the PS5 Pro has been shared
- Digital Foundry got acquainted with the console version and praises its ray tracing technology in all three graphics modes.
- Performance mode, “on the whole”, hits its 60fps target with a strange drop-off in populated areas
Crimson Desert launches next week on PC and consoles, and the first look at images of the PlayStation 5 Pro have finally been revealed.
Pearl Abyss’ open-world action-adventure game is scheduled to launch on March 19. However, the only promotional footage we were able to watch during the month was on PC, although the game is also coming to PlayStation and Xbox.
Finally, after months of waiting and some skepticism from fans about the game’s performance on console, Digital Foundry was granted exclusive access to Crimson Desert running on PlayStation 5 Pro, and it looks seriously impressive.
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“Their [Pearl Abyss’s] The BlackSpace engine delivers results that are simply remarkable,” said DF’s John Linneman, and while there is some “junk” to settle for, “the overall impression is striking.”
“From the performance, to the crowd behavior, to the animation, to the freedom, to the foliage, to the lighting, everything. It’s a stunning game,” adds Linneman. “And on PS5 Pro here, you don’t lose much.”
On PC, PS5, PS5 Pro and Xbox Series
The diffuse ray-traced global lighting that was highlighted in DF’s PC preview, the per-pixel solution, is also enabled on the console, offering a fully dynamic ray-traced driven lighting system, and the visuals look stunning.
Performance mode offers 60fps, and Linneman said it “puts up a good fight” and “for the most part” hits its target, adding: “I was surprised by the overall quality of this mode.” »
Look on it
DF also notes that the frame rate drops in areas with larger crowds and in locations involving many non-playable characters (NPCs), and also dropped “significantly” during an early game battle in the region of 30fps.
A similar issue can also be triggered in larger cities, but Linneman said this is “not at all the norm” for the game. The Game Quality mode at 30fps and the Balanced option at 40fps also seem stable, with 60fps being more “challenging.”
Crimson DesertPerformance, Balanced, and Quality modes also target 1080p, 1440p, and 4K respectively, with the first two using PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution) to upgrade to 4K output. But DF said that this is not the latest, improved version of Sony technology that is expected to be added to the game, as we saw with Resident Evil Requiemthe results should therefore be improved.
Linneman adds that he prefers to play in balanced mode, “but if the new PSSR is as effective as we think it is, the base 1080p of optimal mode can still deliver an impressive experience at higher frame rates.”
“In terms of GPU scalability, the game works. Yes, the optimal and balanced modes use upscaling, but the base resolution is high enough that even the original PSSR looks mostly okay, except for some artifacts that we should expect to disappear with the upgraded PSSR,” Linneman said.
“In terms of CPU, this was a more pressing concern: today’s mid-range PC processors are considerably more capable than consoles. Here, the limitations can be felt more, but never enough to make the game feel ‘poorly optimized’.”
It’s important to note that we’ve yet to see proper PS5 and Xbox Series X|S footage, but DF said, “The signs look good.”
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