Alan Wake 2 on PS5 Pro Is 30 FPS on Quality Mode With Ray Tracing, But Performance Mode Gets Some Big Boosts, Too

ign.com:

Remedy Games detailed its approach to Alan Wake 2's PS5 Pro update in a new post on its official site, explaining that Quality Mode will add ray tracing at the expense of running at 30 FPS, but that the patch will also include big improvements to Performance Mode.

According to the official post, Alan Wake 2's Quality Mode will run at 30 FPS with ray tracing while outputting at 3840 x 2160 (4K). Its render resolution will be 2176 x 1224. In some ways it's not surprising given Alan Wake 2's hefty PC requirements, which recommend at least an RTX 4080 for good performance with ray tracing turned up.

That said, there are still meaningful improvements to be found in the PS5 Pro version of Alan Wake 2 without sacrifing frame-rate. Among other things, Remedy promises "significantly higher output resolution" roughly on par with the base PS5's Quality mode by pushing the resolution to 4K, aligning it with Sony's overall sales pitch for the console. It also includes overall improvements to "stability, fog, volumetric lighting, and shadow accuracy."

"We did multiple experiments, including upgrading the 60fps Performance mode output from 1440p to 4k and adding PSSR (Sony’s AI-based upscaling method), which positively impacted image crispness and stability under motion," Remedy explained.

"Increasing the internal rendering resolution consumes a lot of processing power, no matter how powerful your hardware is. However, in our experiments, even putting all the added power to increased rendering resolution provided a barely noticeable difference in the output image or its quality. Adding more pixels to gain visual quality is not straightforward with the new AI-based upscaling methods."

Remedy's post goes on to detail the ways that the console version incorporates ray tracing as well as its cost, noting how each ray must be "traced, and its hit evaluated and shaded."

"In a game like Alan Wake 2, its complex light-material interactions and rich environments can make tracing, shading, and