PS5 upscaling could make low-res games look much better, developer says

Playstation 5 system mockup
Playstation 5 system mockup (Image credit: Nick Sutrich/Android Central)

What you need to know

  • The PS5 will take advantage of a custom AMD Ryzen 8-core CPU and custom Radeon Navi GPU.
  • Developers have stated how its power will make even low-res games look amazing.
  • Sony expects the PlayStation 5 to release Holiday 2020.

LKA, the developer behind Martha is Dead, recently spoke to Official PlayStation Magazine and brought up some of the benefits that the PS5 will provide for low-res games when upscaling for its hardware. In particular, studio head Luca Dalco mentioned the ability to use "an incredible texel density."

It's one of the most important advances in visual capacity that we were waiting for. We worked a lot in order to use the highest-resolution textures as possible also on PS4; nonetheless, PS5 will allow us to use an incredible texel density, up to 4096px/m – that means the visual will be fully detailed also in higher resolutions.

In layman's terms, a texel — texture element or texture pixel — is a textured graphic that makes up a 3D object. To avoid getting into the weeds and making it confusing, it's similar enough that you can effectively think of it as a pixel (but if you're really curious, they are very much different to game developers).

Dalco also said that Martha is Dead is striving for photorealism with the help of upcoming technology.

From what we know so far, the PlayStation 5 will be capable of 8K resolution, which is four times the resolution of 4K images. As opposed to Microsoft, Sony has kept its cards close to its chest for some months now when it comes to PS5 details. Between Mark Cerny speaking with Wired in a couple of interviews, we don't really know much about the PlayStation 5 yet. We don't even know what it will look like.

Jennifer Locke
Games Editor - PlayStation, Android, VR

Jennifer Locke has been playing video games nearly her entire life. You can find her posting pictures of her dog and obsessing over PlayStation and Xbox, Star Wars, and other geeky things.