Horizon: Zero Dawn Will Look Good No Matter What
We get excited for games all the time but rarely do we reach the levels of excitement that we have for Guerrilla Games’ upcoming release, Horizon: Zero Dawn. Everything we’ve seen up to now has shown the game to be one of the most stunning titles the PS4 has ever seen so it’s really no surprise that it’s getting that little something extra for the PS4 Pro as well. If you’re lucky enough to own a PS4 Pro and the 4K TV to go along with it then you’ll get some visual enhancements that’ll really make the game pop.
So let’s say you’ve got the PS4 Pro and a standard HDTV. While you may not be getting that 4K experience you’ll still be getting a significant upgrade in image quality versus a standard PS4. As part of the new Decima Engine, Guerrilla has some slick techniques to give HDTV viewers a boost in quality. The biggest trick is supersampling, an anti-aliasing technique that renders internally to a much higher resolution (close to 4K actually) before reducing it down to 1080p. This allows for a ton more detail being squeezed into the image before it’s shrunken back down to the 1080p resolution. This results in overall smoother visuals, limited jaggies and a more stable picture.
Now, let’s say you’re one of the lucky few who has splurged on a PS4 Pro and a sweet new 4K TV. You’re obviously in for a heck of a treat! That killer 2160p resolution is within your grasp and Horizon: Zero Dawn wants to blow your mind. You’ll see the finer details like individual leaves swaying in the breeze and even the stitching on Aloy’s outfit. The addition of High Dynamic Range (HDR) further enhances the colors you’ll see on screen.
As Guerrilla explains it, “You can’t print it, it’s not in cinemas, your phone’s screen can’t do it. The only thing that you can compare HDR with is reality. We normally have to do a lot of work in the engine to take an internal high dynamic range image and then make it suitable to be displayed on a normal TV. A lot of color fidelity gets lost in the process. If you own an HDR-enabled TV, we don’t have to lose that data and you’re looking at the image in its full glory, with brighter and deeper colors, more contrast and vibrancy, in its pristine state. The benefits are truly awesome.”
Horizon: Zero Dawn hits the PlayStation 4 on Feb 28 in North America, Mar 3 in Europe.