Thanks for the info! I understand why they aren't, but I really wish developers in general were more open about the specific benefits their games get.



I've update the lists, including adding RDR 2. Since there's been a lot of discussion of how the game renders on Pro, I thought I'd go into much greater detail for this example, and share the aspects that I've observed. First, when outputting the game at 4K it does sometimes pixel count to 1920x2160, as widely reported. However, it was also publicized but not remarked as much that at other times it counts as full 3840x2160. In both cases, this can be seen without AA applied, or any sort of blending in place. This very strongly suggests that the game is using checkerboard rendering, not one of the other temporal techniques we've seen like injection or shaded AA samples (though more on that below).



We've seen previous games count as anamorphic like this, such as L.A. Noire and World of Final Fantasy. I could never locate full-res detail in the former game, though, so it may be solely anamorphic rendering. However, World of Final Fantasy did have material which suggested its stretched horizontal might be failed reconstruction. And then there's the case of Assassin's Creed Syndicate, which launched with a low-res anamorphic setup as well. A patch later altered it to a higher, non-reconstructed static res, which is intriguing evidence that such late alterations to rendering approach are possible.



It's important to note that, even when rendering geometry and textures at 3840x2160, Red Dead still has some individual elements that are anamorphic, with details twice as wide horizontally as vertically. This includes shadow dithering (part of the softening on distal portions of its contact-hardened effect), as well as in dithered alpha transparencies like in hair and fur. But by far the most notable is foliage sprites for grass and bushes, and tree leaves and needles. That particular quirk also has precedent, as it can be seen on some of the foliage in Witcher III on Pro. Since not all foliage appeared like this, it may have been due to optimized mipmap usage. In any case, it's more prevalent in Red Dead, and the amount of foliage often onscreen means that effective resolution is somewhat diminished, even when the CBR is producing full-res scenery.



CBR isn't the only reconstruction happening, though. There's an aggressive temporal anti-aliasing solution in place as well. Due to wind- and camera-induced movement from frame to frame, this second pass of reconstruction does help to clear up the foliage somewhat. But it's at the cost of making the whole screen quite a bit softer looking. Since this is a post-process effect it operates anywhere there's high contrast, which includes geometric detail that's supposed to be sharp. Some amount of blurriness is common in games with cinematic styles, as it eliminates shimmer and provides "real-looking" stability to the image, but Rockstar has set it quite high even considering that. The game is demonstrably soft on every platform, which is less conspicuous at the high resolution and effect settings of Xbox One X but becomes gradually more destructive of image quality moving down the scale. Base Xbox One is only slightly lower res than many AAA games, but notably blurrier.



Apparently in order to make up for that, the standard Xbox One and PS4 versions have an additional slider in the game options, for an overall Sharpness filter. This defaults to maximum, clawing back some perceptual IQ (though post-process sharpening actually distorts image detail, the high contrast it adds can feel better to viewers). If you manually turn this slider all the way down, so that you're seeing the inherent standard PS4 render, it appears notably soft for its size like Pro's 4K output does. Unfortunately, users don't have the option to go the other way when Pro is outputting 4K--harsh or not, I'm sure some would prefer to add the sharpening.



Pro owners can force the issue by manually setting their Pro to output 1080p and turning off system-wide supersampling. In this case, Red Dead doesn't natively downsample, but instead truly outputs 1080p, and the Sharpness filter becomes available. This can cause the image to appear crisper overall, despite the lowered resolution (though the effect is mainly notable on 1080p displays, rather than 4K). As a bonus, the few minor framedrops at higher res also disappear, leading to a rock-solid 30fps. This difference is minor, though.



So to summarize, there's no in-game switchable modes, but the game will act differently based on your OS settings. The choices are:



A. PS4 Pro output set to 4K, or 1080p output with system-wide supersampling on.

Higher resolution for many things onscreen, including textures up close and terrain/trees/characters in the middle and far distance of vistas. But noticeably soft IQ, especially for foliage and objects close to camera. Slight framerate drops in some demanding scenarios, though solid 30fps over 95% of the time.



B. PS4 Pro output set to 1080p with system-wide supersampling off.

Lower resolution overall, especially noticeable in middle and far distance. Sharpness filter allows for harder edges on objects, most visibly close to camera. Framerate essentially locked 30fps.



Unless an unwavering framerate is your number one concern, I'd suggest option A. If you're willing to turn the Sharpness up on your TV for just this game, and have to turn it down again after, you can even add some of the benefit of option B without losing much.



However, that's based on my preferences. What you should actually do is try out both options extensively, and choose whichever you honestly prefer.



As always, I appreciate your attention, and let me know if you have any questions, comments, or input on adding games. Thanks!