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Building PSSR Was A Future-Proofing Investment, As Mark Cerny Sees Massive Push For Ray Tracing And Machine Learning In PS6

It was a normal Wednesday for PlayStation fans, until it wasn’t, because Mark Cerny started talking about the PS5 Pro, the nitty and gritty details around its hardware, what the thinking was that went into its design, and how this thought process will then inform the future, which of course is PlayStation 6.

There’s a lot about what Cerny shared that’s notable, in his nearly 40 minute long breakdown of the PS5 Pro’s hardware and software improvements, and in the interviews he did with Eurogamer and Digital Foundry.

When it comes to talking about specific PS6 technologies, that looks to be coming from Project Amethyst. But it’s not the only part of Cerny’s presentation that had to do with the future.

One of the key takeaways from Cerny’s presentation (which you can view below) is how he sees technologies like machine learning and ray tracing being a part of the future, as Eurogamer puts it, “Cerny sees a future where machine learning plays a key role in console design…he sees vast scaling in ray tracing capabilities going forward.”

Cerny’s thinking here is precisely why PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) was built, and it’s clear through how he discusses PSSR’s uses in games today, and the potential for it in the future, that the investment made by PlayStation to build its own AI-upscaling technology was a means of future-proofing PlayStation’s software tech for future hardware.

Machine learning, or to call it by another name, AI-upscaling, or by another name, PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, is clearly a giant part of the future in Cerny’s eyes.

More efficient machine learning technologies used in upscaling graphics and making games look better without them needing to sustain high base resolutions could do wonders for allowing game developers to focus on other parts of the process of making a game, and allow them to do so much more with the console hardware they have to work with.

Of course Cerny puts it best himself, when discussing machine learning and building PSSR in his presentation, saying,

“Looking back at the four years since we started this project, I’m so glad that we made the time-intensive decision to build our own technology. Results are good, and just as importantly we’ve learned so much about how AI can improve game graphics. It can only make our future brighter.”

Source – [PlayStation, Eurogamer]