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Assassin's Creed Shadows is a game with
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pretty extreme expectations it's the
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first Mainline series entry since 2020s
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AC Valhalla the first AC game built
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exclusively for current genen consoles
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and it's a game that probably needs to
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be a big commercial success for baguer
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publisher Ubisoft we've seen how the
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game meets technical expectations on the
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original Trio of current genen consoles
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but this is a title with some
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substantial Pro enhancement
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highlighted by additional rate tracing
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so how does AC Shadows fa on Pro is this
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an iterative upgrade or revolutionary
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one Shadows has one of the largest Pro
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upgrades we've seen so far the key mode
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here is the performance mode and the Big
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Boost comes down to rtgi the pro has it
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and the PS5 doesn't the PS5 Pro gets a
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lavish p mass of per pixel rtgi bouncing
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light through each space to capture a
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realistic indirect diffuse lighting
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response in a lot of scenes the game is
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totally transformed just look at how
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accurately shaded the barrels are here
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how pockets of shade Bloom towards the
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base of the bamboo stocks the game just
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looks so great on PS5 Pro in these
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instances the PS5 in contrast looks
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overly flat and compressed during these
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scenes with a more uniform lighting
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response foliage is a particular sore
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point the ps5s lighting solution fails
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to capture the subtle occlusion you get
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from Bunches of leafy Greenery giving it
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a dull artificial look running through
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this Forest Area the difference is
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unbelievably vast with a generational
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divide in lighting Fidelity the base
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console is apparently using an evolution
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of the baked GI solution from prior
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Anvil engine titles but it largely fails
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to capture the kind of lighting detail
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that we've seen in recent Assassin's
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Creed games like 2023 is Mirage Shadows
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is a much larger game and achieving good
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lighting Fidelity without rtgi is more
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challenging Shadows baked GI also
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doesn't adapt to changes in the
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environment like when we open and close
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this door unlike the pro code the
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addition of rtgi is ultimately a pretty
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huge uplift over the base console in a
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lot of lighting conditions the PS5 pro
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version almost looks like a totally
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different game but one consequence of
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that rtgi call is that image quality on
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Pro isn't really improved over the base
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machine both suffer from considerable
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pixel crawl even at rest blocky patterns
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emerge on moving edges and
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transparencies are poorly upscaled with
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obvious signs of a low resolution Source
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I've disabled chromatic aberration and
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motion blur for these comparisons to
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provide the clearest picture Ubisoft
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stated pre-launch that both PS5 Pro and
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PS5 in their performance modes would use
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an upscaling process to hit 4K and that
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seems to be borne out by the final code
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as well the upsampling produces somewhat
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variable results though in terms of
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achieving a sharp 4K appearance internal
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resolutions and light scenes on both
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consoles hovered around 1080p in
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gameplay in my tests the rtgi is
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apparently eating up most of the
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additional margin of GPU time on the pro
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but some of ubisoft's pre-launch pro
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promises haven't quite materialized in
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the finished game Ubisoft said that the
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game would use pssr upscaling on Pro in
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press material published last September
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but the pro version of the game doesn't
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carry the Hallmarks of pssr upscaling
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the secluded detail is fizzly not
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blurred The Edge detail is very sharp
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and in general the image has artifacting
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that is more in line with analytical
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techniques than machine learning based
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ones the most obvious evidence of course
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is just the fact that the PS5 and pro
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look so incredibly similar in image
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quality terms in my tests the PC version
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with Anvil's taau proves a pretty close
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match for both ps5s
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so it looks like that's the solution of
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choice on both consoles presumably
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Ubisoft found this was a better solution
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in total for the game and pssr Beyond
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the rate tracing boost on Pro the game
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has pretty similar visual settings on
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both machines draw distances Shadow
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resolution and other common tweakables
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seem to be about the same on both
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consoles frame rates here landed at
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consistent 60fps there are exceptions
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some moments in the introductory
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sequence cause significant frame rate
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drops and occasionally open world
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reversal can provoke a minor dip cut
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scenes run at 30 FPS as does The Hideout
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area The Hideout presumably runs at a
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lower update to accommodate the
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potential for greater player created
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complexity and to provide space for the
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addition of rtgi on the base PS5
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sometimes moving the camera rapidly can
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also cause a slight frame rate drop
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where I think the game's DRS system is
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just not quite keeping pace for that
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moment the base console is very similar
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in my experience logging frame rate dips
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of a similar magnitude in the same
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moments that's kind of surprising given
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that Ray tracing often imposes
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substantial CPU demands it's common for
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PS5 pro games with Ray tracing to run at
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a slightly choppier clip than their more
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heavily rasterized PS5 counterparts
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overall I think AC Shadows is
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tremendously improved on Pro even if
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image quality and performance remain
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imperfect the addition of rtgi is an
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absolute GameChanger here if possible it
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would be nice to see rtgi on the base
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console even if it meant taking a big
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Clarity hit or other settings
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compromises Shadows really feels like it
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was built with rtgi tech as a visual
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[Music]
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Baseline but there is one bit of rate
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tracing nicity that neither console gets
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in performance mode the reflections look
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good when you can simply rely on SR but
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when we push the camera down here we get
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the usual basic Cub map fallback which
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is of aligned poorly and low resolution
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the PS5 Pro doesn't provide RTI
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Reflections to fix this in the
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performance mode unfortunately but
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quality mode is a different story here
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we see another rate tracing split
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between the consoles both have rtgi but
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only the PS5 Pro gets RT Reflections in
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practice though the effectiveness of the
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reflections is a bit limited there isn't
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much detail in the reflections revealing
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a fairly crude approximation of the
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world in the bvh even on AIP water
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surface it's evident that the Fidelity
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to actual in-game assets isn't really
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there it's kind of hard to tell at times
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but foliage doesn't appear to animate in
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the reflections as well the biggest
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issue here though is that the AR
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Reflections suffer from a lot of Poppin
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it can be quite distracting further a
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field the RTI Reflections are colorless
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textureless Silhouettes and very distant
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geometry isn't represented at all
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perhaps as a consequence Shadows mainly
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relies on an SSR technique to fill in
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specular detail on water surfaces even
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when RT Reflections are turned on more
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granular detail including skinned
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objects are represented only in screen
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space I do think that the rate tracing
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is a decent perspective correct fallback
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to use when screen space information
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isn't available but it doesn't seem to
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make an especially transformative
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difference most of the time outside of
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the RT Reflections Divergence other
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visual settings appear fairly similar
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rtgi is present on both machines and
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generally looks pretty comparable at
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times though there are some pretty
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substantial improvements from the added
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specular detail on Pro from the
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additional Ray tracing other tweakables
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seem pretty similar across both machines
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without an obvious Divergence in my
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tests image quality is generally
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comparable across both machines neither
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is perfect they both offer a less
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artifact written image than their
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performance mode counterparts I expect
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taou is again in use here owing to the
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similar image quality quirks between the
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various mode and console configurations
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resolution is between the two machines
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though I spotted a small Pro advantage
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in the shots I counted performance is
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very good here expect a lock 30 FPS in
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the vast majority of gameplay including
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cutcenes battle sequences traversal and
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The Hideout the game can drop a frame in
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some circumstances but it's generally a
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very consistent performer base PS5
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offers essentially the same update here
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with strong performance as well if we
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Circle back to the performance mode and
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compare the two PS5 Pro modes directly
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there are some obvious settings
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differences Shadow resolution is
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upgraded in the quality mode as its
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foliage density performance mode also
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appears to drop the game strand based
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hair during gameplay though it is
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present in cutcenes in both modes rtgi
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is present at a similar quality level in
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the two modes but only the quality mode
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features RT Reflections as well image
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quality is another key area of
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Divergence as the quality mode is less
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prone to pixel crawling serrated edges
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and other visual Gremlins it can also
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appear slly sharper in some
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circumstances too but there is one final
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mode available on Pro a 40fps mode
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that's only available at 120 HZ output
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in a lot of games this would basically
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function as a slightly downgraded
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quality mode but here it's more like an
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extended performance mode rtgi is in but
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RT Reflections are out interestingly
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this is another shift from some of the
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pre-launch press materials which said
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that the balanced mod on Pro would
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feature both rtfx elsewhere the visual
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selecta come in somewhere between the
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other two modes quality mode and
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balanced mode both use strand based hair
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during gameplay for instance but Shadow
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map resolution in balanced mode is
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similar to the performance mode relative
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to the PS5 balanced mode where basically
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at parody here in terms of visual
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settings both have rtgi no RT
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Reflections and fall on the same side of
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the hair rendering and Shadow map divide
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I can't really compare image quality
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directly owing to capture limitation on
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my capture system but pixel counts do
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suggest a higher resolution on Pro and
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it does look cleaner as well both are
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upsampling to 4K so they produce a sharp
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final image both consoles basically nail
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their 40fps updates here with a
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consistent 40fps in typical play again
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there are two main exceptions cutcenes
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and The Hideout area both of which run
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at 30
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FPS I came away from Assassin's Creed
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Shadows really impressed with the
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technical package that Ubisoft has
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assembled there's so many neat technical
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touches here from the dynamic wind and
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particle systems that make the world
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feel alive to the Metal Gear Rising
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Stell environmental slicing to the
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headlining virtualized geometry and rtgi
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effects Shadows presents a beautifully
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realized open world environment that
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really draws you in and it's up there
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with the most convincing worlds in video
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games it's a lot of fun to play as well
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with simple but satisfying combat that
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is delightfully visceral the PS5 pro
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upgrade here is pretty enormous in its
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60fps performance mode which honestly
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looks generationally improved over its
00:11:13
space console counterpart the rtgi does
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seem to have a considerable performance
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impact here but it's absolutely critical
00:11:19
for lighting in this particular title
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it's hard to overstate how diminished
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the game is without the technique
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quality mode and balanced mode get more
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moderate boost
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the headlining change here is the
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addition of RT Reflections which do make
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Reflections look more accurate when
00:11:36
screen space information isn't available
00:11:38
ultimately though the performance mode
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offers a really compelling combination
00:11:43
of visual quality and good frame rates
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that's hard to beat and I suspect that's
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what most players will prefer in that
00:11:49
context this is possibly the most
00:11:52
transformative PS5 pro upgrade we've
00:11:55
seen so far if you enjoyed this video
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