Avatar: The Most Notable PS5 Pro Patch That Surpasses Even the Most Controversial Titles

In this week’s DF Notify Weekly, we discuss the rumored PlayStation handheld (spoiler: it might not support native PS5 titles). However, our second news topic of the week is one I intend to elaborate on further today. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora has been released on PlayStation 5 Pro, and its specifications appear impressive – you’re getting the typical visual quality of the base console version at 60fps. However, there is one caveat: the Pro version looks significantly worse than the standard console’s quality mode, and even its performance mode has some visual advantages over the Pro version. So, what is the point?

We should expect to see some outlier games with the launch of any upgraded console – titles that don’t seem to deliver on their potential. In fact, we witnessed this with the debut of PlayStation 4 Pro back in 2016. If I recall correctly, The Last of Us Remastered struggled to maintain a higher frame rate on Pro compared to the original PS4 – and Watch Dogs 2 faced similar challenges. Nonetheless, these were generally exceptions and were quickly addressed through patches. While the quality of Pro versions can vary greatly, a visibly inferior presentation was not typically an issue – yet that’s clearly happening with PS5 Pro. An increasing number of titles are currently impacted, prompting many users to request the ability to run PS5 Pro-enabled games without the Pro features. This way, the games could operate with the base model settings while only leveraging the increased CPU and GPU power of the new console.

My personal opinion here is that this is a temporary “solution” of sorts to a problem that is often remedied in the medium term. However, to tackle the issue, we need to focus on Sony’s machine learning-based upscaling technology: PlayStation Spectral Resolution, or PSSR. This essentially represents the PlayStation team’s answer to Nvidia DLSS or Intel XeSS, where inputs from the game engine and a lower resolution are processed through a neural network, resulting in an output optimized for a 4K display.

• 0:00:00 Introduction
• 0:01:19 Topic 1: Potential PlayStation handheld in development
• 0:18:08 Topic 2: Avatar PS5 Pro update reveals PSSR issues
• 0:31:25 Topic 3: Star Wars Outlaws patch introduces PC fixes
• 0:37:47 Topic 4: Intel Arc B580 GPU leak
• 0:49:42 Topic 5: Light of Motiram draws heavy inspiration from Horizon
• 1:00:47 Topic 6: Valve celebrates Half-Life 2’s 20th anniversary with a patch and new documentary
• 1:19:42 Topic 7: Dynasty Warriors Origins demo released
• 1:25:31 Topic 8: Spotlight on Brazil Pixel
• 1:36:33 Fan Q1: Will CD Projekt Red be able to fix UE5 stuttering?
• 1:44:08 Fan Q2: How will Microsoft manage their trade if Steam can run on Xbox?
• 1:51:21 Fan Q3: Why does Windows 11 cause so many issues?
• 2:01:58 Fan Q4: Why haven’t we heard more about a PS5 Pro update for Black Myth: Wukong?
• 2:07:45 Fan Q5: How does Nintendo avoid technical issues in their games?
• 2:14:19 Fan Q6: What would a hypothetical PS3 Pro look like?

PSSR has yielded many impressive results: Stellar Blade looks absolutely stunning, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has undergone a transformation, while all of Insomniac’s titles receive substantial enhancements thanks to PSSR. There are several others, including Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part 1, among others. However, Silent Hill 2 has had – and continues to have – issues despite being patched, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor can appear markedly undesirable at times, and Star Wars Outlaws also has some serious concerns. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is particularly affected, as PSSR struggles with transparency effects – especially foliage – and seems to have quality issues with ray tracing inputs. It has also shown a significant drop in quality as the upscaling factor increases. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora seems to function within a dynamic resolution range of 720p to 1800p, which, when combined with foliage and ray tracing, creates a ‘three horsemen of the apocalypse’ effect, ultimately rendering the game less visually appealing on Pro compared to the standard console.

As it stands, there is a sentiment that PSSR could be just as detrimental to a game’s presentation as it can be advantageous – and that’s

In a scenario where you are marketing a premium enhanced console upgrade to the most enthusiastic supporters within your community, the standard is exceptionally clear: a Pro-enhanced game must not and cannot be released if it performs worse than the standard version. In terms of measurable metrics, frame rates must not be lower, and to be fair, we have yet to witness anything comparable from Pro hardware so far. However, challenges arise when it comes to image quality, which is often evaluated more subjectively. That being said, Avatar is losing significant detail due to PSSR ‘noise,’ and a straightforward A to B comparison should suffice. Foliage (as seen in Jedi: Survivor) or RTAO (from Dragon’s Dogma 2) should not exhibit noticeable flickering when they perform smoothly on the regular PS5. Ultimately, the question must be asked: can developers not see what is going wrong here?

We have frequently addressed a clear vulnerability in QA that allows for ‘easy to fix’ yet impactful issues to slip into the final code – which remains a concern – but what we are seeing is a general failure to recognize and address superficial elements. It is incredibly puzzling to consider how the worst of the Pro concerns ever reached consumers, suggesting that developers may be overburdened and that QA is indeed insufficient. At this stage, there is also a case to be made that the platform holders themselves should take more responsibility, as it does not reflect well on their own hardware.

There has been some implicit acknowledgment that PSSR is not the complete answer at the moment and might be implemented more sparingly. Guerrilla Games chose not to use it for its Horizon titles, delivering what we believe to be the best image quality seen in any console game. Likewise, both Santa Monica Studio and Polyphony Digital have provided commendable PSSR support but have also allowed the option to revert to previous upscaling methods. Meanwhile, in the case of Fortnite on PS5 Pro, Epic Games has opted to retain its own TSR upscale.