[0:03] Bloodborne, the game, the legend. The
[0:06] pervading sense that somehow PlayStation
[0:09] 5 users should be enjoying a massively
[0:12] upgraded experience over the original
[0:14] PS4 presentation. 1080p, 30 frames pers,
[0:19] inconsistent frame pacing. It's a
[0:21] brilliant release, ripe for improvement,
[0:24] and yet boosts over the PS4 showing on
[0:26] PS5 are minimal. A proper remaster seems
[0:29] to be off the table for some reason, but
[0:31] surely there are options. Which leads me
[0:34] to this. Bloodborne in high resolution,
[0:37] 60 frames pers, improved latency,
[0:40] meaning tighter controls, the removal of
[0:43] a heavy chromatic aberration, lens
[0:45] distortion effect, a much cleaner
[0:48] presentation. You'd perhaps think we're
[0:50] using the Shad PS4 emulator running on
[0:53] PC to achieve all of this, but that's
[0:54] not the case. though. Actually, some of
[0:56] the work that went into that definitely
[0:58] helps. But the footage you're seeing
[1:00] here, I guarantee you, is captured from
[1:02] a retail PlayStation 5 console, albeit
[1:05] one running on much older firmware,
[1:09] exploited, patched with system level
[1:11] improvements made to PlayStation 4
[1:14] support, meaning that what you're seeing
[1:16] is one interpretation of Bloodborne
[1:19] running on PlayStation 5. And the story
[1:21] of how we got here is fascinating. This
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[2:36] So, apart from the obvious interest in
[2:38] showing exactly what Bloodborne looks
[2:40] like running enhanced on PlayStation 5,
[2:43] why put this video together? Well, the
[2:45] most recent PlayStation 4 enhanced on
[2:47] PS5 game I tested was Assassin's Creed
[2:50] Unity, and it proves that older games
[2:53] still have a large role to play in the
[2:55] current generation. But, um, these
[2:57] releases have been slowing down. What
[3:00] we're showing here is a proof of concept
[3:02] for improving those legacy games with
[3:05] minimal developer input but maximum
[3:08] impact. This isn't just back compat uh
[3:11] but enhanced back compat taken to a
[3:13] level that Sony itself hasn't delivered
[3:16] but possibly could and that includes
[3:18] incorporating modern console features.
[3:21] So what do I mean by that? Well, here's
[3:23] a preview of what we're going to be
[3:24] doing in this video. Here we've got the
[3:27] PlayStation 5 running Bloodborne in 120
[3:30] Hz mode, and we're able to turn on VRR
[3:33] at the game's stock 1080p resolution.
[3:36] Bloodborne, the original PS4 code,
[3:38] remember, uh just with mere patches in
[3:41] place with no major recoding. Well, now
[3:43] it's becoming a high frame rate
[3:46] experience. Typically running in excess
[3:48] of 100 frames pers, VRR smoothing out
[3:51] the dips. Kind of seems unbelievable,
[3:54] right? Well, here we are in the
[3:55] PlayStation 5 video settings screen
[3:58] confirming the signal output before we
[4:00] drop back in game. The game in question
[4:02] being Bloodborne. This is the real deal.
[4:05] So, how is this possible? Essentially,
[4:07] the modder Christina is using an
[4:10] exploitable PlayStation 5 retail console
[4:13] and extra memory has been patched in uh
[4:16] for PlayStation 4 games to take
[4:18] advantage of. and CPU and GPU clocks are
[4:21] also being boosted to the maximum
[4:24] frequencies available. Something that
[4:26] doesn't happen with current back compat.
[4:28] So with those patches in place, first
[4:31] order of business from my perspective
[4:33] was to see what kind of experience could
[4:35] be delivered. Well, basic stuff here,
[4:37] but why not play Bloodborne at native
[4:39] 4K? Now, regular Digital Foundry viewers
[4:42] may recall a video we did way back in
[4:44] the day where Christina replaced From
[4:46] Software's 30fps cap with Sony's own
[4:50] half rate VSYNC library. This increased
[4:52] latency, but banished Bloodborne's
[4:55] juttering frame rate issues once and for
[4:57] all. The same patch is used here in
[4:59] addition to 4K resolution and light grid
[5:02] global illumination optimizations. Uh,
[5:05] initially I wasn't too happy with the
[5:07] look of the game, so another mod comes
[5:08] into play. We've removed chromatic
[5:11] aberration. Now, what we can't do is
[5:14] improve anti-aliasing. There's still a
[5:16] lot of shimmering artifacts here.
[5:18] Bloodborne comes from a time before TAA
[5:21] was a thing, so we're kind of stuck on
[5:23] that front. But removing chromatic
[5:25] aberration does deemphasize the issue a
[5:27] little. So, in effect, what we have is
[5:30] what you might call a quality mode for a
[5:32] potential Bloodborne patch with two
[5:35] visual artifacts addressed. the
[5:37] bothersome lens effects and the
[5:38] inconsistent delivery of frames. One
[5:41] other thing caught my eye during my
[5:43] testing. In-game typography seems to
[5:46] scale with resolution, presumably via
[5:49] vector-based fonts. We've boosted
[5:51] resolution here, but text actually holds
[5:54] up rather well. HUD elements though, the
[5:56] bit maps, they still seem to be 1080p.
[5:59] Still look okay though overall, though
[6:01] larger icons do stand out a touch.
[6:04] Performance-wise, we're basically
[6:06] running at a locked 30 frames per
[6:07] second, properly paced. Sounds simple
[6:10] from a modding perspective perhaps, but
[6:12] that extra memory, the extra 4 GB
[6:14] dedicated to the title is required to
[6:17] get a native 4K frame buffer running.
[6:20] Extra CPU and GPU clocks ensure the
[6:22] level of consistency that we're seeing
[6:23] here. But my guess is that many users
[6:26] may prefer a different kind of balance
[6:28] between resolution and performance. So,
[6:30] let's do something that current PS4 back
[6:32] compact can't do and factor in two
[6:35] different system level features. First
[6:37] of all, 120 Hz. Well, I guess we have
[6:40] seen 120 Hz support added to a PS4 app
[6:44] running on PS5. Call of Duty War Zone
[6:47] did it back in the day before native
[6:49] Quintupal support was forthcoming. Turns
[6:52] out that from a modding perspective, 120
[6:55] Hz is quite easy to implement as is. And
[6:59] well, crucially, we've got our second
[7:00] feature added to the mix, VRR. So, if we
[7:04] unlock Bloodborne frame rate at 1440p,
[7:07] uh, we're generally performing beyond 60
[7:10] frames pers, sometimes moving into the
[7:12] 70s. You wouldn't experience a vastly
[7:15] different experience to 1440p 60 locked
[7:17] with VSYNC in terms of visual fluidity,
[7:21] but you would gain further reductions in
[7:23] input lag. But once we start engaging
[7:25] with effects heavy boss sequences and
[7:28] basically anything that throws around a
[7:30] lot of volumetrics, even standard
[7:32] gameplay, frame rates can dip beneath 60
[7:35] frames per second. The good news at
[7:36] least is that for the vast majority of
[7:38] play, we are above 48 fps, meaning that
[7:41] we remain within the PS5's VRR window,
[7:45] even when there's some pretty crazy
[7:47] stuff playing out on screen. But let's
[7:49] finalize the 120 Hz VRR tests with a
[7:52] look at 1080p, the native resolution of
[7:55] the PS4 version, and where we almost hit
[7:57] a 4x multiplier in performance terms.
[8:00] Well, actually, the numbers suggest uh
[8:02] something closer to a 3.5x boost to
[8:05] pixel throughput with 105 frames pers.
[8:09] Dropped frames basically unnoticeable
[8:11] with adaptive sync support. Yes,
[8:14] dropping down to full HD isn't ideal, of
[8:16] course, but it's not as if full HD is
[8:18] actually a thing of the past in the
[8:19] modern era. And the frame rate benefits
[8:22] are obvious. More to the point, it's a
[8:24] PS4 game that has an associated
[8:26] expectation level. Nobody is expecting
[8:29] like a full-on PS5 experience here. Uh,
[8:32] one final point about VLR support. As
[8:34] seen here, support for low frame rate
[8:36] compensation requires bespoke developer
[8:39] input from the SDK. at 120 hertz here.
[8:42] We need to keep frame rates in a 48 to
[8:45] 120 fps window to see the benefit. And
[8:48] yeah, thankfully that's not an issue
[8:49] here at 1080p. And even when pushing
[8:52] into boss territory with all the effects
[8:55] work in play that made 1440p drop
[8:57] beneath 60fps doesn't seem to bother the
[9:00] PS5 here at full HD.
[9:03] 120 Hz VR. Now, that's a very cool
[9:06] thing, of course, but I'd bet good money
[9:07] that if the PS5 audience and Bloodborne
[9:10] fans were asked for their opinions. None
[9:13] of the options seen so far would be the
[9:15] ideal onesizefits-all solution. 4K 30,
[9:20] 120 Hz, and VRR file those under nice to
[9:23] have as opposed to having one option
[9:25] that offers a good balance of um yeah,
[9:28] pixel counts and performance. Similar to
[9:31] back compat patches we've seen in the
[9:33] past like The Last of Us Part Two and
[9:35] Days Gone. Uh just to name a couple,
[9:37] chances are there'd be one single locks
[9:40] configuration. Just to keep things
[9:41] simple, the footage we've seen so far
[9:44] suggests that 1440p is that best all
[9:47] round answer. And actually playing
[9:49] Bloodborne at 1440p with a frame rate
[9:51] cap removed basically gives users a
[9:54] highly compelling option. With chromatic
[9:56] aberration off, the visuals hold up
[9:59] very, very nicely at this resolution,
[10:01] while gameplay is so so smooth with
[10:03] significant input lag reductions
[10:05] compared to the standard 30fps. We've
[10:07] shown Bloodborne running in the past at
[10:10] 60, right, way back when PS5 launched
[10:12] actually, but to get that alongside a
[10:15] 78% increase to resolution would be a
[10:17] massive crowd-pleaser. And that's kind
[10:19] of what we're showing here. Now, most of
[10:21] the game segments we played ran very
[10:24] well indeed. locked to the required
[10:26] frame rate. But yeah, those heavy
[10:28] transparency elements cause problems.
[10:30] And as we've already seen, performance
[10:32] can drop beneath 60 frames per second,
[10:35] typically within a 50 to 60 window here,
[10:38] which isn't totally ideal, but again,
[10:40] perhaps the best balance overall between
[10:42] visual fidelity and frame rate. Yeah,
[10:44] the more you look at some of these crazy
[10:46] boss fights, the more dips you may see.
[10:48] And uh in my testing, I just looked at
[10:50] the first five or so confrontations. I
[10:53] mean, there is another route forward, I
[10:55] guess. Taking a page out of Assassin's
[10:57] Creed Unity's recent 60fps patch, we
[11:01] downsized resolution to 1296p,
[11:04] and it did seem to solve pretty much all
[11:06] of the frame rate drops. It still looks
[11:08] presentable, of course, but maybe just a
[11:11] cut too far. I mean 1440p is stable for
[11:14] the majority of play and based on my
[11:16] experiments with the patches here. It
[11:18] looks like if 120 Hz and VR are
[11:21] disabled, you get 1440p at 60 Hz anyway.
[11:25] So maybe one mode can serve two
[11:27] audiences there. But let's talk
[11:30] viability here of all of this actually
[11:32] happening cuz it's pretty exciting
[11:34] stuff, right? What would actually need
[11:36] to happen for a demonstration like this
[11:39] to become a reality? First of all, at
[11:41] the system level, PlayStation 4 titles
[11:43] on PS5 would need that extra memory to
[11:46] run higher resolutions. Bloodborne at
[11:49] 1440p on standard PS5 memory allocation
[11:52] isn't stable. Native 4K, forget it.
[11:55] Optionally, access to PS5 level CPU and
[11:58] GPU clocks would certainly aid and
[12:01] stabilize performance. Finally, a lot of
[12:03] these games aren't receiving updates
[12:05] because they were developed on ancient
[12:07] SDKs, while porting them to the latest
[12:10] SDK just isn't viable. That being the
[12:13] case, there would need to be a system
[12:15] level patching system um similar to
[12:18] what's being used here to produce these
[12:20] impressive results. That's a fair amount
[12:23] of upfront effort for Sony. But I think
[12:26] we've demonstrated the win here. And
[12:28] let's just say that it's not just
[12:30] Bloodborne that stands to benefit.
[12:32] There's a whole range of PS4 games that
[12:34] could gain a new lease of life with this
[12:37] sort of system in place. So, that's the
[12:39] end of the video almost because we still
[12:42] have some outstanding questions that
[12:44] we're looking into. Do games built with
[12:46] PS4 Pro support benefit from access to
[12:49] extra compute units on PS5? Uh, cuz we
[12:51] kind of expected more from Bloodborne
[12:53] than a 4x boost to pixel throughput.
[12:55] Remember, Bloodborne isn't pro enabled.
[12:58] We've also noticed that the AC Unity
[13:01] patch for PS5 actually adds PS4 Pro
[13:04] support. It just doesn't do anything on
[13:06] actual PS4 Pro hardware. So, I'd imagine
[13:09] that 4 Pro functionality may add a
[13:11] little extra memory. But, is anything
[13:13] else going on there? We just don't know
[13:15] at the moment, but we want to find out.
[13:17] Meanwhile, are CPU and GPU clocks
[13:20] different from standard back compat?
[13:22] Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. We're
[13:23] going to need to look into that as well.
[13:25] I'll level with you. I'm still kind of
[13:27] baffled that AC Unity on Xbox Series X
[13:30] runs at a much higher resolution than
[13:32] PS5 when in current gen titles the two
[13:35] systems are so closely matched. These
[13:38] are questions we'll hopefully answer
[13:39] another time, but for now, please do
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[14:03] more. But that's all from me for now.
[14:05] Thanks for watching and supporting
[14:07] Digital Foundry.