The Xbox Series X, being fully DirectX 12 Ultimate compliant, will support Variable Rate Shading. VRS will likely be supported by PlayStation 5 as well, as some developers suggested in the past few weeks, but the feature hasn't been talked about much. According to the console's former Principal Software Engineer, there's a good reason behind the lack of discussion.
On his Twitter profile, Matt Hargett addressed the lack of VRS discussion, highlighting how it's hard to talk about it because the degree to which it will help performance will vary not only per game but possibly per scene per game.
Matt Hargett also revealed that there are many things that haven't shown up in the leaks so far and that there are plenty of secrets that are being well kept.
The former PlayStation 5 Principal Software Engineer also
commented on the differences between the next-gen consoles, saying that each platform has its unique strengths and weaknesses.
We haven’t heard from every game creator on the planet who is developing against latest DVT kits. Each platform has its unique strengths and weaknesses on a hardware level, so it’s a matter of preference — not hard fact.
The PlayStation 5 is going to play select PlayStation 4 titles at launch.
Last week, Digital Foundry released an analysis of the console's backward compatibility based on what it is known so far, highlighting some of the games that may run better on the upcoming next-gen console, such Dark Souls 3 and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Both games run with an uncapped framerate on PlayStation 4 Pro, so the much better CPU of the PlayStation 5 will likely make them both run at a steady 60 FPS.
The PlayStation 5 launches later this year worldwide. We will keep you updated on it as soon as more come in on it, so stay tuned for all the latest news.
