You’ll be able to apply the PlayStation 5’s fancy new Variable Refresh Rate technology to all of your new-gen games when it deploys later this week, but Insomniac Games has already pushed out patches for Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart so that they’re ready to take advantage of the feature from day one.
As you’d expect from the sleepless studio, there are no cut corners here: “Because our titles are already built to have very stable framerates, the main effect of the VRR system setting will be to slightly increase dynamic image resolution targets,” the studio explained. In other words, when VRR is active, the studio’s titles will push higher dynamic resolutions across all graphics settings, because any minor framerate issues incurred will be cleaned up by the new technology.
There’s more, though: “If your TV also supports 120Hz high framerate input and the 120Hz Display Mode option is active along with VRR, you will get a variable, uncapped framerate that can exceed your chosen Graphics Mode’s 30fps or 60fps target by 50 per cent or more (depending on gameplay).” So, effectively, you’re getting faster, uncapped framerates with the same image quality of the standard graphics settings – again, cleaned up by VRR.
As mentioned previously, you will need a compatible television and an HDMI 2.1 cable (included with your PS5 console) in order to take advantage of all these fancy new features. Hopefully this helps to explain why some titles are optimised for VRR, though. With unsupported games, you’ll simply see minor framerate issues cleaned up with no changes to the core experience – but here, Insomniac Games has put some extra wizardry to work.
[source support.insomniac.games]
Comments 36
Insomniac Games. The Jewel in Sony's Crown.
Insomniac is insane, man. They're actually using this to push some of the best looking games on the PS5 that little bit harder.
And they're ready to go day one.
Incredible studio. 👏
So will this work with games like Bloodborne? I'm still a little confused
@Nepp67 I haven't actually seen anything about PS4 games but in theory it should. It's worth noting, though, that this isn't magic dust that will suddenly make Bloodborne 120fps or something... What it will do, though, is make the stutters and inconsistencies at 30fps harder to see.
Insomniac the studio that never sleeps!
This is why I'm glad I waited on replaying both Spider-Man games!
I plan on replaying both games a few months before Spider-Man 2 releases, whatever date in 2023 that ends up being.
@KidBoruto Nice! I imagine the differences will be minimal to the naked eye, but it's cool that Insomniac is using this to squeeze even more juice out of such beautiful games!
@Nepp67 Bloodborne has a different problem - it's capped at 30 fps but the cap is implemented in a janky way. VRR can't fix that unfortunately.
To be honest the 120fps modes on AAA games all have a SIGNIFICANT graphics downgrade, you’d need to really favour frame rate over graphics to want to play most of these at that setting. An interesting experiment but not a very sensible trade off for most.
60fps + RT still the sweet spot and runs like a dream.
@themightyant These are 40fps modes though (they need a 120hz display to be properly synced up with the screen's refresh cycle).
Ratchet had this already and apparently it looks like the 30 fps fidelity mode (aka amazing) but the framerate difference is already noticeable.
Insomniac continues to prove that Sony made the one of the best purchases ever.
Such a great studio, dethroning Naughty Dog as the best PlayStation studio is no easy task. But with both speed (and no crunch that I know of), high quality development and post release support, they clearly show that they are not only are the best at what they do but they also care deeply about the games they make. That's all you can ask for from these people.
Insomniac really do live up to their name sake, they are incredibly talented and are very efficient. To think Sony paid basically nothing for them if compared to all other purchases by either Sony or Microsoft.
These guys are simply insane.
Nr. 1 Ps Studio. I think they have overtaken Naughty dog as well in terms of their engine.
@get2sammyb That's to be expected but I'll turn it on BB to see if it stays at a consistent frame rate
Happy to try out VRR with miles and Rift Apart this week
Still don’t quite understand.. I have a 1080p 144hz monitor , will VRR take any advantage at all ? Or does it only work on hmdi 2.1?
Excited, my TV is ready for this.
Got the 120hz and got the VRR. So raring to go... if only I had a PS5. 😕
@iStarkill Unfortunately you need the 2.1 HDMI as it's actually a built in feature of that.
Nice one, I have had a LG C1 since last September, and will look forward to trying the feature out when I upgrade to next Gen, well it is actually current Gen now lol
@PoeticJustice
Insomniac excel at productivity and they make really great games. I’d also say they are probably more diverse/versatile at this point than Naughty Dog.
But Naughty Dog is still unmatched in regard to attention to detail and level of polish among PlayStation studios.
@Voltan unfortunately VRR tech currently doesn’t work at lower frame rates and requires around 40-50fps minimum so a 40fps game dropping below this level isn’t going to benefit here.
But yes the 40fps mode is great and in terms of frame time is exactly half way between 30 and 60fps so is a nice sweet spot for both gfx and FPS
Insomniac is really incredible. I hope they can decide work in a RPG title one day. That would be epic.
@Nepp67 The game logic is tied to the framerate, and they capped it at 30 fps. This is why we won't see the game getting a boost from PS5's power or VRR without a major patch from FromSoft. Simply uncapping the frame rate would break the physics of the game.
@DeepSpace5D
I agree with this statement - to an extent. While Naughty Dog have the best polish I've ever seen in any video game I would also argue that the games are slower paced and linear which allows for more attention to detail than a fast paced open world game just by nature. Although think about spider-man's dynamic lighting/weather (something neither Uncharted or TLoU has), pedestrians, the massive city, open world events, the many skills/abilities, the swinging... Also I can't really say that Insomniac are any worse at polish. I didn't buy either spider-man game immediately so I probably can't judge this accurately.
Not taking away anything from Naughty Dog though because their stories to me are more memorable. Also face animations are hands down the best in the business. But if I had to say which developer holds the crown it would be Insomniac because of the unmatched productivity.
@themightyant You’re misunderstanding what they did there. The 40 fps mode works at a stable 40 on all 120hz screen but becomes uncapped and goes above 40 if VRR is enabled.
The 60 fps mode also becomes uncapped to deliver frame rates over 60 if you have a 120 Hz screen with VRR.
@Voltan True but how often is the game going to perform significantly above what it's tuned for at 40fps or 60fps to really make this noticeable. Plus the game already holds a very stable framerate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXi7uO7wxdc
I already have VRR on Series X and have played with it both on and off. My point is that it does help in a few games, particularly those that can't hold a stable framerate, but not on most that already holds a very stable framerate. People talk about it like it's a magic silver bullet but it's really not, just trying to set expectations accordingly.
@themightyant Oh yeah, it’s a feature that’s surely overrated by internet warriors - most likely because only one of the consoles have it until now. I expect to hear a lot less about VRR after it launches on PS5
@themightyant furthermore the statement from Sony that „it will boost performance“ is a bit misleading. It’s not wrong because when the framerate is uncapped it can succeed the capped framerate of course in some Momentes but people shouldn’t expect that VRR will boost performance in any magic way in their games.
@Voltan To be clear I think it's a decent feature when it works and if it fixes/improves Elden Ring alone then it's worth it. I'm happy it's here. But also want to set expectation accordingly.
Additionally this is one of the times where I don't trust people like Digital Foundry. They are so hyper-sensitive to the most minor of frame rate issues that they talk about it like it's the holy grail. But for the vast majority of us it will be a niche and pretty minor update imho.
The first Spiderman on PS4 was incredible in terms of gameplay, graphics and had a perfectly smooth frame rate. This studio is really impressive.
And here I am playing Mass effect legendary edition, a game 2007 that runs like crap and is ugly compared to today's standards. There is even screen tear when you're in the citadel.
Damn, Insomniac are geniuses. I really hope they start imparting their knowledge to other developers. R&C using the 120hz 40fps Fidelity mode was a dream. It really struck the perfect balance of performance and fidelity and more games need to start offering this.
@PoeticJustice
That’s fair. I bought Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart at launch day and was pretty surprised with the amount of bugs I encountered for a first-party game. But it’s in a good state now.
I guess when you pump games out as quickly as Insomniac can, you get a bit of a pass on that.
it took Sony almost 2 years to give the VRR update so I guess insomniac had a lot for time to testing it, they didn't just made it in one day timeline. lol.
@get2sammyb it depends on tv. My tv has 40-120 vrr range.
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