Dead Island 2 was one of those games that fans had lost all hopes of being able to play due to all the trouble it went through. Originally, the game was developed by Yager Development, and I even got to play a preview build at Gamescom 2014. Not long after that, however, publisher Deep Silver announced the removal of Yager, which was replaced by British studio Sumo Digital. Three and a half years later, the same happened once again when Deep Silver's own Dambuster Studios replaced Sumo.
At this point, it was unclear whether Dead Island 2 would ever launch and, if it did, in what condition. However, Dambuster surprised many last year by delivering a tight, fun experience that resonated well enough with fans, having reached over ten million players to date (although some of them via the Game Pass subscription service). The game recently celebrated the launch of the Ultimate Edition, which includes the base game, both DLCs (HAUS and SoLa), and several weapons and skin packs.
But that's not all, as the developers also added a whole new Horde mode called Neighborhood Watch, a New Game Plus mode, and full PlayStation 5 Pro support for free. For this developer Q&A, we focused on the latter, sending a few questions to Dambuster's Core Technology Director, Andrew Mitchell, to get more insights on the studio's experience with Sony's new mid-generation console. Keep scrolling below the embedded video to read it all.
How long did it take for you to prepare the PS5 Pro update?
Approximately one month spread between the Engineering and QA teams. Initially we needed to take an SDK update so that DI2 was 'Pro' compatible. Fortunately, we'd already put a lot of effort into making DI2 scalable across gen8 / gen9 and high-end pc, so we were able to leverage existing scalability options to tune DI2 optimally for PS5 Pro. After making various changes to the Pro build, we then ran the game through both manual QA testing and our automated performance testing environment to ensure that the improved fidelity was realized without compromising a solid 60fps experience.
What do you think of the PS5 Pro's hardware? What is the single feature you were most impressed with?
The Pro offers a significant improvement over the base console, primarily in the domain of GPU performance. The improved GPU power was something that DI2 could really lean into because we were making a graphically demanding game.
Compared to the jump between PS4 Pro and PS4, would you say the PS5 Pro-PS5 difference is similar or reduced (e.g., the advancement is more or less significant)?
Both Pro models offer upgrades to CPU and GPU performance, but the main improvement is GPU, so they are similar in that these mid-gen updates can achieve higher visual fidelity which is a real plus for gamers. I'm sure the best is yet to come with respect to how new titles are able to leverage the power of PS5 Pro.
How much of an improvement is there between the PS5 and PS5 Pro versions of Dead Island 2?
We were able to improve both the visual fidelity and increase the resolution for DI2 for the PS5 Pro. These quality improvements included:
- Shadows
- Draw Distances
- Contact Shadows on All Objects & Lights
- Motion Blur
- Depth of Field
- Texture Filtering
For the resolution, we unlocked our dynamic resolution upper bound to be native 4K, and in the general case, the game was able to achieve this target.
Are you using PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR)?
No, we are not.
How does the PS5 Pro version stack with the maxed-out PC game? Does the PS5 Pro version feature the highest graphics settings available on PC?
The PS5 Pro has the same visual settings as the 'High' spec on PC. We do offer an 'Ultra' spec mode on PC, which pushes beyond that, however. When considering the upgrade options for Pro, we wanted to ensure that we didn't compromise the solid 60fps frame rate target which gives users the best game experience.
Thank you for your time.
