With Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ release finally almost upon us after multiple delays, Ubisoft is rattling through its remaining announcements – with its latest update detailing the various enhancements PS5 Pro owners can take advantage of come launch on 20th March.
As per a post on the PlayStation Blog (hence the absence of details relating to the Xbox version), Assassin’s Creed Shadows features a choice of three different graphics modes – Performance, Fidelity, and Balanced – and can played at up to 2160p and 60 FPS on both PS5 and PS5 Pro when Performance mode is selected.
In all cases, ray tracing is supported, but your machine and selected mode will determine exactly what kind of raytracing you can expect. PlayStation 5’s Performance mode, for instance, features “selective” ray tracing, which Ubisoft defines as computing “global illumination for diffuse lighting in the Hideout portion of the game”.
Standard raytracing, meanwhile – applied in Fidelity or Balanced modes on PS5 and Performance mode on PS5 Pro – is “used to compute global illumination for diffuse lighting throughout the game world”. And that just leaves PS5 Pro’s “extended” ray tracing, which computes “global illumination for diffuse lighting and reflective surfaces throughout the game world” when applied in either Fidelity or Balanced modes.
The full breakdown of supported resolutions, frame rates, and ray tracing options per console and mode is as follows:
- PS5 – Performance Mode
- 2160p upscaled, 60 FPS, Selective Ray Tracing
- PS5 – Fidelity Mode
- 2160p upscaled, 30 FPS, Standard Ray Tracing
- PS5 – Balanced Mode (requires 120/240hz display and HDMI 2.1)
- 2160p upscaled, 40 FPS, Standard Ray Tracing
- PS5 Pro – Performance Mode
- 2160p upscaled, 60 FPS, Standard Ray Tracing
- PS5 Pro – Fidelity Mode
- 2160p upscaled, 30 FPS, Extended Ray Tracing
- PS5 Pro – Balanced Mode (requires 120/240hz display and HDMI 2.1)
- 2160p upscaled, 40 FPS, Extended Ray Tracing
Assassin’s Creed Shadows – which left a positive impression on Eurogamer’s Katharine Castle earlier this year – launches for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on 20th March. But if you’re looking for a more granular release breakdown, Ubisoft has detailed its global launch times too.