Mark Cerny: Converting A Base PS4 Game To PS4 Pro Version Is Just 0.2 Or 0.3% of The Overall Effort

The PS4 Pro is Sony's new console, that offers developers more power than a standard PS4. That said, there are a lot of restrictions placed on just how developers can use that extra power, and the long and short of it is that you can basically just get the same game as on a standard PS4, but slightly prettier.

[mad-dog]

Iwata would have done that in a day, himself.

Anyway, this is old news but good news. A lot of devs will bring Pro support.

[XanderZane]

If it's that easy, why not. Better looking and performing game is always a good thing. Definitely will get the PS4 Pro over the PS4 Slim. I hope we can upgrade the HDD like the OG PS4. That's the very first thing I will do. Put an 8TB or 12TB in that baby.

Why the disagrees? lol!! People don't like the PS4 Pro either.

@UCForce
Sata 3 HDD are expensive, but fast. I don't think they come in 12TB yet. So I'll probably stick with the 2.5 laptop drives.

[jukins]

You can upgrade the had it also uses the latest Sata interface

[UCForce]

SATA 3 say hello.

[fr0sty]

Don't count on 8-12TB any time soon though, you still have to use the 2.5'' laptop hard drives, which currently top out at around 4TB. There is a 16TB SSD that fits the 2.5'' form factor which is aimed at enterprise users, however it is likely to cost a fortune and unlikely that PS4 Pro's firmware will recognize that much memory without an update.

[Maxor]

Sata 3 support makes very little difference since you're still stuck to laptop hard drive. This will limit your choice when it comes to both speed and size.

[freshslicepizza]

if its so easy does that mean every 1st party game will have a pro version soon? sony needs to talk the talk and not just add it to a few older titles like the last of us but all of them.

[nitus10]

@fr0sty

You probably mean this 15TB SSD: http://www.computerworld.co... Cheap at $10,000 USD.

I think I would be quite happy with a 1TB SSD https://www.amazon.com/Sams... but they are still expensive compared to hard disk drives.

@UCForce

SATA 3 is up to 600MB/sec compared to SATA 2 (PS4) which is up to 300MB/sec. This effectively means you can use an SSD (most consumer ones are rated around 500MB/sec read and write) in the PS4pro and still have 100MB/sec leeway.

In the PS4 writing is not really an issue unless you are looking at swapping which for all Linux/Unix operating systems (MS Windows is no exception) can occur and if you have a slow disk the overall performance suffers. Naturally, it would be great if no swapping occurs but it does happen, so a fast write to swap can increase overall performance.

[wtchytbe]

Plenty Backward Compatibility games for X1. PS4 games 100% enhance compatibility should be for PS4 PRO

[mozzie]

some back comapt games also run better on Xbox One than they do on the 360. And also Xbox One Games run a tad better on Xbox One S so they're forward compatible as well. I bet Xbox Play Anywhere titles like GOW4 and FH3 will use their PC 4K Assets from day one on the Scorpio, so there you have it forward compatible but for two generations! (More or less with supported 360 titles and maybe some day Original Xbox fingers crossed)

[babadivad]

Have we moved on from all the 8.4 TF articles already??

[MasterCornholio]

Makes a lot of sense to me. If it doesn't take any effort developers will support the Pro even though it's a fraction of the total PS4 user base. Seems like Sonys main goal with the system is to not fracture the user base.

[Muzikguy]

Which is the best news anyone could ask for! I hope to see Pro versions of most games. All this good news just keeps rolling in 😄

[Nodoze]

The article appears to be written by a 3rd grader. Wow.

[_LarZen_]

It's written that way to connect with it's readers....

[Red_Renegade]

are you a 3rd grader?

[mad-dog]

Yeah everybody is a gaming journalist these days.

[nitus10]

@ricosuave

Most people sitting at home behind their laptops/desktops have a tendency to treat their PS's as appliances. Get them to something out of the ordinary and they have no clue. Of course there are exceptions.

[S2Killinit]

Thats really good news. Means it wont cost them too much to offer the Pro upgrades.

[Aenea]

Did you do the math BTW? How long are games in development for? How many people are developing it? It's 0.2 to 0.3% of that, still not an insignificant number!

[Bolts]

.3% of Destniy's 500 million is expensive as hell. No wonder they're not supporting the Pro.

[nitus10]

Say it takes about one man-year to develop a game that is 24hours times 365 days (let's not throw leap years in) equals 8,760 man hours now 0.3% of that is 26.28 man hours or a little over one man days. Now multiply that by the number of man years it takes to develop the game and you have your answer.

Not insignificant but not excessive and when you consider that it is a value-added feature that will make your game (I am being subjective here) attractive to more customers then the extra effort may be worth it.

[Aenea]

@Bolts
That 500 million was also advertising I thought? Even so, if it was all for development not all of that would be just for the people working on Pro support...

@nitus
Yes on the overall costs it's rather small, but some people see such a small percentage and think it can be done in a few days which is not the case. If it takes 3 years to make a game then it's 2 to 3 days of those 3 years spent on Pro support but not just by 1 person, so it's closer to probably a month for a handful of people (including testers).

[ShadowWolf712]

Dude, that's the percentage of the workload, not percentage of the budget.

[SH1ELD]

Knack needs an upgrade.

[Fishy Fingers]

I think knacks problems extend beyond resolution.

[Skillz1215]

knack was a fun title

[Sparta07]

@ fishy, I would updat day one. Good game.
Hopefully micro will upgrade QB soon, cause that sucker needs the works!!😁

[kraenk12]

Knack is a fun and challenging game.. especially with the family.

[mad-dog]

it IS getting an upgrade.

[kevnb]

why isnt there more support then? Seems like an easy way to get a few extra sales on existing games.

[mad-dog]

Coming weeks will be crucial, i guess. Though most upcoming games will have the support anyway, if they want to be a player in the field.

[thejigisup]

The new FF is a good example, they've already spent so much time on the game I'm sure they just want to get it out into the wild. They've stated that if demand was significant they'd weigh the possibility. It will definitely be a much more viable point for development cycles in the future.

[Fishy Fingers]

Surely it's dependant on the level of optimisation and what you want to achieve. If it's simply upscaling and frame rate sure, if you dream to make the most of the Pro it's likely to take more time. Although I imagine most will be 'simple ports' to offer support rather than make the most of the hardware.

[mad-dog]

I think so too. Though i hope more devs will take the extra effort to make a good 1080P mode and a good "4k" mode.

[kevnb]

i think it would be more like changing the settings so that the game looks better, only problem is that people would have to test the entire game to make sure performance was ok everywhere.

[zivtheawesome]

in calculation then it takes about 3 days of development in order to make a ps4pro which is very good. shows that sony care about their developers (probably learned from the difficulty it was developing to the ps3 that it would be better to give developers the best experience with their development)

[Aenea]

Yep, 3 days, but that's for the entire development team! So for a few people to work on it, it takes longer than that...

[mkis007]

So delay the game by 1 week problem solved.

[Aenea]

@mkis

What did I say? 3 days for the entire development team! And you think they will all be working on Pro support at the same time? That's not how these things work...

Let's say there are 50 developers on one project, that means 150 days for 1 person to add Pro support... More accurate probably would be 5 working on it incl. design, testing, etc., still makes it 30 days. Throwing more people at it doesn't always work for smaller changes...

[mkis007]

Ok then, move one dev to work on the pro patch concurrent to normal development... I mean seriously did you even read what he said? He said 3 weeks for one programmer and that was on games like Infamous.

[BEASELY]

I want Overwatch to be updated for Pro. 4K or 120 FPS.

[uth11]

Doubt devs will waste time making 120fps games when many televisions are limited to 60hz

[kevnb]

pretty much every tv is limited to 60fps input, there is a handful that can support 120 fps input but I think it only works from a pc. the 120hz tvs you see on the market simply interpolate frames 99% of the time, this looks bad and gives the "soap opera" effect.

[BEASELY]

Uhm, did you guys know that monitors can hook up to consoles?

[_LarZen_]

In other words we can give developers a bad time if a new game dont have PS4Pro support.

[mad-dog]

Ha, exactly.

[IamTylerDurden1]

So NBA 2K17 going from 1080p to Native 4K and 60fps with HDR is just "slightly" prettier?

Killing Floor 2 using ultra textures, native 1800p checkerboarded to 4K at 60fps is just slightly prettier?

Devs like Epic are utilizing the hardware for more than just an up-res, look at what they've shown with Paragon.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

If Mark Cerny says it's .2 or .3% then it's probably literally .2 or .3%. That guy is an Android.

[xDealtwithIt]

How many Mark Cerny articles are we going to get? Sick of reading about this guy every other day.

[mad-dog]

Don't read it then....

[Aenea]

Missing Phil Spencer articles, are we? :p

[Silly gameAr]

I know right?

[Gamist2dot0]

Win win situation here: devs will most likely make the change since it will sot them little, while gamers benefit from the game improvements. Awesome!

[higgins78]

Hardly surprising. Almost every PS4 game (thus far) runs at 30fps. All the bells and whistles propaganda is just that, propaganda.

[Big_Game_Hunters]

Gotta love these arbitrary percentages we always get. Just say it requires almost no effort or something like that.

[Red_Renegade]

since he made the console, and he makes games, it's prolly not as arbitrary as you want it to be.

[quent]

400$ seems steep for "slightly prettier"

[LAWSON72]

Square apparently thinks otherwise

[shauzy]

im still waiting on that ps1 classics support

[spaceb0y]

they have to convince gamers that it is worth upgrading..they know it's not easy to market it that way without upsetting the install base.

[Sm3000]

Go over to ign/gamespot. There's not that much interest for this system. I'll be looking to see how much this sells. I'm not getting one out the gate