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Far Cry 3 stretched last-gen consoles like no other, but its sequel on PlayStation 4 gives Ubisoft Montreal a chance to unleash the engine's true potential. With its gorgeous Himalayan horizon, our original hands-on at E3 2014 applauded a very well-rounded technical showcase for Sony's console, one which its creative director confirms has 1080p resolution as its target. But with final PlayStation 4 code to hand, does the game deliver a generational leap, and with this peak console resolution in mind, can it do so at a respectable frame-rate, bearing in mind the issues seen this week with Assassin's Creed Unity?Through a rapid pixel-count, it's easy to see the PS4 absolutely delivers on this full 1920x1080 promise - with none of the frame-rate problems seen in its Ubisoft stablemate. For every pixel we a get new line of visual information, letting us soak in every detail of Ubisoft Montreal's ice-peaked terrain from afar. However, by nature Far Cry 4 also boasts a eclectic mix of visual elements; from rock geometry and dangling flag-lines, to broad swathes of foliage and fur shaders. While a 1080p base image is a powerful starting position, image treatment tailored to the each game's visual style is still crucial, and Far Cry 4 deserves extra credit in this department.
Ubisoft delivers a unique solution here. To tackle all of these elements as best it can, a new Hybrid Reconstruction Anti-Aliasing (HRAA) system is in place for the game. As gleaned from developer Michal Drobot's SIggraph 2014 presentation, this takes common wisdom from the best post-processing methods available, matching SMAA for image clarity in static moments, while also attempting to iron out any shimmer artefacts owing to a lack of temporal sampling.
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