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Skyrim Special Edition is one of the first games to support PlayStation 4 Pro, with the code already included on the game disc., and unlike the majority of Pro enhanced titles, Bethesda's popular RPG runs natively at 4K resolution - that's a 3840x2160 framebuffer without utilising checkerboard rendering or upscaling from a lower resolution. We can also confirm that resolution appears to be locked at that number with no dynamic scaling or any other similar technique. It's fair to say that the boost in pixel count provides an immediate leap over the native 1080p base PS4 game, resolving more detail and definition across the game's rugged environments. Running on a standard PS4 at 1080p, Skyrim features a distinctly soft appearance that lacks the sharpness you'd expect to see when running 1:1 pixel-mapped on a full HD screen, caused by the game's temporal AA solution blurring the image to a noticeable degree. The upside is that jaggies and other edge artefacts are practically eliminated, which creates a very clean presentation. This is an area where the quadrupling in resolution on PS4 Pro using the 4K mode yields a welcome upgrade. The presentation may still appear on the softer side, but there's a nice uptick in visible fine details across distant scenery and textures, which are smoothed over to a greater degree at lower resolutions.
Bethesda also employs the same temporal AA solution with the game running in PS4 Pro's 4K mode, and when combined with the increase in pixel count, we get a highly refined image where edge artefacts are a non-issue. Arguably, there's less of a need to use strong levels of anti-aliasing at ultra-high resolutions owing to the tight pixel density helping to conceal jaggies to a better degree than on a 1080p screen - the stair steps are much smaller and thus stand out less obviously.
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