There was some discussion recently on the Bombcast about whether games on the PS4 Pro will actually run in 4k or just be upscaled from 1080p or 1440p. As it turns out, at least The Witness will hit 4k, according to the patch notes for the PS4 Pro update patch notes. Summary of post:

• Full support for HDR when connected to an HDR enabled TV, for both PS4 and PS4 Pro
• For a 1080p display, PS4 Pro will get a resolution bump (from 900p to 1080p) and better antialiasing (2xMSAA to 4xMSAA)
• For a 4k display, you will get a choice to run the game with settings 1440p 60fps or 4k 30fps, both with 2xMSAA.

The Witness is not the most demanding game in the world, but it is 3D and with a lot of polygons and high-res textures (though not many dynamic ones), so it's nice to hear that the PS4 Pro will be able to handle that in that high of a resolution.

Also, I'm real sad now that I don't have an HDR display, that game probably looks amazing in HDR.

Right, this makes some sense. If it is this fidelity of game that makes it to native 4k that's pretty cool.

Wonder what year it'll be when I finally have a 4k tv...

The idea of choice is nice. An early concern I had about this whole thing was developers would dump more into graphics as opposed to stability/frame rate. It's good to hear that at least some games will let you do this.

Yeah, totally, but I suspect that this wont be common. Jonathan Blow strikes me as the kind of developer that understands that people want this, but I doubt most major studios would agree.

@gkhan: Before he did this Crystal Dynamics did the same thing with Rise of the Tomb Raider giving you options.

What will decide on how major studios operate will be how easy it is to include that stuff and what other studios do. Crystal Dynamics are getting a lot of praise for the work they've been doing on their port and you could see other studios following suit and it becoming a trend.

@jesus_phish: One can certainly hope so! Would be great to be able to choose your preference between framerate and image fidelity on consoles. I just think that most major studios are fairly committed to making one version for consoles, partly for simplicity (since part of the appeal of consoles is you don't have to mess with graphics settings at all), partly because it's easier and cheaper to test when you develop for a very specific target.

Msaa on console seems like bad news for performance. I don't think any anti aliasing is needed at 4k, except maybe temporal imo.

Speaking of 4k, Best buy has a 40 inch 4k/hdr Samsung TV for $329. I wonder if it's any good, but that price point is mighty tempting. Didn't think we'd see them for that cheap this year.

I'm kinda surprised (in a good way) that they're putting out this update for the game. A game like this from a small team doesn't really seem like the sort of thing that'd get an update for something like this, especially months and months after release. Good on them, though.

Blow strikes me as the kind of dude who would do this to prove the specific point that those who don't or can't do this are very simply lazy or poor programmers.

@mooseymcman: On the other hand though, it could very well be easy enough for them to do and is a good opportunity to sell your game to people all over again.

Right, they worked on that game for a long long time so this is a good oportunity to put it back on people's mind. Also I would bet there was some incentive from Sony's side, as it's in their interest to have as many "forward copatible" games as possible.

Also I should start this amazing game over, maybe even finish it this time!

i think this is a very well made and fascinating game, but it makes me feel dumb as a brick, and i already get that feeling enough at work and in my life.

but it's cool to hear it will run natively at 4k.

It's not exactly a technological tour de force, not much of a surprise.

This game doesn't benefit much from 4K. And HDR might be nice but the pallete is so seemingly intentional that I don't know how much HDR will do either.

If this is the most the Pro can do at 4k 30, I can't expect much will hit that.

QHD at 60 seems like a much more meaningful upgrade.

I really didn't think devs would offer QHD on the consoles, since TVs are all Full HD or 4K. That's cool. It should be an option in every "4K" game.

Its impressive they get this to 4k on a pro when they dont get it to 1080 on a normal ps4. Or maybe its very poor that they didnt get the standard version to 1080..

@gkhan: It looks like Nioh is another game that will let people pick from a selection of graphics options. Basic PS4 owners can pick from 3, Pro users have two options each on 1080 and 4k.

They apply anti aliasing techniques in their upscaling which makes the 4k upscaling actually look slightly better than 1080p and if they then downscale it to an 1080p screen they get free AA from it.

If you have a game running in native 4k there aint much point in AA on the consoles.

I want a to buy a pro but I won't be buying a 4KTV for a long time. Maybe after Christmas if it turns out this thing is worth it for people with 1080 TV's. It would be a no brainer if I didn't already have a PS4.