The anticipated debut of the PlayStation 5 Pro and the introduction of PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) technology, an AI-powered upscaling solution, had led to expectations of a unified approach to image scaling within games developed by Sony’s studios. However, Guerrilla Games, the studio behind the Horizon series, has taken a different path.
Instead of relying on Sony’s system-level solution, the Dutch development team has created its own highly advanced upscaling technology. This move underscores the increasing importance of image quality and visual fidelity in modern gaming, driving developers to explore innovative solutions.
Industry testing reveals the proprietary technology, named Pico (Progressive Image Compositor), is directly integrated into the powerful Decima Engine. The effectiveness of this tool became apparent with recent updates to both Horizon Forbidden West and Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered on the PlayStation 5 Pro.
Detailed analysis from Digital Foundry indicates that Guerrilla Games’ system matches NVIDIA’s DLSS in many areas – including image stability during motion and the quality of water reflections – and significantly outperforms AMD’s FSR 3. Equipped with this powerful function, developers found no need to utilize Sony’s PSSR, which is still undergoing refinement.
Perhaps most notably, the Pico technology isn’t expected to remain exclusive to PlayStation consoles. The Decima Engine also powers Death Stranding 2: On the Beach from Kojima Productions.
Guerrilla Games’ decision to invest in its own image reconstruction software demonstrates the flexibility and power of the Decima Engine. Creating an upscaler that immediately competes with leading solutions from industry giants like NVIDIA represents a significant engineering achievement, and promises stunning visuals in future titles from PlayStation Studios.
