God of War Ragnarök’s four graphical options revealed

Sony offers a range of graphics options to try in God of War Ragnarök, which basically boils down to four settings.

First, there are the usual two modes which Sony here calls ‘Resolution Boost’ and ‘Performance Boost’.

The first sets your frame rate and resolution to a 30fps target at 4K. The latter targets 60fps and uses dynamically upscaled resolution up to 4K.

A look at the history of God of War Ragnarök.

These two parameters can then be modified further by applying the separate High Frame Rate mode. This increases the “Favor Resolution” offer to a target of 40 fps, or alternatively increases “Favor Performance” beyond 60 fps. For this you will need a VRR compatible TV.

How much further beyond 60fps? We saw Press Start describe Performance mode with HFR enabled as “targeting” 120fps. Our Digital Foundry team is still working out the exact numbers – which may come out a little less. Stay tuned for the official verdict.

This week saw the existence (or not) of console game quality modes making headlines, following the release of this new version. Gotham Knights (out today!) reportedly locked at 30fps on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

God of War Ragnarök is, of course, a totally different game from Gotham Knights. Still, the fact that the latter’s graphics settings were made public just days before launch raised some eyebrows – and triggered Publisher Callisto Protocol Krafton confirms a 60fps performance mode for its game (released December 2).

Speaking to Eurogamer’s Chris Tapsell this week as part of a immerse yourself in the animation of God of War RagnarökSony Santa Monica animation director Bruno Velazquez explained how Ragnarök was designed to be the “best PS4 game we could ever make” – with all the extras from the PS5 version “just icing on the cake” .

“Of course, as an animator, I like a higher frame rate — I want to see the smoothest motion possible,” Velazquez said. “As for Ragnarök, from the start we knew it was going to be a PS4 game because we wanted to support the fan base – we had so many people who had enjoyed the game on PS4. So from the start we knew that it would be a PS4 game, we’re going to make it the best PS4 game we can make. Our goal was to top God of War 2018 in every way possible. Having the PS5 version is just the icing on the cake on the cake.

“So our goal is to make the best PS4 game; push fidelity, content, finish the story we started – that was our main goal. PS5 is like haptic feedback, 3D audio , higher frame rate and better graphics and textures. It’s like the icing on the cake. So of course the PS5 version will be the best way to experience it, but the PS4 [version] is going to be one of the games that pushes the PS4 to the max. Adopting this philosophy and approach has helped us set goals that we want to make a great PS4 experience and an even better PS5 experience.”

Ragnarök was initially announced by Sony in September 2020 as a PlayStation 5 game only, although it later emerged that the title would also be released on PS4. Sony’s first mention of a dual-console release came from an interview with PlayStation Studios boss Hermen Hulst in June 2021, when a PS4 version was mentioned alongside a delay in the project in this year.

“God of War Ragnarök Looks Like Everything You’d Expect – But Is There More?” Chris Tapsell asked in Eurogamer’s hands-on impressions of the game recently released. “A Loki departure heralds giant action to come.”

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