PlayStation 6 likely to have Sony's own take on Frame Generation, according to latest patent

For better or worse, AI upscaling and frame generation are the future of gaming. NVIDIA’s DLSS, AMD’s FSR, and Intel’s XeSS upscaling technologies have been part of PC gaming for more than 5 years, and their frame-generation technologies for 3 years. Upscaling has reached consoles too now, with PlayStation’s PSSR upscaling tech for the PlayStation 5 Pro rolling out only 2 years ago, while Xbox has had FSR support for the Xbox Series consoles since 2022.

After PSSR, it’s clear frame generation is the next objective on Sony’s agenda for PlayStation consoles, and IGN confirmed something along those lines in an interview with Mark Cerny, lead architect for the PS5 and PS5 Pro, and AMD’s SVP for Computing and Graphics. Now, in a new patent filing, Sony reveals how it plans to implement frame generation in the next-generation PlayStation consoles.

How PlayStation’s Frame Generation Will Work

“Generation Super Sampling" (US-20260320740-A1) is the new patent filed by Sony for frame generation in their consoles. While the core concept remains the same, the model analyzes the rendered frame to produce a duplicate frame. However, PlayStation is making a major change to how it will produce the frame.

In DLSS frame generation, the model analyzes rendered frames and also uses motion vectors from the game engine. But PlayStation, in addition to motion vectors from the game engine, aims to factor in controller input data to more accurately predict how players will move in each frame. 

This approach, as noted in the patent, aims to reduce input latency or, at the very least, create the impression of minimal latency. The patent also does not rule out multi-frame generation by stating: "In some embodiments, the predictions are not limited to an immediate next image in the image stream. The decoder system may be trained to predict any number of images before or after the input image." 

What This Means for Console Gaming

Right now, most would agree that console gaming has no need for frame generation. All current-gen consoles support a maximum refresh rate of 120 Hz, so a frame rate above 120 will reduce visual quality by introducing artifacts. 

Moreover, frame generation technology could extend the trend of unoptimized PC releases and ports to target consoles too, with developers relying on the technology to make up for the unoptimized state of their game. If frame generation is implemented, it should be a toggle option, not a mandatory requirement.

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