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| Ubisoft says Assassin’s Creed Shadows will get upgraded PSSR support on PS5 Pro with Title Update 1.1.9 on April 7. |
Ubisoft’s feudal Japan epic is about to look even better on Sony’s premium console, with a significant image quality boost coming to all graphics modes
If you’re one of the lucky PS5 Pro owners who’s been exploring the beautiful, windswept landscapes of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, you’re in for a treat. Ubisoft has officially confirmed that Title Update 1.1.9, dropping on April 7 at 7:00 a.m. Pacific Time, will bring Sony’s upgraded PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) to the game.
That might sound like a mouthful, but in plain English? It means sharper grass, cleaner particle effects, and better-looking ray-traced lighting across the board. No need to squint at distant foliage anymore.
What’s Actually Changing?
For those who haven’t been following the tech side of things, PSSR is Sony’s AI-powered upscaling technology – think of it as PlayStation’s answer to NVIDIA’s DLSS. The original version has been in Assassin’s Creed Shadows since launch, helping the game punch above its weight on PS5 Pro. But this upgraded version (often called PSSR 2.0 by fans) is a noticeable step forward.
Sony first announced this enhanced PSSR back on February 27, with Capcom’s Resident Evil Requiem being the first title to use it. Then on March 16, Sony rolled out a system-level update that made the upgraded upscaler available more broadly, naming Assassin’s Creed Shadows as one of the games slated to receive a dedicated patch. Now we finally have a date.
The Good Stuff: What Ubisoft Says You’ll See
According to Ubisoft’s technical art director, Robert Foriel, the upgraded PSSR “significantly enhances Assassin’s Creed Shadows by delivering sharper pixel quality and exceptional image stability, effectively eliminating distracting visual artifacts caused by motion and vibration”.
But let’s get specific. Ubisoft says the improvements are most visible in three areas that have traditionally given image reconstruction tech a hard time:
- Foliage and vegetation – Feudal Japan has a lot of it. The upgraded PSSR preserves fine detail even when grass and leaves are blowing in the wind, keeping individual blades defined in motion while improving sharpness at a distance.
- Particle effects – Fire, smoke, dust, and other transparency-heavy effects stay steadier during motion instead of breaking apart or ghosting.
- Ray-traced lighting – Shadows uses advanced ray-traced global illumination, reflections, and ambient occlusion. The new PSSR reconstructs these effects more accurately in complex scenes, reducing the “noisy” look that can sometimes appear in ray-traced images.
What’s especially interesting is how easy this was for Ubisoft to implement. Nicolas Lopez from the development team noted: “Integrating the upgraded PSSR into Assassin’s Creed Shadows was straightforward – the code changes were minimal, almost identical to the original PSSR integration. Yet the upgrade brings a noticeable improvement in image quality across the board. It’s rare to get such a significant visual boost with so little tuning required”.
Every Graphics Mode Gets Better
One of the best things about this update? It applies to all three PS5 Pro graphics modes: Performance, Balanced, and Quality.
Here’s a quick refresher on what those modes do:
- Performance mode targets 60 frames per second with ray-traced global illumination
- Balanced mode shoots for 40 fps with ray-traced reflections added
- Quality mode aims for 30 fps with the highest visual fidelity
Each mode renders at different internal resolutions using dynamic resolution scaling. The upgraded PSSR improves the final output across all of them, rather than being locked to just one preset. So whether you’re a frame-rate chaser or a visual purist, you’re getting better image quality.
Wait, What’s PSSR Again? And Where Did It Come From?
For the tech-curious, here’s some context. PSSR – PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution – is an AI-based upscaling library that analyzes game images pixel by pixel as it scales them up to your screen’s resolution. It’s been used to boost the effective resolution of over 50 titles on PS5 Pro to date.
The upgraded version shares its core technology with AMD’s FSR 4.1 through a joint collaboration called Project Amethyst. PlayStation lead architect Mark Cerny confirmed that both Sony’s PSSR and AMD’s FSR rely on a co-developed algorithm focused on modern machine-learning reconstruction techniques. Essentially, the same neural network that’s making PC games look fantastic on AMD’s latest GPUs is now landing on your PS5 Pro.
A Quick Shopping Break
Before we dive back into the tech talk, if you’re reading this and thinking, “Wait, I don’t have a PS5 Pro yet – but I really want to see this for myself,” you might want to check current prices. The console has been moving fast since the PSSR upgrade announcements started rolling out, and stock can be unpredictable.
👉 Check the latest PS5 Pro price on Amazon – it’s worth keeping an eye on if you’re considering the upgrade.
Alright, back to the update.
The Broader Picture: Sony’s PSSR Rollout
Assassin’s Creed Shadows isn’t alone in getting this treatment. Sony’s March 16 PlayStation Blog post listed several other major titles receiving the upgraded PSSR, including Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Silent Hill f, Monster Hunter Wilds, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Alan Wake 2, and even Cyberpunk 2077 – which CD Projekt Red previously said wasn’t getting a PS5 Pro patch.
The upgraded PSSR offers “enhanced image stability, improved clarity in fine details, and more consistent results across supported titles,” according to Sony’s senior director. Developers have been singing its praises, too – Silent Hill f’s production team says the upgrade lets them render grass and shadows with “greater clarity,” while BioWare noted a “meaningful improvement in image quality” for Dragon Age.
But Will You Actually Notice the Difference?
That’s the million-dollar question. If you’re the kind of player who just wants the game to look “good enough” and run smoothly, you might not consciously spot every technical improvement. But if you’re a PS5 Pro owner – someone who specifically invested in premium hardware – chances are you do care about these finer details.
Digital Foundry’s analysis of the original PSSR implementation in Assassin’s Creed Shadows found that it delivered better stability, less obvious aliasing, and better sub-pixel detail at distance compared to traditional upscaling methods. Foliage was one of the most obvious places to see the difference. With PSSR 2.0, those improvements should be even more pronounced.
That said, there’s always a trade-off. The original PSSR implementation slightly reduced internal resolutions to account for the GPU cost of more advanced upscaling – performance mode dropped from around 1080p to 864p internally, for instance. But the final output after upscaling still looked cleaner and more stable overall. Ubisoft hasn’t provided specific resolution numbers for the upgraded version yet, but the expectation is similar performance characteristics with better image quality.
A Small Note on What This Update Isn’t
Before anyone gets too excited: Title Update 1.1.9 is primarily an image-quality patch, not new content. Assassin’s Creed Shadows is reportedly in its “final phase” of post-launch support, meaning fans shouldn’t expect major new story expansions or gameplay features to accompany this update. This one’s purely for the PS5 Pro visual enthusiasts – and honestly, that’s fine. A free visual upgrade is nothing to complain about.
Why This Matters for PS5 Pro Owners
Look, the PS5 Pro is a premium piece of kit. It costs more than the standard PS5, and part of what you’re paying for is access to features like PSSR. Seeing major titles like Assassin’s Creed Shadows get timely updates that actually leverage the console’s capabilities is exactly what early adopters want to see.
Ubisoft has been impressively committed to PS5 Pro optimization. Back in April 2025, they released Title Update 1.0.2, which added the original PSSR support and ray-traced reflections to Balanced mode. Now they’re following up with the upgraded version. It’s a level of post-launch support that not every publisher provides, and it’s worth acknowledging.
The Bottom Line
What: Upgraded PSSR (PSSR 2.0) support for Assassin’s Creed Shadows on PS5 Pro
When: April 7, 2026, at 7:00 a.m. Pacific Time, via Title Update 1.1.9
Where: All three PS5 Pro graphics modes – Performance, Balanced, and Quality
What it does: Sharper image quality, better fine detail reconstruction, improved stability for foliage and particles, cleaner ray-traced effects
For PS5 Pro players who’ve already been enjoying Assassin’s Creed Shadows, April 7 is circled on the calendar. The game already looked gorgeous – now it’s getting an extra layer of polish that makes Sony’s premium console feel even more worthwhile.
And if you haven’t made the jump to PS5 Pro yet? Well, updates like this are exactly the kind of thing that might tip the scales.
Sources: PlayStation Blog, Ubisoft official announcements, PushSquare, TechRaptor, Digital Foundry, WindowsReport, Tweaktown