Xbox dev kit gets support for AMD’s FSR upscaling tech

Next-gen upscaling tech is finally coming to consoles. While we’ve waited for Nvidia and Nintendo to announce some sort of deep-learning supersampling (DLSS) or Nvidia Image Scaling (NIS) tech for the current or a new Switch, AMD and Xbox are moving ahead with implementation of their own. Square Enix’s upcoming action adventure Forspoken will also feature full support for AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) when it launches for PC in October. Specifically, the game is using FSR 2.0, which uses more temporal information similar to DLSS. That FSR 2.0 support is also eventually heading to Xbox.

AMD announced last week that it is bringing FSR 2.0 to DeathLoop with the help of developer Arkane. Forspoken is the second game to get the nod.

“Today, we’re excited to announce that another game that will support FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0 is Forspoken by Luminous Productions,” AMD wrote in a blog post. “FSR 2.0 will be available in the game when it comes out in October 2022, along with many other AMD FidelityFX technology effects.”

The company made these announcements as part of a panel for game creators at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco today. That is where it confirmed that FSR 2.0 will also show up in the Xbox game development kit (GDK). But while AMD was speaking to devs, it warned gaming fans that it isn’t sure about the specifics of end-user implementation.

“Though for gamers, we do not have a timeline today of when you can expect to see any Xbox games with FSR 2.0,” reads the blog.

FSR 2.0 on Xbox should greatly increase the performance of games without sacrificing perceived render resolution. This will ensure more games can run at 60 or 120 frames per second while still looking like they are 1440p or even a full 4K.

As for Sony’s PlayStation 5, AMD did not mention that platform. But FSR is a platform-neutral tech, and nothing is stopping devs from implementing it on PlayStation themselves.