i was going to write about this yesterday but I was tooooo busy with my brand new PS4 Pro.

So I got a PS4 Pro recently and yesterday my cousin (who's pretty much my brother) came over to check it out since he's getting one on his birthday too this month. He played Rocket League on my 4K monitor before and when I showed him the 4K checkerboard rendered Rocket League on my Pro he said he didn't see a difference. At first I thought he was joking but the look on his face was serious.... at this moment I was confused. Because to me it looked CRISPY CLEAN. But he doesn't see it.      

Which is weird... because he owns a 1080p 48 inch screen in his room. And he plays Rocket League on his standard PS4. Like HOW does he not notice the difference on a way smaller screen, 4K screen and at a 4K resolution? I PLAYED RL on his set up and I was so distracted about how many pixels I was seeing. I'll happily pay for his glasses if he needs some!    

The smaller the screen the smaller difference a person can perceive in added resolution. 

Rocket League is a pretty crisp looking game as it is. Maybe that's part of the issue? Maybe not. Speaking of cousins, I was pretty surprised my cousin couldn't recognize the difference between the 60fps gameplay, and 30fps replays in the game RallySport Challenge. I've seen people post about varying perception on VGC quite often. Be it framerate or resolution. Go figure, but it happens.

You'd be surprised at the amount of people that cant really tell the difference in resolution.

I shit you not when the ps3 came out and I upgraded to a 1080i tv from a 480p I had multiple family members tell me their was no difference.

Well its Rocket League what did you expect?

^

It took me a looong time to see the difference between 480p monitors and 1080p. I had a 480p monitor up until 2013

I got a Pro in my game room on a 4K and a standard in the living room on a 1080p TV. I can see the difference and I appreciate the difference but it's hard to tell how much is the TV and how much is the console.

I go back and forth between the two. I don't regret the purchase at all.

And thats why I think Nintendo approach is better.We got to a point that the graphical gain is simply minimal, and the ones that sees the difference(which are more tech savvy and hardcore gamers like us because we deal with this more than others) are just a small number.I think companies should focus more on how to deliver different approaches from now on, be it with the Switch or with PSVR.

This is why I laugh every time I see people talking about a PS5 in 2019 with 12TFLOPS and 16GB of RAM. Going from what we have right now to native 4K is not going to impress the masses. Even if devs start building for the baseline of 12TF & 16GB and only doing 1440p checkerboarded to 4K with extra effects, the difference is not going to be big enough for the masses to see.

I absolutely love my PS4 Pro, PSVR, and my Z9D. For me 4K and Checkerboard 4K with HDR are a massive leap, but only a couple of people have been impressed. At this point graphics and resolution are so good that it takes massive leaps for your average consumer to see a difference that wows them.

Honestly for me 4K alone has never been that impressive. It wasn't unil I saw the combination of 4K & HDR TVs that I got excitd. Otherwise my 7 year old 1080p Full Array LED Sony was still one of the best looking TVs I had seen, and I would have just stayed with it. I also don't get to effected by frame rate. When I had my PC I preffered resolution and effects so I typically played games between 20 and 30fps, and it really didn't bother me.

It will be very interesting to see where things go in the future, but I think this lack of perception being common. I think if Sony trys to make a device called PS5 in 2019 - 2020 with 12 TFLOPS and 16GB of RAM it will face hard times. I still stand by the idea Sony should be honest and call the next revision a full 4K PS4, and wait and bring PS5 when they can deliver something that will without question blow peoples socks off.

To be fair to your cousin, I think most people don't really notice the differences between the HD resolutions, especially between 1080p and 4k. Hell, even I don't, if I sit a few feet back. 480i to 720p was a massive jump, and it has felt a bit iterative since then, better, but not jaw-droppingly so. My friend has an amazing TV, a $2000 Samsung with great HDR, and the games and movies look fantastic on it, but it's not as if they're making my eyes burst when compared to my 1080p tv's and projector. If you want to impress yourself, though, pick up Horizon. I bet it's gorgeous even on a normal ps4, but playing it on my 1080p projector with my pro is just drool-inducing. Even Aloy's hair looks incredible.