Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced PS5 Pro: Full Upgrade List Revealed
Ubisoft has revealed the complete set of PlayStation 5 Pro upgrades planned for Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced ahead of its launch on July 9. While the game is a full remake of the 2013 action-adventure original—so improvements are coming across the board on every platform—PS5 Pro players will also receive a handful of extra enhancements designed specifically for Sony’s upgraded hardware.
Launch date, platforms, and what the remake is bringing
Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced will set sail on July 9, with releases on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. Players will once again step into the boots of aspiring pirate Edward Kenway, supported by brand-new content and combat changes. Ubisoft is also positioning the remake as a major technical leap for the original 13-year-old experience, with a wide range of visual and performance improvements that include new ray tracing options, a new engine, and updated weather and water simulation.
Alongside those systems-level upgrades, the remake adds new missions, new naval weapons, and a refreshed combat framework—aimed at making the open-world experience feel more modern without losing the core pirate fantasy.
The PS5 Pro enhancement list
- Extended ray tracing support across all graphics modes
- 2160p resolution upscaled using enhanced PSSR
- Strand-based hair for Edward on all graphics modes, plus strand-based hair for crowd characters in Fidelity mode
What changes on PS5 Pro vs. standard PS5
Ubisoft Technical Director Jussi Markkanen and Technical Architect Nicolas Lopez outlined the PS5 Pro features in a PlayStation-focused write-up. One of the biggest differences between the standard PS5 release and the PS5 Pro version is ray tracing coverage: the PS5 Pro build will offer “Extended” ray tracing in all three of the game’s graphics modes. By contrast, the base PS5 version limits ray tracing to just Fidelity and Balanced modes.
Ubisoft explains that “Extended” ray tracing means full ray tracing behavior throughout the game, including effects on reflective surfaces.
Another PS5 Pro-specific feature is the use of the console’s PSSR technology. PSSR—short for PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution—is described as AI-driven upscaling that takes the game’s 2160p base resolution and improves the image quality on a pixel-by-pixel basis. Ubisoft also says this should help narrow the visual difference between the Performance and Fidelity graphics modes.
Ubisoft is also upgrading the strand-based hair system. This approach renders individual hair strands to deliver more lifelike movement during gameplay and cutscenes. On PS5 Pro, Edward Kenway’s hair will use strand-based rendering in every graphics mode, while Fidelity mode additionally extends strand-based hair to nearby crowd characters.
Framerate targets on PS5 Pro
Not everything is being pushed all the way to higher performance across the board, though. The PS5 Pro won’t aim for 60 frames per second in every graphics mode. Instead, it targets the same framerate goals as the base PS5 version, with:
- Performance mode: aiming for 60fps
- Fidelity mode: aiming for 30fps
- Balanced mode: aiming for 40fps
