Project Scorpio's extra power will enhance 1080p visuals

Project Scorpio, which showed up on the Microsoft Store website this morning (sort of), was announced as a ‘true 4K’ games console at Microsoft’s E3 event last year.  Since then, we’ve learned that it will feature full Xbox One compatibility, VR and AR capabilities with Windows Mixed Reality, and a whole heap of processing power to push its pixels across 4K displays.  Today, Jez Corden of Windows Central broke an exclusive regarding graphical scaling and display resolution.
In his piece, Corden makes specific mention of a few aspects of Project Scorpio that will allow 1080p content to run better.  First, Corden mentions Shader Model 6, SM6, which is an API for shader creation.  This latest version of the API should, as Corden writes “bump up efficiency across the board, saving developers time and system resources.”  Next, Corden brings up the Xbox One’s dynamic scaling capabilities.
We’ve seen Xbox One titles dynamically adjust resolution and detail level to maintain framerates.  Project Scorpio will also utilize the dynamic scaling to power the game’s target-resolution visuals on compatible displays, but will also be able to use its processing power to boost visuals on lower resolution displays like an existing 1080p TV.  These dynamic resource utilizations will be handled by the machine, not the game so there will be no extra patches or updates necessary.
The final point Corden makes is that 4K assets will positively affect 1080p displays.  Games that update to have or come with True 4K graphical assets will be able to utilize Project Scorpio’s supersampling to make 1080p-like assets out of the 4K ones for a better-looking gaming experience.  Corden also notes that, according to reliable sources, Project Scorpio will have a fair few first- and third-party games that ship with True 4K graphical fidelity.
We still don’t know Project Scorpio’s specific performance figures, but knowing that it will be able to take advantage of existing technologies to improve the gaming experience without needing to update TV or monitors.  If we learn any specifics or hear any more news regarding Project Scorpio, we’ll keep you updated.  Until then, be sure to stay tuned to Rectify Gaming for the latest.
Source: Windows Central