Ubisoft's recent trailer for Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, intended to showcase the game's visual enhancements on the PlayStation 5 Pro, has inadvertently highlighted the detrimental effects of YouTube's video compression. The trailer, particularly in its depiction of environments and background elements, exhibits noticeable artifacts and blurriness that detract from the intended presentation of the game's upgraded visuals.
While the protagonist, Edward Kenway, remains relatively clear in certain shots, the surrounding scenery frequently suffers. Details such as tree leaves appear indistinct, sand textures become muddled during combat sequences, and digital artifacts manifest at various points, leading to an unappealing viewing experience. This degradation is not unique to this specific trailer but is a common consequence of how platforms like YouTube, Twitch, and others process video uploads.
These streaming services employ compression techniques to reduce file sizes and bandwidth demands. This process allows for smoother playback on a wider range of internet connections. While YouTube has improved its compression algorithms, especially for 4K and 1440p content through the use of the VP9 codec, quality can still be compromised. For standard 1080p content, a different, more aggressive transcoding method is often used.
Developers often aim to upload the highest quality footage possible to mitigate these effects, with upscaling also employed to retain detail. However, the core issue remains that YouTube compresses all uploads, regardless of the source quality. For its 4K content, YouTube allocates higher bitrates, ranging from 45 Mbps for 30fps to 53-68 Mbps for 48-60fps. In contrast, 1080p content typically receives a significantly lower bitrate.
Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, like many modern titles, likely utilizes upscaling to achieve 4K resolution on the PS5 Pro, mirroring the standard PS5's approach. Ubisoft has not yet specified the game's target native resolution. However, by upscaling 1080p footage to 4K before uploading, developers could theoretically trick YouTube into assigning a higher bitrate. This increased data allocation per second of video could better accommodate fast-moving scenes and preserve finer details, thus avoiding the blurriness seen in the current trailer.
An alternative strategy involves downscaling higher-resolution footage to 1080p. While the final output would still be capped at 1080p, this method can result in superior image quality compared to uploading native 1080p footage directly. Presenting a compromised version of the game that does not accurately reflect either the consumer's potential experience on enhanced hardware or the development team's efforts to achieve visual fidelity ultimately serves no beneficial purpose.