Bearing in mind the team's history with smart rendering techniques on older hardware, we'd expect a similar approach to its current-gen work. In Alan Wake's case we saw the game running at a native 960x544 - a big drop down from native 720p, but mitigated by the application of 4x MSAA that worked really well in combination with the game's aesthetic. The results were often breathtaking, and as a last-gen title it proved that resolution wasn't the be all and end all of image quality - a philosophy that carries over to an extent to Quantum Break.
A mixture of strong post effects (such as film grain and motion blur), plus excellent anti-aliasing work well in hiding much of the stair-stepping we'd expect of a lower resolution game. Added to this, image quality appears sharper and noticeably cleaner in more static scenes, where a pixel count suggests something closer to a 900p presentation. A temporal reconstruction anti-aliasing solution is a strong contender - a technique where information from previously rendered frames is blended with the current one.
While Quantum Break remains visually impressive - stunning in many areas, in fact - the core pixel count is clearly a factor in the presentation. However, it is not the most striking compromise we noted in Quantum Break's visual make-up. Draw distances for textures and shadows stand out, and it's commonplace to see assets switch between quality levels as you approach them, making for some rough-looking scenes at times. Additionally, some volumetric light shafts seem very blocky, rendering at what looks like 1/16th of the final 1080p output. While we appreciate the need to pare back various elements for performance reasons, sometimes the impact in visual quality can be a little too distracting.
Of course, the range of advanced effects work also helps to create many impressive visual moments throughout the opening few hours of the game we tested, and is central to creating an image that closely aligns with the TV show. The combined use of global illumination, volumetric lighting, and screen-space effects help to create a world with plenty of depth and ambience for shoot-outs and action scenes to take place. Objects and characters sit naturally in the scene, and a physically-based approach to rendering allows for surfaces to be realistically depicted under a variety of lighting conditions.