In this day and age, image upscaling is pretty much an industry standard when it comes to visuals, especially in AAA games. AMD has FidelityFX Super Resolution, which is a more open-source variation on Nvidia's DLSS upscaling tech. Improving graphics without more strain on the hardware is important for modern developers, and the latest iteration of team red's FSR is now being offered to Xbox devs, which makes it the first time such technology has been used outside of PCs.
A blog post on the AMD website, as spotted by IGN, acknowledges the one-year anniversary of FSR, with version 1.0 being launched on June 22, 2021. Version 2.0 came out last month and is being made compatible with more games all the time. Now, developers for the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S consoles will be able to utilize the updated image upscaling software, with the post stating that it will be available in the Xbox GDK, or Game Development Kit.
In a nutshell, upscaling works via AI-driven technology that essentially redraws the pixels onscreen to generate higher resolutions. As an example, a game running at 1080p can utilize upscaling so the resolution is comparable to 1440p, doing so in a way that make it seem as though it's running at this resolution natively. The idea behind this is to increase visual quality through software, thereby not creating more work for the graphics card. AMD's FSR 2.0 has been used in games such as Cyberpunk 2077, though that's due to a fan-made mod, and is being implemented in other titles on a regular basis.
Last year, FSR 1.0 supported 47 games, which included Deathloop and Resident Evil. Since then, FidelityFX Super Resolution has been made compatible with 110 titles, according to AMD's blog post. The fact that it's open source and version 2.0 now supports consoles could give it an edge over the competition, especially Nvidia's Deep Learning Super Sampling, which was leading the industry in upscaling technology until recently.
Other companies are also trying to get in on the act. Apple recently announced MetalFX, which is its own upscaling AI that will come with its Metal 3 graphics API. On top of that, Intel has XeSS, or Xe Super Sampling, so competition is beginning to toughen up. However, it seems as though AMD may have a slight edge, especially now that Xbox developers can start implementing it in games.