Genshin Impact devs were impressed by "exciting features and technologies" on PS5

The Genshin Impact PS5 port was partially retooled to better leverage the console's upgraded hardware, and developer MiHoYo reckons there's still plenty of room to improve the new-gen version of the game.

In a recent interview with GamesIndustry, technical director Zhenzhong Yi discussed the studio's approach to PS5 development and its initial opinion after bringing Genshin to the console. 

"We actually had to recreate the fundamental PS5 development framework including the graphic library and the customised file loading system from the ground up," Yi explains. "The PlayStation 5 has impressed us with many exciting features and technologies, and we still have much to explore." 

For example, by default, the SSD in the PS5 dramatically improved the loading times for Genshin Impact when played through PS4 backwards compatibility. However, thanks to the custom loading system built specifically for PS5, nowadays "the native PS5 version has even shorter loading screens," Yi adds. 

While the stability and performance of the Genshin Impact PS5 port benefited greatly, MiHoYo put less emphasis on boosting the game's raw graphical fidelity. Better draw distance, HDR and 4K support, and improved texture quality were relatively easy to implement, but heavier features like ray-tracing would require "huge efforts from both our artists and devs if we want to stay with our current art style to present the authentic look of Teyvat," Yi says. 

Genshin also has multiple platforms to consider, and with mobile phones setting the baseline for the game, new-fangled features like ray-tracing would essentially be exclusive to PS5 and PC and potentially impractical in the long-run. Nevertheless, MiHoYo is working on new PS5-exclusive upgrades, with DualSense haptic support coming in update 2.0 on July 21. This will add the now-familiar trigger tension effect to the game's gliding and bow interactions, among other things. As Yi explained in a PlayStation Blog post, update 2.0 will also add new trophies and improved character shading

PS4 and PS5 owners will get cross-save access on July 21 now that they can link MiHoYo accounts. There is a bit of a catch, though – here's how to set up Genshin Impact cross-save on PlayStation consoles.