With that being said, two key differences between the PS4 and Xbox One versions do bear mention. The first is that Sony's platform makes use of a bokeh depth-of-field effect to distinguish the foreground from a backdrop, noticed mainly during pre-race camera angles. It's a pleasant effect that recreates the results of real-life photograpy when a camera's aperture is reduced, causing distant lights to appear as enlarged luminous specs - a look that's entirely absent on Xbox One. In its place, Microsoft's platform applies a less refined haze ****** that slightly impacts the clarity of car details in the foreground. Thankfully this only applies for these fleeting moments, and once the race gets started both platforms remove their chosen depth-of-field effects to unleash like-for-like images.
The second difference is in the Xbox One's utilisation of ambient occlusion. This is a self-shadowing calculation usually handled by the GPU, forming light patches of shading beneath a car's spoiler or wheels - though seemingly axed from the PS4 version at present. Even in shots taken from the very start of the game, where lighting conditions are principally as close as possible, the Xbox One's extra shading shows up around roadblocks and traffic cones, while other shadows play across the floor in the same way. It's an odd omission that reverses the scenario seen at Battlefield 4's review event, where the PS4 turned up with horizon-based ambient occlusion (HBAO) while Microsoft's console did not - a state of affairs that's set to be corrected in that case via a patch.
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