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NVIDIA's DLSS 5 AI-Powered Visual Fidelity Is Like Snapchat of Videogames, It’s Shockingly Fake and Unrealistic

NVIDIA just unveiled DLSS 5, a new graphics technology breakthrough since real-time ray tracing back in 2018. And it's underwhelming in its own way.

Nvidia dlss 5 geforce rtx resident evil requiem comparison 001 on
© NVIDIA / Capcom

On Monday, March 16, NVIDIA took it to X (formerly Twitter) and their other social platforms, along with a blog post, to unveil their latest breakthrough, the DLSS 5 technology, "a real-time neural rendering model that infuses pixels with photoreal lighting and materials."

The aim of DLSS 5 is to bridge the gap between "rendering and reality," as the new technology allows developers to deliver photorealistic computer graphics, which, as per NVIDIA, was previously only achieved in Hollywood via visual effects.

Here is what Jensen Huang said about the new DLSS 5:

Twenty-five years after NVIDIA invented the programmable shader, we are reinventing computer graphics once again. DLSS 5 is the GPT moment for graphics — blending hand-crafted rendering with generative AI to deliver a dramatic leap in visual realism while preserving the control artists need for creative expression.

As you may already know, and as NVIDIA highlighted in their blog post, Video AI models can generate photoreal pixels, "but they run offline, are difficult to precisely control, and often lack predictability, with every new prompt generating bespoke content." In short, they are not consistent.

How nvidia dlss 5 works
© NVIDIA / Capcom

On the other hand, "DLSS 5 takes a game’s color and motion vectors for each frame as input, and uses an AI model to infuse the scene with photoreal lighting and materials that are anchored to source 3D content and consistent from frame to frame. DLSS 5 runs in real time at up to 4K resolution for smooth, interactive gameplay."

While some of the biggest game developers and publishers like Bethesda, CAPCOM, Hotta Studio, NetEase, NCSOFT, S-GAME, Tencent, Ubisoft, and Warner Bros. Games are excited to adopt NVIDIA's new AI technology, players find it "Fake and Unrealistic" instead of "Photorealistic."

The DLSS 5 is a direct slap to the hard work of artists and the art design of video games in general, which kind of reminds us of Snapchat and other such apps that promote, and whose existence depends on filters.

Now, we are not saying that DLSS 5 is outright bad, as it sure has some applications and good use cases. The idea is good, the initial samples are bad, and the overuse may turn out to be a curse rather than a technological advancement.

A good example is FromSoftware's Demon's Souls. When Bluepoint did a remake, the game had photorealistic graphics and looked visually stunning. However, that realism came at the cost of the dark and grim environment and setting that the original had.

It was like a Barbie version of the game.

And even gamers get it. Here is how they reacted to NVIDIA's DLSS 5 announcement:

And, well:

Quite the opposite of the players and the gaming community's reactions, here is how some of the biggest studios responded to the new DLSS 5 technology announcement:

Todd Howard - Bethesda

Bethesda has such a rich history pushing graphics with NVIDIA, going all the way back to Morrowind, with that incredible water. When NVIDIA showed us DLSS 5 and we got it running in Starfield, it was amazing how it brought it to life. We've played it. We can't wait for all of you to do so as well.

Jun Takeuchi (Executive Producer and Executive Corporate Officer) - Capcom

At CAPCOM, we strive to create experiences that feel cinematic, compelling and deeply believable — where every shadow, texture and ray of light is crafted with intention to enhance atmosphere and emotional impact. DLSS 5 represents another important step in pushing visual fidelity forward, helping players become even more immersed in the world of Resident Evil.

Charlie Guillemot (co-CEO) - Vantage Studios

Immersion is about making the world feel real. DLSS 5 is a real step towards that goal. The way it renders lighting, materials and characters changes what we can promise to players. On Assassin’s Creed Shadows, it's letting us build the kind of worlds we've always wanted to.

Here is the list of games that are first adopters of DLSS 5 technology:

DLSS 5 will release this fall, with a preview coming out this week at GTC.

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Hritwik Raj
Hritwik Raj

Hritwik has been playing all kinds of games since childhood and is a self-proclaimed guru of all games. He is one of the Gaming Leads at MobileMatters who is always inclined towards souls games, shooters like Apex Legends and Call of Duty, RPGs and MMOs....