Nvidia has revealed a new “3D guided neural rendering model” called DLSS 5 that can change a game’s lighting and materials in real-time, and… many gamers aren’t happy. From DLSS 5 memes to complaints about how it’s “yassified” Resident Evil Requiem characters in demos, the first impression has not been a good one, no matter how much Nvidia insists that this pursuit of photorealism is still honoring the original artists’ intent.
Follow along below for all the latest updates about Nvidia’s DLSS 5 upgrades.
-
Nvidia has lost the plot with gamers
Image: Nvidia
Nvidia surely thought it was doing a good thing for gamers by “upgrading” the faces of our favorite video game characters. But that just shows how much the company has lost the plot.
Nvidia could’ve marketed its new DLSS 5 real-time lighting technology as a way to make future, next-gen games look better. Instead, it told the world that games people already know and love look bad. It focused on retconning characters’ faces. And now, confronted with the predictable backlash, Nvidia’s CEO is telling critics that we’re “completely wrong.”
-
Jensen Huang, on the critical reaction to DLSS 5: “Well, first of all, they’re completely wrong.”
“The reason for that is because, as I have explained very carefully, DLSS 5 fuses controllability of the of geometry and textures and everything about the game with generative AI,” Huang said, according to Tom’s Hardware, and he noted that developers can “fine-tune the generative AI.”
-
Nvidia’s DLSS 5 is like motion smoothing for video games, but worse
Image: Nvidia
-
DLSS 5 looks like a real-time generative AI filter for video games
Nvidia announced DLSS 5 on Monday during its GTC conference, and based on early reactions, it’s going to be a divisive update, with some reactions calling it “slop” that unacceptably alters artistic intent. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is calling this 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.”
In games that support DLSS 5, the tools can immediately provide noticeable boosts to lighting and shadows, but unlike previous versions of upscaling that used machine learning to close the gap between high and low graphics settings, this version applies generative AI to rework the lighting and materials with details that feel newly added. Examples shown by Nvidia today from Resident Evil Requiem, Starfield, Hogwarts Legacy, and EA Sports FC each look more lifelike, yes, but the DLSS 5 versions have changes that look similar to the “AI slop” updates we’ve seen applied to photography, video, and other creative endeavors.
-
Nvidia just announced DLSS 5 and Digital Foundry already has a video.
Nvidia’s also got a whole blog post dedicated to the “real-time neural rendering model that infuses pixels with photoreal lighting and materials.” It’s coming this fall with support from Bethesda, Capcom, Hotta Studio, NetEase, NCSoft, S-Game, Tencent, Ubisoft and Warner Bros. Games to start.