GoKawiilis a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.
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Nvidia knows that DLSS 5 left a bad first impression. In March, many gamers took one look at Resident Evil Requiem protagonist Grace Ashcroft’s DLSS 5-ified face and declared it AI slop. So this week, the company’s re-introducing its controversial “neural rendering” with firm messaging about how it “preserves artistic intent,” “respects the rendered frame,” and gives game developers full control.
Now, ahead of its September 3rd launch, with an official Nvidia briefing under our belt and some hands-on time with the version that leaked onto the web, we think we finally get the picture. Here’s what’s going on.
Is DLSS 5 AI slop?
The critics weren’t wrong: DLSS 5 largely is a generative AI filter for video games. Kind of like a camera filter on your phone, DLSS 5 analyzes and modifies a real-time stream of 2D images after your 3D game engine is done spitting them out. It can indeed make game characters look terrible if applied poorly, like they’ve aged 20 years in a split-second. It uses a lot of GPU power, and can easily cut framerate in half — even applied well, you could argue that existing games look better without it.
But DLSS 5 isn’t what we typically think of when we think of generative AI. It doesn’t change shapes, or hallucinate words on a sign, or place brand-new fake objects in view. Instead, it imagines light, shadow, color, and detail that make the same shapes appear differently.
Image: Nvidia
DLSS 5 can make dull, pasty characters look far more photorealistic. It can fill their hair and clothing and nearby foliage with signs of realistic light. It can ground characters and objects and clothing so they don’t look like they’re floating above video game surfaces.
Here’s an example I captured myself in Yakuza Kiwami: with DLSS on, see how contact shadows underneath each character make them seem like they’re actually standing on the ground?
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