‘This is just a garbage AI Filter’: Nvidia met with criticism for DLSS 5’s ‘photoreal’ graphics alterations

Nvidia has announced DLSS 5, the next generation of its image enhancement technology, which it claims is “the most significant breakthrough in computer graphics since the debut of real-time ray tracing”.

Whereas previous iterations of DLSS used AI technology to upscale game resolution or improve frame rates, DLSS 5 uses an AI model to alter the visuals of supported games with what Nvidia calls “photoreal lighting and materials”.

“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,” the company said in an announcement on Monday.

“Bridging the divide between rendering and reality, DLSS 5 empowers game developers to deliver a new level of photoreal computer graphics previously only achieved in Hollywood visual effects.”

DLSS 5 will arrive this fall. In an announcement video, the tech is shown drastically altering the appearance of characters and environments in games such as Resident Evil Requiem, Starfield, and Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

According to Nvidia, developers will be able to tune “intensity, color, and masking to determine where and how enhancements are applied to maintain the game’s unique aesthetic”.

However, the DLSS 5 announcement has still been met with significant criticism on social media from games industry professionals, partly due to how it drastically alters the original art direction of its supported games.

Steve Karolewics, a rendering engineer at Respawn, wrote: “DLSS 5 looks like an overbearing contrast, sharpness, and airbrush filter. Remarkably different frames with the rationale of photo-real lighting? Nah, I think I’ll stick with the original artistic intent.”

Concept artist Jeff Talbot added: “This is NOT the direction games should be going in. In every shot the art direction was taken away for the senseless addition of ‘details’. Each DLSS 5 shot looked worse and had less character than the original. This is just a garbage AI Filter. Lets not do this shit.”

According to Nvidia, DLSS 5 will be supported by publishers including Bethesda, Capcom, NetEase, NCSOFT, S-GAME, Tencent, Ubisoft, and Warner Bros. Games.