DLSS 5 from Nvidia was revealed yesterday, in a video demonstrating several recent releases getting upscaled by the "real-time neural rendering model," including Resident Evil: Requiem and Starfield. It's essentially an AI upscaler, with the results being rife with that weird, uncanny feel generative content has, and some developers are voicing their concerns.
"This DLSS 5 AI dogshit is actually depressing man," Dave Oshry, co-founder and CEO of New Blood Interactive, posted on Twitter. "Even worse is that a whole generation is growing up who won't even know this looks 'bad' or 'wrong' because to them it'll be normal."
Besides making his opinion clear, he adds a rallying call: "We need to push back harder against it."
Amid the onslaught of memes clowning on the software's 'realism', other members of the industry are in agreement. "Watching my daughter grow up where AI slop is the norm and her not knowing quality of quantity really bums me out," Arman Nouri, senior environment artist at Epic Games, tells Oshry in his replies.
John Buckley, the head of publishing and communications at Pocketpair, posted, "One step closer to DLSS 6," with a popular - and crass - clip from Star Trek spoof Star Trash, involving a particular use of ultra-realistic holograms. We create the future.
Meanwhile, Michael Douse, director of publishing at Larian Studios, now believes the latest Resi has been ruined by the anticipation of this upgrade. "Playing some Resident Evil Requiem this morning," he jokes on Twitter. "The game is great but I just wish it infused pixels with photoreal lighting and materials, bridging the gap between rendering and reality alas unplayable for now."
Please pour one out for his current playing experience.
In all seriousness, Requiem's already a game that looks incredibly impressive on contemporary hardware, and there's a strong argument for the idea DLSS 5 is just detracting from the art direction in favor of whatever it's trying to accomplish. Given the pushback and division, we'll see if Nvidia decides to pivot any. I wouldn't hold my breath.
