Nvidia's DLSS 5 announcement shocked even major developers

Nvidia’s unveiling of its new graphics tech DLSS 5 promptly sparked an unusual mix of excitement and ridicule. Nvidia sees the upcoming version of its Deep Learning Super Sampling technology as a game-changing moment for graphics, using generative AI to add lighting detail, materials and other visual touches to enhance frames in real time.

However, some see the tech as a generator of generic AI slop that will take game art out of the hands of developers. Nvidia's demo showed DLSS 5 ‘improve’ Capcom’s Resident Evil Requiem and Bethesda’s Starfield. But while Bethesda stresses that its artists will remain in control, Capcom seems to have known nothing about it.

NVIDIA DLSS 5 Reveal | Resident Evil Requiem - YouTube

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The application of DLSS 5 to Resident Evil Requiem's Grace Ashcroft was one of the most controversial examples that Nvidia has demoed. It quickly sparked internet memes poking fun at how Nvidia's tech completely changes the character, subjecting her to AI beauty standards.

Many suggest the tech's 'yassification' of the game graphics creates an uncanny and generic polished look.

Nvidia cited Ubisoft and Capcom as partners whose games would support DLSS 5, but it seems like that was news to them, or at least to developers working with them.

According to Insider Gaming, developers at Capcom were taken aback by the announcement. Capcom has traditionally opposed the use of AI. Now some staff at the publisher are reportedly now concerned that the DLSS 5 announcement could lead Capcom's leadership to change their view on generative AI in games.

Insider Gaming also cites an unnamed Ubisoft developer as saying “We found out at the same time as the public”.

As for Nvidia itself, our sister site Tom’s Hardware was first to report Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's dismissal of the DLSS 5 criticism. Speaking at GTC, he said critics were “completely wrong.”

He said: “As I have explained very carefully, DLSS 5 fuses the controllability of geometry and textures and everything about the game with generative AI” and insisted that developers will be able to “fine-tune the generative AI”. “It's not post-processing at the frame level, it’s generative control at the geometry level,” he said, clarifying: “This is very different than generative AI; it’s content-control generative AI. That’s why we call it neural rendering.”

Bethesda has also emphasised that creative control. Replying to a post by Digital Foundry on X, it said: "This is a very early look, and our art teams will be further adjusting the lighting and final effect to look the way we think works best for each game. This will all be under our artists' control, and totally optional for players."

But some gamers say they "want the upscaling but not the AI faces". That would require more customisability than the current option of turning DLSS on or off.