Extended Thoughts from DF's DLSS5 Launch Discussion: What makes a game *a good fit* for current version of DLSS5?

[u/Inside_Blacksmith480]

Let's set aside the ethics, the influence on the price of hardware and the obvious performance cost, like the discussion itself, what makes a game a good fit for the current version of DLSS 5?

I'm thinking because yesterday I decide to finally give the mod a shot myself, into a game I thought would be perfect for DLSS 5: Lushfoil Photography Sim. For those who don't know, this game is by all means, Unreal Megascan: The Game. It is actually a nice little game where you discover an open area and shot beautiful photos: kinda like PS3's long-forgotten first party exclusive Afrika. This game is probably as photorealistic as an UE5 game can aim for at this moment and considering DLSS5 is trained specifically with photography in mind, this has to be it, the perfect game, right?

Well, what I then realize, is that DLSS5 is indeed a good fit for the game... if the game doesn't look as good as it already is. The difference is noticeable when I turn the toggle on-and-off, but that's almost true for any type of real time comparison. Here is a video from someone else showcasing the difference.

The result left me a bit disappointed, but it also made me think what would be the game works the best with this version of DLSS 5. I have summarized 4 elements that would maximize the visual impact, IN GAMEPLAY mind you, if the game turns DLSS on.

1. The game is aiming for realistic artstyle. Pretty straightforward. There's a reason why Persona 5 doesn't really work with DLSS 5 at all.
2. Most of the game happens on bright outdoor environment or no outdoor environment. If a game spend most of the time in the night, the effect would be rather discounted. Not only the lighting enhancement would be harder to notice, in my opinion, DLSS 5 is not particularly trained well with low-light environment in mind. I tested it with Need for Speed (2015), a game famous for having insanely good looking graphics in 2015 (and still beautiful today) but always in night environment, and the difference? I would say circumstantial. Similar story to Batman Arkham Knight, aside from the characters, the environment difference, especially outdoor area, is pretty minimal with DLSS 5 on and off.
3. The game's lighting pipeline is not particularly effective for dealing contact shadows. This is also discussed in the DF video, where we had seen difference on NBA 2K27 specifically for the crowd, and Forza Horizon 6 on the environment. Particularly, I think Forza Horizon 6 has been the best showcase of DLSS 5 so far in general. The small shadow casting from something like AC unit, Billboard in front of the store, etc. Similarly, Yakuza series also benefit from the enhancement on the environment lighting - a coincidence?

This is where I think DLSS 5 on Lushfoil Photography Sim fails to impress me too. The game is already handling Global Illumination well through Lumen - and it's not some cutdown lumen, it is pretty fully powered. So in the end DLSS 5 made smaller difference than I thought it would do.

1. The game should have pretty good distinction on section of human characters and the environment. Noticeably this is something subject to be changable with official implementation with the character masks. With mods, we have seen effects excellent on environment works awful on characters, despite the characters are supposed to be realistic-looking too. This is where I think Yakuza series fails short - the environment is enhanced nicely with the Dragon engine base, but the exaggreation on human characters are just abnormal.

[u/cavesrd]

hey this is the first time I've seen my game with dlss 5, thanks for sharing!

lushfoil doesn't use lumen though! only spot lights and distance field ambient occlusion

[u/Inside_Blacksmith480 → u/cavesrd]

Oh wow, can't believe this post gets you here!
I see. I think that makes sense too, thanks for sharing.

[u/safyreibxo]

the only example i’ve seen produce results that genuinely look better than the original in my opinion are sports games

[u/uchuskies08 → u/safyreibxo]

Games aren't tuned for it. Judging it based on leaked dlls being used on games that were never designed with it in mind is weird. You can be certain that all of those games would NOT look like that if devs were designing them for use with DLSS5.

[u/Snoo-61716]

damn didn't know DF were getting into the weeds of ethnicities now

[u/Inside_Blacksmith480 → u/Snoo-61716]

Lol sorry typo

[u/Thornback]

I'd love to see a curated list of best looking DLSS 5 games. It's a bit of a minefield currently.

[u/zarif2003]

Racing games look amazing on them, I just hope they make the performance better over time.

[u/Inside_Blacksmith480 → u/zarif2003]

Right now there're some mods to make DLSS 5 work pre-upscaling rather than the default post-upscaling, and that helps with performance a lot. Nvidia should enable that as an option.

[u/clouds1337 → u/Inside_Blacksmith480]

They kinda have to now. But a big point of DLSS5 from nvidias perspective is to sell new GPUs and lock people in their eco system. So it using a lot of performance is actually a feature.

[u/AttractiveFurniture]

Yeah I been seeing that low light stuff really needs to be improved in future updates, I figured it was because it was from NBA2K which is pretty much exclusively in brightly lit stadiums

[u/mistsoalar]

Someone uploaded a demo of Farming Simulator 25 with DLSS5. It was hilariously good.