Nvidia's DLSS 5 AI graphics filter reveal met with widespread criticism

Nvidia has unveiled its latest version of its upscaling graphics technology, DLSS, with the AI-powered tool now offering the ability for players to add extra “details” to a game’s visuals.

The details:

• DLSS is a feature exclusive to Nvidia’s GPUs that aims to provide higher frame rates by running titles at lower resolutions and then upscaling the image with AI, offering major boosts in performance for a small trade in visual quality. However, with DLSS 5, the company is now building on the technology with new filters that it refers to as an "AI-powered breakthrough in visual fidelity for games."
• DLSS 5 features an optional filter that uses AI to add further visual details to games, such as more “realistic” faces, lighting, and textures, while attempting to maintain the developer’s original vision. “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. “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.”
• Unsurprisingly, the gaming community has generally received the announcement negatively, describing the "enhancements" as uncanny. While the filter aims to keep the aesthetic of each game intact, developers such as Respawn’s Steve Karolewics have noted that it appears to add “overbearing contrast, sharpness, and airbrush filter” regardless of the title, going against the original artistic intent.