A few weeks ago, modders integrated the NVIDIA DLSS 5 library into Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. The game's visuals were transformed, and some were very impressed with the results of the technology.
Among these "fans" of DLSS 5 was the game's creator himself. Daniel Vavra highly praised the outcome and said that this was generally how he had envisioned the game.
Now, he actively defends NVIDIA DLSS 5 on social media. In September, he once again decided to explain why this technology is so good. As an example, he suggested looking at a model from the game:
This is Katerina from KCD – played by the famous Czech actress Kristýna Leichtová. The first image shows her photograph. This is how we 3D-scanned her. Then we manually adjusted her appearance and textures, as we don't use makeup during 3D scanning, and the in-game model must meet a number of parameters.
In the second image, Vavra explains, the model is shown as it appears in the original version of the game. The third image presents the result of DLSS 5 with, as the developer believes, correct settings; the fourth image is an example of "neural slop" – "what happens when some random ***** cranks all the sliders to max."
Daniel Vavra is convinced that the correct use of DLSS 5 produces a good image and that the technology adds nothing "artificial"; all details are already present in the model:
One can argue about what you prefer: the slightly "smoothed" original look from the second image or the more natural version from the third. But in any case, it is in the third image that the in-game model most closely resembles the real actress who played Katerina and served as the basis for the scan. Furthermore, in this case, the lighting is much better, and the details of the nose, eyes, hair textures, subtle shadows, and even the bones in the neck look much more natural and realistic. DLSS 5 adds nothing artificial – all these details are already present in both the model and the textures. It's just that due to the engine's lighting, they are not as clearly visible, and DLSS 5 quite accurately "restores" them based on the normal map and other factors.
Tech enthusiasts continue to experiment with DLSS 5 technology.