Is the 'future of real-time rendering' in the room with us?

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After teasing it as "the future of real-time rendering", Nvidia has finally announced DLSS 5, an AI-led model for photorealistic visuals…that mostly looks like an AI filter slapped over Resident Evil Requiem. However, it's game developers, with their honed art direction and style, who will care the most about DLSS 5, and that reaction has been mostly mixed to put it lightly.
Over on X, New Blood co-founder Dave Oshry shares a meme calling the tech "Pure Slopium", a reference to AI slop. 'Is this a 3D model?', an account dedicated to teaching X users about 3D models, similarly, labels DLSS 5 a "slop filter" and calls Nvidia "an absolute joke".
The word slop is used a lot in regard to Nvidia's announcement. Indie developer Guselect says, "bad ending: now every game is AI slop."
Over on BlueSky, Karla Ortiz, a Puerto Rican artist who worked for Ubisoft, Blizzard, Marvel and more, says:
"This is so disrespectful to the intentional art direction of devs. If devs wanted to lean in to hyper realism they would," she says. "This also drastically changes key aspects of visuals like character features, focal points, lighting and so on. What a terrible invention. Nvidia should shelve this one."
This is so disrespectful to the intentional art direction of devs.
If devs wanted to lean in to hyper realism they would. This also drastically changes key aspects of visuals like character features, focal points, lighting and so on.
What a terrible invention. Nvidia should shelve this one 😭
Some fears about the tech are more existential than simply perceiving something as looking bad. Jon Ingold, narrative director and co-founder of Inkle, shares a screenshot of its game Heaven's Vault, arguing that DLSS 5 would remove its main character. Heaven's Vault is a game largely about archaeology, history, and a desire to preserve culture, so this post implies DLSS 5's AI beauty filter style would actually erase the identity of characters that don't fit certain beauty norms.
This same fear is expressed by illustrator Corey Brickley, who says: "What if we blended every famous woman into one woman and then that's every woman you see now."
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.

Chris Gardiner, narrative director at FailBetter Games, calls this AI bea...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
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Every Thursday
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Every Friday
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From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
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Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.

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After teasing it as "the future of real-time rendering", Nvidia has finally announced DLSS 5, an AI-led model for photorealistic visuals…that mostly looks like an AI filter slapped over Resident Evil Requiem. However, it's game developers, with their honed art direction and style, who will care the most about DLSS 5, and that reaction has been mostly mixed to put it lightly.
Over on X, New Blood co-founder Dave Oshry shares a meme calling the tech "Pure Slopium", a reference to AI slop. 'Is this a 3D model?', an account dedicated to teaching X users about 3D models, similarly, labels DLSS 5 a "slop filter" and calls Nvidia "an absolute joke".
The word slop is used a lot in regard to Nvidia's announcement. Indie developer Guselect says, "bad ending: now every game is AI slop."
Over on BlueSky, Karla Ortiz, a Puerto Rican artist who worked for Ubisoft, Blizzard, Marvel and more, says:
"This is so disrespectful to the intentional art direction of devs. If devs wanted to lean in to hyper realism they would," she says. "This also drastically changes key aspects of visuals like character features, focal points, lighting and so on. What a terrible invention. Nvidia should shelve this one."
This is so disrespectful to the intentional art direction of devs.
If devs wanted to lean in to hyper realism they would. This also drastically changes key aspects of visuals like character features, focal points, lighting and so on.
What a terrible invention. Nvidia should shelve this one 😭
Some fears about the tech are more existential than simply perceiving something as looking bad. Jon Ingold, narrative director and co-founder of Inkle, shares a screenshot of its game Heaven's Vault, arguing that DLSS 5 would remove its main character. Heaven's Vault is a game largely about archaeology, history, and a desire to preserve culture, so this post implies DLSS 5's AI beauty filter style would actually erase the identity of characters that don't fit certain beauty norms.
This same fear is expressed by illustrator Corey Brickley, who says: "What if we blended every famous woman into one woman and then that's every woman you see now."
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.

Chris Gardiner, narrative director at FailBetter Games, calls this AI bea...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?