TheRetroArcade
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Joined: Feb 2026
DLSS 5 has unleashed a fiery debate among game developers.
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DLSS 5 is contentious, to put it lightly. Though execs from the likes of Capcom and Bethesda seem on board with the new generative AI rendering tool, some of its employees didn't even know it was going to be announced (admittedly, the logistics of informing all employees does make my head spin, not to mention a legal minefield of NDAs). Then, alongside this, the announcement drew ire from many developers, with some calling it "slop" or "disrespectful to the intentional art direction of devs". I recently had the chance to pick the brains of Dave Oshry, the co-founder of indie publisher New Blood Interactive, and David Szymanski, the developer behind Dusk, Iron Lung, and Gloomwood, to get their reactions to the tech.
Oshry tells me, "We as developers and players need to push back against this bullshit just like we did with NFTs and crypto games and try in vain to do with predatory micro transactions, loot boxes and battle passes."
Generative AI is already a hot topic among game developers. Some fear for the ethics of models that can technically scrape whatever work they like, and others fear that their output could contribute to the mass firing of many. A lot of game developers worry that executives making decisions might not favour the quality of handmade work over the benefits of getting artificial intelligence to create assets quickly and cheaply.
This is fundamentally changing the way video games look
DLSS 5 is not making assets and instead working with premade assets to make them more photorealistic, but that fear still exists. Oshry argues, "This is fundamentally changing the way video games look based on artificial intelligence that's been trained on Instagram models and Epstein memes."
"You used to have to spend hours poorly modding your games to make them look this 'cinematic', and now Nvidia is going to let you do it for free! Just kidding, it'll cost like $5,000."
What Oshry is referring to here is the two RTX 5090's required to render the DLSS 5 demo that Nvidia showed off last week. Nvidia has said it will be able to run off just one GPU, but one can assume that will be a high-end one, so a rather expensive setup will likely be needed for the launch of DLSS 5 later this year.
He goes on to argue, "At this rate, why make game art at all? Why not just draw some shapes and ...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
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Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
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GamesRadar+
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Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
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
The Setup
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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Switch 2 Spotlight
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DLSS 5 is contentious, to put it lightly. Though execs from the likes of Capcom and Bethesda seem on board with the new generative AI rendering tool, some of its employees didn't even know it was going to be announced (admittedly, the logistics of informing all employees does make my head spin, not to mention a legal minefield of NDAs). Then, alongside this, the announcement drew ire from many developers, with some calling it "slop" or "disrespectful to the intentional art direction of devs". I recently had the chance to pick the brains of Dave Oshry, the co-founder of indie publisher New Blood Interactive, and David Szymanski, the developer behind Dusk, Iron Lung, and Gloomwood, to get their reactions to the tech.
Oshry tells me, "We as developers and players need to push back against this bullshit just like we did with NFTs and crypto games and try in vain to do with predatory micro transactions, loot boxes and battle passes."
Generative AI is already a hot topic among game developers. Some fear for the ethics of models that can technically scrape whatever work they like, and others fear that their output could contribute to the mass firing of many. A lot of game developers worry that executives making decisions might not favour the quality of handmade work over the benefits of getting artificial intelligence to create assets quickly and cheaply.
This is fundamentally changing the way video games look
DLSS 5 is not making assets and instead working with premade assets to make them more photorealistic, but that fear still exists. Oshry argues, "This is fundamentally changing the way video games look based on artificial intelligence that's been trained on Instagram models and Epstein memes."
"You used to have to spend hours poorly modding your games to make them look this 'cinematic', and now Nvidia is going to let you do it for free! Just kidding, it'll cost like $5,000."
What Oshry is referring to here is the two RTX 5090's required to render the DLSS 5 demo that Nvidia showed off last week. Nvidia has said it will be able to run off just one GPU, but one can assume that will be a high-end one, so a rather expensive setup will likely be needed for the launch of DLSS 5 later this year.
He goes on to argue, "At this rate, why make game art at all? Why not just draw some shapes and ...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?