Nvidia and Epic Games just brought the DLSS 2.0 plugin to the Unreal Engine Marketplace, which marks another big step towards widespread support for the new technology. This means developers will now have a much easier time with integrating DLSS into games as opposed to before. This also means a future with better graphics and higher framerates for all.
DLSS is an advanced super sampling tool that uses a deep learning AI neural network to provide improved performance in games. To break that down a little more into understandable terms, it basically renders games at lower resolutions to make things easier on system hardware, but then upscales the image for improved fidelity. The result is a far more efficient final image on your screen that allows your hardware to deliver higher framerates without sacrificing quality. That is goal at any rate.
DLSS is currently in its second iteration (DLSS 2.0 according to Nvidia) and offers more than 100% fps performance improvements for some supported games. It requires the built in Tensor cores in the RTX 20 and 30 Series GPUs to work, but the results can be impressive. As more gamers invest in newer graphics cards that support this feature, it will continue to become more attractive to developers that want to advertise smooth framerates for the games they make.
Control is arguably the best implementation of DLSS to date. Even in “Quality Mode,” it offers huge improvements (Credit: Nvidia).
This makes the addition of the Nvidia DLSS plugin to the Unreal Engine Marketplace a big deal, because it marks a milestone in making DLSS far more accessible to more developers. The technology previously required close coordination with Nvidia, and didn’t seem to always offer the hoped for results. As with all new technologies though, it has improved with time.
Moving graphics forward
Seeing how there are currently just 35 games that support DLSS, that number should grow a lot over the next couple of years. Meanwhile, AMD has its own answer to DLSS in the works. Team Red calls it Super Resolution, which will arrive alongside a suite of other new technologies in AMD’s FidelityFX.
Whether gamers are looking to turn ray tracing on or just experience framerates in the hundreds, DLSS is sure to grow in popularity as it continues to mature.
