"No way haters will stop this": Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 lead says AI tech like Nvidia DLSS 5 will "replace expensive raytracing" someday, and "this is just a little uncanny beginning"

Nvidia recently unveiled its upcoming DLSS 5 technology with a controversial showcase of the AI-powered "breakthrough" (as the company calls it) in visuals, and it seems Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 lead Daniel Vávra has hope in the image-enhancing tool.

Vávra, co-founder of Warhorse Studios and Kingdom Come: Deliverance director, shares his thoughts on the tech in a new online post. "I can imagine in the future devs will be able to train this tech for [a] particular art style or specific people['s] faces," he writes, "and it might replace expensive raytracing, etc."

Attached is a clip of DLSS 5 in action in Starfield, shown at Nvidia's recent AI conference, with before-and-after transitions from the game.

"This is just a little uncanny beginning," continues Vávra. "No way haters will stop this. It's way more than a soap opera effect every TV has when you turn motion smoothing on."

Well, that's… certainly a take. The Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 head, who is working to turn his RPG into a TV show or movie now, doesn't exactly echo the more popular sentiment across the industry here, though. Many developers have spoken out against the AI tech.

From Baldur's Gate 3 to Palworld devs, folks across the industry have said "we need to push back harder" against what they dub Nvidia's "AI slop" filter. Quite a few players themselves agree, and this can be seen under Vávra's own post here.

"Actually, it's exactly that; even motion smoothing got improved over the years. It's still distracting, and it never won't be," reads one such comment, arguing that the tech won't ever improve enough.

"I personally don't believe that computer-generated imagery will ever pass the sniff test of the uncanny valley." Vávra, unsurprisingly, disagrees – and he responds saying as much: "You are funny. It already did."

Well, I'm not sure I think so myself… but everyone's entitled to their own opinions, I suppose. DLSS 5 is likely set to launch sometime in the fall, so we've got a good few months to go yet before we see how it truly plays out.

I'm not holding my breath, though. I think I've seen enough – the strange Instagram-ification of Grace from Resident Evil Requiem has been seared permanently into my brain… as have the somehow more horrifying Oblivion Remastered NPCs' faces.

Modders are teaming up to make Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 multiplayer a reality with visions for PvP and GTA-style RP, and there's an early playable version already