Back in the 2010s, it felt like we were witnessing a race to the most "realistic" graphics possible. As consumer hardware and game dev tools got more powerful, the piss filter faded into obscurity as lens flare, more detailed textures, and a push to make the most of next-gen gaming PCs came to the fore. We saw an influx of video games striving for a hyper-realistic look back in those days, that were inevitably followed by even better-looking remasters of themselves as time went on. For a while there, more realistic meant better, but I was hoping that school of thought had disappeared.
Graphical fidelity hasn't stopped progressing, but I really thought we were past that quite narrow-minded view of "objectively" good or bad video game graphics. Now, Nvidia is preparing to boot DLSS 5 into our games, and it somehow feels like we've taken a backstep.
If you haven't heard, DLSS 5 is making its way to 50 Series GPUs at the end of this week, initially launching alongside NBA 2K27, but almost certainly coming to other titles in due course.
When I was at Gamescom last week, I saw a behind-closed-doors look at the latest form of Nvidia's upscaling tech, and I got to ask questions about how the brand intends it to be used.
One of my initial concerns during the demo was about how this Generative AI layer flattens the nuances of art direction. I don't want to see an AI filter over beloved indie games with highly stylized visual design; I don't want to see games like Dishonored pushed through an AI model to make them look more "realistic" because that would kind of be missing the point.
Thankfully, Nvidia did reassure me both that developers can opt into specific DLSS 5 support, and that it's only really being intended for games that strive for a "photorealistic" look. Thank god! But even then, I still have concerns.
I, for one, really enjoy the subtle differences in graphical stylings when looking at games that you could argue strive for some sort of photorealism. Battlefield 6, Control, GTA 6, The Last of Us Part II, and even Hunt: Showdown all have aspects of realism, but I would argue they all know where the line is.
I wouldn't argue that any of these games are necessarily striving for "photorealistic" graphics, though, even if some of their art styles do have very lifelike environments, lighting, facial models, or weaponry. I really thought we had reached a point where we realised that video games look great because they don't look photoreal. Everything appearing like it's been captured in live action is certainly impressive, but it'd be a horrifically boring video game market both on the software and hardware side if that's what all of them looked like.
Video game art styles are interesting because of their unique detachments from photorealism, and it feels like Nvidia is completely missing that in the name of being the brand to finally crack the puzzle.
Sure, we now know that thanks to DLSS 5's developer controls, artists and game devs will be able to have some say over how the tech changes their work, but I'm not personally sure they'll have enough control to let their unique looks shine.
DLSS 5's developer controls let them choose between three different AI models for each object, character, and sometimes clothing within a scene. They can then use sliders that will increase or decrease the structural and tonal intensity of the object within DLSS 5's parameters.
But here's the thing: it's still a generative AI layer that's trained on striving for photorealism above all else; it might be somewhat more sensitive to visual styles now than it was when we initially saw "yassified" Grace and Leon back in March, but it's still using its AI model to make things look more photoreal.
While Nvidia thinks this makes games look objectively better, I don't agree.
In fairness, this difference of opinion makes sense. Nvidia has been striving to create the best graphics cards for decades now, with an end goal always to provide the power to gamers so that they can say they have the best graphical power on their machine, which can produce the most realistic lighting, faces, and objects in their titles.
And DLSS 5 feels like it's achieving that sort of goal. It's certainly impressive in some contexts - the comparisons from NBA 2K27, a game that's striving for as close to photorealistic visuals as possible to give you a hyper-accurate simulation of pro basketball, are pretty bang-on. I can't lie and say the "DLSS on" comparison shots don't look more photoreal and more like the human athletes they're trying to recreate. But I'm still not sure they're "objectively better" than the hand-crafted characters the developers of the game made themselves. I like the original work's small imperfections, I like the stylised visuals, I like the fact I'm not looking at live-action characters when I play games.
I'm also not sure harnessing generative AI for this is the best way Nvidia could have gone about achieving photorealism.
Our brains are getting better at looking for generative AI imagery by the day. As advanced as AI gets at creating false photography and graphics, I can spot it a mile off because I'm morally opposed to the use of AI for creative ventures. I don't see "more photoreal" graphics when I look at DLSS 5; I see uncanny AI that reminds me of how disruptive and broken it's making so many creative industries. If anything, that presence of AI takes me out of things more than slightly less realistic graphics made by humans would. I'd happily sustain my belief with NBA 2K27's best attempts at making realistic athletes in games, but I can't do that with generative AI faces because I'm thinking more about AI than I am about how impressive it all looks.
And yet, I feel as though that strive for realistic graphics back in the day was so that people would feel more immersed in their games. It might sound counterintuitive, but I think the less photorealistic a game looks, the more of my imagination it's likely to capture.
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