Everyone already had a reason to play Control this week with the new DLC, but now there’s an even better reason. In an embargoed GDC-esque briefing, Nvidia revealed that the much better version of their AI-powered anti-aliasing technique, deep learning super sampling (DLSS), would be patched into the next chapter of Jesse Faden’s adventure. But Jesse’s not the only one to benefit, because Mechwarrior 5 of all games is getting the new DLSS too.
The changes to DLSS were already released a couple of months ago, except Nvidia wasn’t really ready to talk publicly about it at the time. DLSS’s main problem was that it was super limited to certain resolutions, the machine learning model had to be applied on a game-by-game basis making it hard to expand support, and the effect on visual quality sometimes wasn’t worth the performance boost.
But with Control, DLSS quietly changed. Nvidia put a ton of effort into making a new version of DLSS that ran on the traditional shader cores of a GPU, making a DLSS model that was more adaptable and could be used on non-RTX cards. It wasn’t a model that was applicable on a broader basis because of how intensive it was to apply, but the effort done led Nvidia’s engineers towards a new version of DLSS that featured a more generalised algorithm, making DLSS more applicable to more games in the future.
[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/02/nvidia-rtx-dlss-quietly-got-a-hell-of-a-lot-better/” thumb=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/08/control-final-4-410×231.jpg” title=”Nvidia Very Quietly Made DLSS A Hell Of A Lot Better” excerpt=”Nvidia has completely redone how their AI-powered anti-aliasing technique works, implementing a new system that will be applicable for all games going forward without the need to train networks individually.”]
In their embargoed briefing, Nvidia took press and influencers through the updates to Mechwarrior 5 and Control, which would arrive with the next Game Ready driver. A Game Ready driver went out early Friday morning for DOOM Eternal, but the notes for that don’t include any updates for Mechwarrior 5 or Control, and there’s no mention of new DLSS features either.
The basic advantages is that you’ll get more accuracy and sharpness details in distance, particularly fine edges and text. You’ll have a mix of options for DLSS now: a Quality, Balanced and Performance presets. Quality is generally the way to go at 1080p or 1440p, as we saw with Wolfenstein: Youngblood, but you’ll get a FPS improvement in all three modes as long as DLSS is enabled.
I’ve reached out to Nvidia for clarity on precisely when the games will get the new DLSS implementation, and they confirmed that MW5 will have the new DLSS now while Control will get the patch when the DLC launches later this week. It’s a great chance to revisit both games, maybe Control more so than Mechwarrior 5. Also, as a fun little bonus fact: Microsoft are the ones who own the trademarks for MechWarrior and Battletech.
Writing about MechWarrior again, of all things, and spotted this interesting bit: Microsoft owns the trademark for Mechwarrior *AND* BattleTech.
So a publisher the size of Microsoft has the ability to, say, remaster Mechwarrior 2. Who wants to lobby @XboxP3? pic.twitter.com/UdvTH0i2QO
— alex (@dippizuka) March 20, 2020
Make it happen, Phil.
[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2019/02/what-moments-in-games-do-you-remember-that-felt-like-the-future/” thumb=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/03/2017022821154600-F1C11A22FAEE3B82F21B330E1B786A39-410×231.jpg” title=”What Moments In Games Do You Remember That Felt Like The Future?” excerpt=”Games are great at reminding us of the past, even their own. But far less common is the feeling that you’re looking forward in time, playing a game that will set the standard for what follows.”]
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