Unity will gain native Nvidia DLSS support by the end of 2021

[Polycount]

Something to look forward to: Nvidia's framerate boosting Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) tech wasn't very good at launch, but these days, it's fantastic; and only getting better over time. DLSS is now available across dozens of PC games, AAA or otherwise, and can provide substantial framerate boosts in GPU-bound scenarios. Fortunately, it's about to get even more widespread: the Unity game engine is getting native DLSS support by the end of 2021.

Since Unity is one of the most popular game engines in the world (especially among indie developers), this will be a major win for everyone: Nvidia, developers, and players alike. Of course, developers will still need to actively implement the technology, but it should be a lot easier moving forward. Since DLSS's effectiveness partially depends on the quality of its implementation, it's helpful to make that process as smooth and easy for developers as possible.

Unity's DLSS support will reach the engine through the "High Definition Render Pipeline" in its 2021.2 update, which, as previously noted, is scheduled to release sometime before the new year kicks off. A more specific release date will likely be shared as the integration nears completion.

"With just a few clicks you will be able to activate DLSS in Unity and choose between various quality options to get a boost of performance with equivalent, if not better visual quality," said Mathieu Muller, Senior Product Manager in Unity's High-End Graphics division. "...enabling high-end graphics, 4K gaming, games with high framerates, real-time ray tracing, and high-end VR."

In the above announcement video, Muller shows off a Unity-built game featuring both real-time ray tracing and an early version of the engine's DLSS plugin. The title in question is Apple Arcade's Lego Builder's Journey, a "poetic puzzle" brought to life with the most "accurately rendered LEGO elements yet to feature on screens."

We look forward to seeing DLSS's official Unity integration in action, as well as AMD's competing "Super Resolution" technology (whenever that comes out).

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/89314-unity-set-gain-native-nvidia-dlss-support-end.html

 

[Geralt]

I always prefer native resolutions and more powerful cards delivering more fps. These tricks with the resolutions degrade the image quality. In Radeons there is something like Radeon boost, supported by some games. I don't like it.

 

[Watzupken]

I think this pretty much proves the point that it is not an easy task to get DLSS up and running. While it is not as bad as DLSS 1.0 where it needs to be optimised per game, the timeline still sounds like a fairly significant effort required. This may be a 1 off effort and should benefit games running off Unity, but I wonder if there are significant changes made to the game engine, does that mean that the same effort is going to be required?

 

[Watzupken]

I always prefer native resolutions and more powerful cards delivering more fps. These tricks with the resolutions degrade the image quality. In Radeons there is something like Radeon boost, supported by some games. I don't like it.

There are pros and cons to Nvidia's DLSS. I think the rave reviews out there on the technology proves it works, and in many cases, better than native resolution. Of course that depends on the DLSS setting, I.e. Quality vs Performance. In the image comparison in this article, you can clearly tell that while Performance mode claws back the most frame rates, it also looks blurry since its upscale from a very low resolution.
Radeon boost is not at the same level as DLSS and you can tell that because AMD is also working on an AI upscaling mechanism to rival DLSS. The beauty of Radeon boost is that it works well in most games, because its just lowering the resolution and applying image sharpening on it.

 

[Crinkles]

There are pros and cons to Nvidia's DLSS. I think the rave reviews out there on the technology proves it works, and in many cases, better than native resolution. Of course that depends on the DLSS setting, I.e. Quality vs Performance. In the image comparison in this article, you can clearly tell that while Performance mode claws back the most frame rates, it also looks blurry since its upscale from a very low resolution.
Radeon boost is not at the same level as DLSS and you can tell that because AMD is also working on an AI upscaling mechanism to rival DLSS. The beauty of Radeon boost is that it works well in most games, because its just lowering the resolution and applying image sharpening on it.

FidelityFX Super Resolution, FSR - Radeon version of DLSS.
Radeon Boost is movement based image sharpening.
Radeon IMage Sharpening - upsampling filter.

Others - Radeon Anti Lag - reduces input lag.
Radeon Chill - limits FPS to save power.
Sharpness - control for sharpening strength.
Radeon Enhanced Sync - Reduces both visual tearing and lag.

There are more image and perf controls in Radeon's control panel.
I was just looking this over, got an Adrenaline update.