This mod adds AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution to SteamVR games

[Cal Jeffrey]

In context: Virtual reality as a platform is still young and has many limits. One is graphical fidelity and frame rate. There is a delicate balancing act behind the scenes that provides the best clarity possible while maintaining a frame rate that will not induce vomiting. One way to reduce GPU workload and improve FPS is to use some form of supersampling like DLSS or FSR.

German modder Frydrych Holger has implemented AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) tech into StreamVR. It should help VR titles boost frame rates without compromising image quality. He has tested it with Skyrim VR and Fallout4 VR, and the results look pretty good. Holger explains the process on his GitHub page.

"The idea is that the game internally renders to a lower resolution, thus saving GPU time and reaching higher FPS, as long as it is not bottlenecked by the CPU. The resulting lower resolution render is then upscaled to the target resolution by FSR, with the aim of restoring some of the lost detail due to the lower resolution rendering. It does so in two steps - the first being the actual upscaling to the target resolution, where particular attention is paid to edges in the lower resolution picture. The second step is a sharpening step to counter some of the blur introduced by the upscaling."

Comparison between native (left) and FRS Ultra Quality (right).

AMD's FSR is open-source and platform-agnostic, so it should work with any GPU as long as the game uses Direct 3D 11. Holger does warn, however, that FSR is not capable of anti-aliasing, so your mileage may vary from game to game. That said, some tweaking can help. AMD says that when using FSR, use the highest-quality anti-aliasing setting a game offers. Holger advises enabling multisample anti-aliasing if it's available. Otherwise, use temporal anti-aliasing.

Sharpness and render scale can also be fiddled with in the mod's configuration file (openvr_mod.cfg). Holger says to experiment with these settings to find what looks best for any particular game and VR rig setup. You can grab the mod along with more detailed instructions on Holger's GitHub page. Also, be sure to check out the interactive Fallout 4 and Skyrim comparisons (pictured above).

Holger notes that the FSR mod does not work with Half-Life Alyx or Star Wars: Squadrons. These two games do not allow the replacement of the "openvr_dll.api file" [sic]. Of course, once the mod has had some time to circulate in the wild, more issues are bound to show up. Holger asks users to report games that don't work to him, presumably so he can make patches to the mod when necessary, provided there is a solution to whatever is causing it not to work.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/90541-mod-adds-amd-fidelityfx-super-resolution-steamvr-games.html

 

[Dimitriid]

Nice! This probably means it's coming to regular Fallout 4 and Skyrim too (Non-VR versions) Mind you it doesn't takes much to run those even at 4k but if you're modding them heavily then you *can* slow them down severely so it would help people mod these games heavily while still having playable framerates and modest hardware.

 

[punctualturn]

Man, the anti-nvidia bias of this site is insane, now all you see is FSR!!

/S tobe clear.



Check this out, FSR on almost all Vulkan games, not only on VR, via Proton on Linux:

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/wine/pull/116


More info here:

AMD FSR Can Be Applied to (Almost) All Vulkan Games via Proton's FSHack

AMD FSR can now be applied to all Vulkan games (with a few exceptions) when playing on Linux via Proton's fullscreen hack.

wccftech.com

 

[meric]

This is the beauty of open-source software. Hope to see this technology provided as the de-facto standard in the upcoming games in many different platforms.

 

[Kosmoz]

Compare this impressive adoption rate of FSR to DLSS when it launched ...*crickets*...
Yeah, I could even see FSR equaling DLSS supported titles as soon as this year.

Next year will have even more and will surpass it.

GJ AMD, open-source software for open-mind gamers.

 

[trgz]

'openvr_dll.api'? Surely you mean 'openvr_api.dll'?

 

[Irata]

If FSR is that easy to implement for modders with no access to the games‘ source code, why is it not being added to pretty much every game ?

Seems like publishers could widen their target audience and improve user experience by investing a few days of work (at most).

 

[Shadowboxer]

Man, the anti-nvidia bias of this site is insane, now all you see is FSR!!

Oh well, if you cant beat them, join them.

/S



Check this out, FSR on all Vulkan games, not only on VR:

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/wine/pull/116


More info here:

AMD FSR Can Be Applied to (Almost) All Vulkan Games via Proton's FSHack

AMD FSR can now be applied to all Vulkan games (with a few exceptions) when playing on Linux via Proton's fullscreen hack.

wccftech.com

Techspot/Steve Waltons beef with Nvidia is well publicised. It’s a bias but not a hidden one.

 

[Cal Jeffrey]

'openvr_dll.api'? Surely you mean 'openvr_api.dll'?

I'm sure that's what he meant. Just a typo on the GitHub page.

Techspot/Steve Waltons beef with Nvidia is well-publicized. It’s a bias but not a hidden one.

Steve has had tension with Nvidia and indeed that is no secret. I'm not sure how that relationship stands at the moment. That said, I have no bias against Nvidia or DLSS. I just report what I see. Had a modder implemented DLSS in SteamVR, that is what I would have written about. Of course, that is less likely to happen. Open-source alternatives are much more attractive to the modding community. Being platform agnostic is a big plus as well.

 

[Shadowboxer]

I'm sure that's what he meant. Just a typo on the GitHub page.

Steve has had tension with Nvidia and indeed that is no secret. I'm not sure how that relationship stands at the moment. That said, I have no bias against Nvidia or DLSS. I just report what I see. Had a modder implemented DLSS in SteamVR, that is what I would have written about. Of course, that is less likely to happen. Open-source alternatives are much more attractive to the modding community. Being platform agnostic is a big plus as well.

I’m not criticising your article. It seems fine. It’s more the “editorial direction” of this media group. Type in “Hardware Unboxed DLSS” on YouTube and you get lists of videos with DLSS=Fail etc as thumbnail. Anyone who follows this outlet can see that Techspot/HUB gave far harsher scrutiny in general over DLSS than they do FSR. It’s the same with Radeons ray tracing claims, Radeon market it on their hardware just like Nvidia does but it gets left untested whilst HUB/Techspot condemn Nvidias solution for tanking frame rates, when it’s likely that the Radeon solution performs worse. And in the meantime the consoles press on with better ray tracing support than Radeon. Why are AMD being excused for neglecting Radeon and it’s buyers?

To me, FSR should be judged against DLSS today, not what DLSS was at launch. You know an accurate comparison that a consumer actually faces. Yet that doesn’t happen here, once again Hub/Techspot seem to be excusing AMD for being late with their FSR solution. (Not this article).

 

[Puiu]

I’m not criticising your article. It seems fine. It’s more the “editorial direction” of this media group. Type in “Hardware Unboxed DLSS” on YouTube and you get lists of videos with DLSS=Fail etc as thumbnail. Anyone who follows this outlet can see that Techspot/HUB gave far harsher scrutiny in general over DLSS than they do FSR. It’s the same with Radeons ray tracing claims, Radeon market it on their hardware just like Nvidia does but it gets left untested whilst HUB/Techspot condemn Nvidias solution for tanking frame rates, when it’s likely that the Radeon solution performs worse. And in the meantime the consoles press on with better ray tracing support than Radeon. Why are AMD being excused for neglecting Radeon and it’s buyers?

To me, FSR should be judged against DLSS today, not what DLSS was at launch. You know an accurate comparison that a consumer actually faces. Yet that doesn’t happen here, once again Hub/Techspot seem to be excusing AMD for being late with their FSR solution. (Not this article).

There is no excuse, FSR works well enough for what it is.

 

[kiwigraeme]

I’m not criticising your article. It seems fine. It’s more the “editorial direction” of this media group. Type in “Hardware Unboxed DLSS” on YouTube and you get lists of videos with DLSS=Fail etc as thumbnail. Anyone who follows this outlet can see that Techspot/HUB gave far harsher scrutiny in general over DLSS than they do FSR. It’s the same with Radeons ray tracing claims, Radeon market it on their hardware just like Nvidia does but it gets left untested whilst HUB/Techspot condemn Nvidias solution for tanking frame rates, when it’s likely that the Radeon solution performs worse. And in the meantime the consoles press on with better ray tracing support than Radeon. Why are AMD being excused for neglecting Radeon and it’s buyers?

To me, FSR should be judged against DLSS today, not what DLSS was at launch. You know an accurate comparison that a consumer actually faces. Yet that doesn’t happen here, once again Hub/Techspot seem to be excusing AMD for being late with their FSR solution. (Not this article).

I'm not sure of your point - DLSS was rightly criticised as V1 - FSR is compared to DLSS 2 - though the comment as a newer tech - maybe some more easier gains.
I think most people here know the pluses and minuses of both - Hardware Unbox gave a very good summary . Both excellent in 4K ultra quality and next level down - FSR just holding in 1440p UQ - everywhere else DLSS pulls ahead - FSR will emphasis rendering errors and displays a certain type of mistake ( can't remember maybe ghosting - or maybe thats DLSS ) and DLSS has another type of weakness . FSR is much easier to implement and has the advantage runs on both AMD & Nvidia cards - DLSS only runs on RTX cards - The future is bright for both techs - Gamers win - with low cost frame rates .
DLSS for those with RTX cards - quite a wide use envelope - best use UQ
FSR - best use UQ at 1440p and 4K - and making a game playable at lower settings with weak card.

 

[punctualturn]

If FSR is that easy to implement for modders with no access to the games‘ source code, why is it not being added to pretty much every game ?

Seems like publishers could widen their target audience and improve user experience by investing a few days of work (at most).

My understanding is, this particular “hack” its done at the end of the image rendering, but takes a bit more work when done “properly”.

that said, these game devs would push dlss first because plain and simple, nvidia normally pays for this or do the necessary work for them, like having their own programmers do these parts for free.

yeap, thats how nvidia rolls, just to continue keeping people locked into their ecosystem,

 

[Irata]

My understanding is, this particular “hack” its done at the end of the image rendering, but takes a bit more work when done “properly”.

that said, these game devs would push dlss first because plain and simple, nvidia normally pays for this or do the necessary work for them, like having their own programmers do these parts for free.

yeap, thats how nvidia rolls, just to continue keeping people locked into their ecosystem,

I understand that nVidia provides devs / incentives for DLSS implementation. That‘s fine by me as long as there are no exclusivity clauses precluding the studios from implementing other tech.

That said, FSR seems to be very easy to implement and - this is imho also important - update / tweak going forward.

So considering coding, testing and organizational overhead, an FSR implementation that makes the game more attractive to a very large customer base should only cost studios a couple of person days to implement, I.e. a rather low cost for a large benefit.

 

[Puiu]

I understand that nVidia provides devs / incentives for DLSS implementation. That‘s fine by me as long as there are no exclusivity clauses precluding the studios from implementing other tech.

That said, FSR seems to be very easy to implement and - this is imho also important - update / tweak going forward.

So considering coding, testing and organizational overhead, an FSR implementation that makes the game more attractive to a very large customer base should only cost studios a couple of person days to implement, I.e. a rather low cost for a large benefit.

There may not be exclusivity clauses, but you can expect Nvidia to take notice of those that took their money and still played ball with the "enemy"

 

[Cal Jeffrey]

There may not be exclusivity clauses, but you can expect Nvidia to take notice of those that took their money and still played ball with the "enemy"

Which, when boiled down, is the crux of Steve's beef with Nvidia. He reviewed their products honestly and got deprioritized over outlets that kissed Nvidia's butt with good reviews.