In context: Nvidia's GeForce Experience software offers several unique features, but one of the more interesting examples is "Freestyle." Freestyle lets you apply post-processing filters to your games in real-time, allowing you to adjust saturation, add film grain effects, and much more – provided the title you're playing supports the technology.
Freestyle probably isn't the most used feature in GeForce Experience's arsenal, but it's still reasonably entertaining to fiddle around with. Of course, it has practical applications, as well: you might consider activating Freestyle's blue light reduction or sharpening filters, for example (the latter worked quite well in our own testing).
Moving on to today's news, Freestyle has finally arrived on Nvidia's GeForce Now platform, further increasing parity between the cloud gaming service and its traditional desktop counterparts – if only slightly. Unfortunately, that is both a good and a bad thing, as activating Freestyle filters typically leads to a drop in performance.
Most gamers probably won't notice the difference (it's fairly small for most filters), but it might be troublesome to cloud gaming enthusiasts, who are already locked to lower framerates due to the limitations of game streaming technology.
Freestyle isn't a game-changing feature by any means, but Nvidia is probably hoping its inclusion in GeForce Now will entice at least a few fence-sitters to consider giving the service a chance. After all, the opportunity to make even the most dark and dreary games look like a storybook painting or cartoon could be quite appealing to some; even if the end result won't blow anyone away.
If you want to try GeForce Now, consider testing out its free plan. You are limited to one hour of playtime per session, but that should be long enough to decide whether the service is for you. If you enjoy it, you can upgrade to the paid plan, which is $5/month for your first year.
Image credit: Nikki Meel