DLSS 5 offers an “wonderful photorealistic improve to the character lighting mannequin” in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, says Daniel Vávra, former inventive director at Warhorse Studios. Following its controversial reveal in March 2026, Nvidia’s AI-driven real-time neural rendering mannequin has been criticized for its “uncanny valley” filter impact, which appeared to vary characters’ faces. Now that DLSS 5 has been leaked, the web is flooded with movies, pictures, and recent opinions on the matter, together with these posted by Vávra on X.
“First off—what was leaked isn’t even remotely what NVIDIA initially introduced. It doesn’t alter the geometry of the fashions or the looks of the characters in any method,” writes Vávra. “What it does is take present regular maps and create a lot better pores and skin texture and facial element […] than the lighting mannequin within the sport.”
In keeping with Vávra, his comparisons present that DLSS 5 refrains from altering the character’s geometry (their facial form), but it offers greater than a dehaze filter. He finds that the important thing lies within the ambient occlusion, a shading and rendering method that calculates the suitable place and quantity of shadow in line with an object’s setting. In different phrases, Vávra argues that DLSS 5 improves shades forged by objects like helmets and buckles.
Vávra specified that he isn’t working for any firm nor on any sport for the time being, however his put up sparked many new and heated discussions on DLSS 5. Whereas some commenters are impressed by Vávra’s findings, many stay skeptical, particularly since Vávra used screenshots as proof, whereas among the extra important DLSS 5 testers have posted movies. Since DLSS 5 appears to supply a filter based mostly solely on what’s within the body, some commenters concern that lighting results are mere guesswork when the supply is unknown, thus offering “pretend” particulars that do not match practical shadows.
Others level out that the developer cannot management the AI enhancements, citing this lack of management as problematic. On prime of that, if the rendering is left to DLSS 5, builders might really feel justified in delivering unfinished merchandise, or merchandise which have hardly been touched by a human hand.
“DLSS 5 is gonna be like what Unreal Engine 5 has been like,” feedback Determined-Intern in a Reddit thread. “There will probably be [a] handful of studios taking correct benefit of their instruments. However [a] good majority will simply take the simple method out. DLSS 5, I reckon, will probably be used for extra slop than not.”
In a follow-up put up, after declaring those that name the consequences of DLSS 5 “AI slop” loopy, Vávra says they create Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 nearer to the artists’ authentic imaginative and prescient.
In a 3rd message, he defends his stance on using AI basically, saying that “Completely each developer throughout many firms that I’ve spoken with over the previous 12 months makes use of AI. Programmers can’t get something finished with out it anymore. […] I spent 7 years working day and evening on ONE sport. If something helped me to make it in a single 12 months I might take it anytime. Nobody needs to work on a sport for a decade. Certain, I might reasonably [have] made 7 video games as a substitute of 1 in that point.”
In response to latest DLSS 5 movies that also present the uncanny valley impact, Vávra urges individuals to not “imagine all these pretend movies circulating the web proper now.”
Whereas there isn’t any proof that the movies are pretend, it is attainable that the DLSS 5 tester’s settings have a profound impression on the sense of realism. Whether or not that sense of realism is correct, and even fascinating, will in all probability stay some extent of competition for a while to come back — a minimum of till DLSS 5 is launched.