PS5 Game Devs Collectively Clown on Nvidia’s Controversial DLSS 5 Tech

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Nvidia’s new DLSS 5 technology is generating a lot of discussion online, as many gamers have noticed significant changes in how characters appear when using the AI-powered upscaling feature.

Honestly, a lot of people really dislike this effect, and it seems like a lot of game developers agree with me – at least, that’s what I’m seeing on X!

Many studios are responding to Nvidia’s announcement video by sharing their own memes that playfully mock the heavily filtered, or “yassified,” faces shown in it.

Here are some we’ve discovered so far:

It’s fair to say not all developers are onboard, then.

To provide a different perspective, this video features an interview with Bryan Heemskerk, the art director at Massive Damage Inc. He shares a more thoughtful take on the topic.

Heemskerk understands Nvidia’s goals. He points out that newer methods like ray tracing and path tracing have taken the place of older techniques – things like pre-rendered textures and lighting – which were previously used to create a specific visual style in games.

As a fan, I’m honestly a little bothered by what Nvidia’s doing. It feels like they’re trying to work around the real issue instead of fixing it, and it’s leading to some unexpected and unpleasant results. It just doesn’t sit right with me because it seems to completely miss the point of what artists are trying to achieve.

According to Heemskerk, Capcom had a specific vision for Grace’s appearance, but her final design looks significantly different. He describes it as if the designers took inspiration from the most popular Instagram profiles and blended them together, resulting in a generic, average look.

As a big fan, I was really interested to hear what this person had to say. Apparently, it’s super important to them that modders can actually create effects for the game. They even said that FromSoftware wasn’t totally happy with how the Demon’s Souls remake looked, artistically. So, they’re worried about features that change the visuals without meaning to – things that could accidentally mess up the artistic vision. They even mentioned that if the artists working on Requiem saw some of these unintended changes, they’d be pretty upset about it. It all comes down to respecting the original artistic intent, which I totally get!

It’s really worth hearing his complete perspective. He discusses how focusing solely on ultra-realistic graphics in games, instead of unique artistic styles, could be a problem. He also raises concerns that artists might become less creative knowing that technology like DLSS 5 can automatically correct imperfections.

It will be fascinating to hear what developers and artists think about this and how they see things. Currently, most reactions have been negative, but we might see a more varied opinion as people have more time to consider the technology.

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2026-03-17 21:07