One of the latest enhancements to Nvidia’s graphics cards has been its Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) technology, which boosts a game’s frames per second, sometimes by over two times. Now Nvidia is re-purposing DLSS, this time to smooth out the image quality on a 7-year-old PC game.
The system is called Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing (DLAA), and the company is now testing it on the Elder Scrolls Online, which launched in 2014, but is still played today.
“Many gamers want higher frame rates. But others have plenty of FPS and instead want to maximize image quality,” the GPU maker wrote in a post on Monday. “Nvidia DLAA (Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing) is a new AI-based anti-aliasing mode for users who have spare GPU headroom and want higher levels of image quality.”
Indeed, the latest Nvidia graphics card can already run many older PC games at over 120 fps without DLSS. Nevertheless, the developer of Elder Scrolls Online saw potential in the same technology addressing a problem in gaming known as aliasing, where jagged, “stair-stepped” lines will appear on 3D objects.
For years now, developers have been using existing anti-aliasing techniques to smooth out the edges for a more realistic image quality. However, Nvidia’s DLAA tech promises to take the anti-aliasing to another level.
“Nvidia DLAA really improves our game by delivering the best anti-aliasing results in Elder Scrolls Online that we have seen to date,” according to Rich Lambert, creative director at the game’s publisher, ZeniMax Online Studios.
The technology works by leveraging how Nvidia’s DLSS system uses AI algorithms to render a game at 1080p and then upscale the image to a higher resolution at 1440p or 4K. The result can create a higher FPS rate without sacrificing much image quality.
DLAA, on other hand, uses the same technology “but works on a native resolution image to maximize image quality instead of boosting performance,” Nvidia said.
“It’s not something every game would need, but for ESO it just made sense,” added Alex Tardif, lead graphics programmer ZeniMax Online Studios, in a tweet.
The only catch is that just like Nvidia’s DLSS technology, DLAA can only be activated with an Nvidia RTX 2000 or 3000 series card. The DLAA tech is currently available on the test servers for Elder Scrolls Online.
