DLSS 5 made The Witcher 3 look extra remastered than the remaster

DLSS 5 has made fairly a stir just lately, which is shocking because it hasn’t even been “formally” launched but. Now, I’ve been doing my fair proportion of testing with the leaked model of the DLSS 5 code, and to this point, I’ve had combined outcomes. Some titles profit from the improved lighting engine, whereas others fall fully flat, trying straight out of an AI filter, to place it calmly. With the latest remaster launch of The Witcher 3, I simply needed to take a look at DLSS 5 on it.

While I wasn’t anticipating a lot, DLSS 5 did wonders for this decade-old title, and in some instances, the modded model seemed approach higher than the official remaster — although with some noticeable downsides.

The RED Engine advantages from DLSS 5’s lighting

But solely in very particular eventualities

As my previous exams with the DLSS Swapper mod have proven, DLSS 5 largely impacts a recreation’s normal lighting with out altering textures or character meshes. In The Witcher 3, the mod works equally to how I discovered it in Cyberpunk 2077. In each RED Engine titles, DLSS 5’s affect largely boils all the way down to international illumination. In most trendy video games, international illumination or GI is the important thing part that handles all exterior lighting-related calculations.

However, The Witcher 3 makes use of an older iteration of the RED Engine as its base, derived from RED Engine 3, which was first used within the growth of The Witcher 2.

>As a outcome, the shift in lighting in The Witcher video games is way extra impactful than in video games like Cyberpunk 2077 or Onimusha. That being stated, the DLSS 5 model of The Witcher 3 would not look notably good in movement. Much like within the old PS2 games I tested DLSS 5 on, the mod introduces a ton of ghosting in The Witcher 3.

DLSS 5 is a double-edged sword in the case of graphical overhaul.

Still, in particular eventualities, the modded model appears to be like barely higher than the official remaster. For occasion, the Skellige Islands or the busy streets of Novigrad look distinctive with DLSS 5.

At the identical time, extra vibrant locales like Toussaint look washed out with the DLSS mod, even on an HDR show. There are additionally situations the place NPC fashions look extremely uncanny and AI-generated. The last item I need in my Witcher “expertise” is taking quests from an NPC that appears prefer it’s created utilizing Grok.

I do like some facets of the lighting overhaul from the DLSS mod, and I even want it to the remastered’s flatter lighting. For occasion, HDR works approach higher with the mod than within the vanilla remastered model.

Installing DLSS 5 in The Witcher 3 is sort of simple

But there’s a limitation

First issues first, I did strive putting in and working the DLSS Swapper mod with DLSS 5’s library enabled on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered. Unfortunately, that model of the sport by no means labored with the mod put in. Yes, I attempted all the fundamental troubleshooting strategies, however to no avail. Instead, all my testing right here is finished on the next-gen model of the sport, which might be chosen manually inside Steam. The mod additionally works on the unique model of the sport.

I had the remaster put in on a separate drive, which let me shortly swap between the 2 variations with out downloading greater than 60GB of recreation information a number of occasions.

As for putting in the mod, it is really pretty simple. The purpose right here is to inject the nvngx_dlssnr.dll inside the recreation’s current DLSS library. To accomplish that, we’re utilizing the great ol’ DLSS Swapper by Rakanki911, which helps you to run DLSS 5 on almost any RTX GPU. Also, I extremely suggest backing up your save recordsdata forward of putting in the mod.

With the mod extracted and put in, you possibly can simply toggle DLSS 5 on and off from the sport itself. I additionally extremely suggest not putting in any re-shade mods on prime of DLSS Swapper, as it’d lead to crashes.

I nonetheless want the remaster over the DLSS 5 mod

Although I’m not an enormous fan of all of the modifications DLSS 5 tries to implement, I do like the way it affords a lighting mannequin a lot nearer to the unique Xbox 360 model of the sport in some situations. This is probably partly as a result of mod being put in over the next-gen model, as a substitute of the remastered model. Regardless, I want the unique lighting in The Witcher 3 over the remaster. I additionally like how HDR appears to be like approach higher with the mod enabled.

That stated, aside from the HDR implementation, I nonetheless want the remaster over the DLSS 5 modded variations. This is primarily resulting from two causes: ghosting and uncanny NPC fashions. Try as I’d, I’ll by no means get used to how DLSS 5 handles character fashions.

That stated, I believe DLSS 5 can ship an unimaginable uplift to The Witcher 3’s visuals, offered CDPR can tweak facets of it manually. I would like to see what the official DLSS 5 implementation will appear like in The Witcher 3. And no, this is not one other excuse for me to start out one other playthrough of the sport. I promise!