DLSS Discoveries

[MiloslavBlazena]

Hello everyone,

I was seeing plenty of screenshots taken by people using DLSS, and found something odd was happening. I am generally impressed by DLSS's image reconstructing technique and the anti-aliasing method it uses on top of it to produce image quality sometimes better than the native rendering images, but not everything is created equal with the Dawntrail benchmark, it seems.

Here is an image of the forest scene using DLSS with "Always On" selected at 1440p:

or (https://i.imgur.com/XxPcBqi.png)



Next, here is an image of the forest scene using DLSS but with the target framerate for which DLSS will ACTIVATE when it hits below 60 FPS, while my active framerate is above 60:

or (https://i.imgur.com/3kTmvdg.jpeg)



I think the image with the DLSS target framerate limit looks better. But why? Isn't it supposed to activate only when the framerate is below the chosen target?

Ok, so this is what I can infer is happening. DLAA is the anti-aliasing aspect packaged with DLSS, and is generally always automatically applied when you are using DLSS. What's going on is that if a target framerate for DLSS is selected in the benchmark, and your active framerate is ABOVE that target, your resolution remains at native (with no downscaling then upresing), but you keep the DLAA for the smoothest, sharpest image possible.

Currently, if you want the best possible image quality and your PC is at least decent, set your framerate target for DLSS at 30 FPS so it basically never triggers, and you get to reap the benefit of the DLAA.

[Haru304]

Thanks for the tip! I'll give this a go. I'm using an RTX 3060 and I've noticed that the benchmark tool scores higher when I use FSR instead of DLSS. Can you think of any reason why that would be? I'm not very good with the technical aspects of this stuff.

[MiloslavBlazena]

Thanks for the tip! I'll give this a go. I'm using an RTX 3060 and I've noticed that the benchmark tool scores higher when I use FSR instead of DLSS. Can you think of any reason why that would be? I'm not very good with the technical aspects of this stuff.

FSR 1.0 (what FFXIV is using) is a software-based scaler that (pardon my crude interpretation) simply renders the game at a lower resolution then applies a very advanced sharpening filter to the image, while DLSS is hardware based and exclusive to the nvidia GPUs above the 2000 series. FSR is 1.0 sometimes better than nothing, but sometimes it makes jaggies even worse. They really should be using FSR 3.

[Haru304]

Thank you, thank you.

[Jeeqbit]

Thanks for the tip! I'll give this a go. I'm using an RTX 3060 and I've noticed that the benchmark tool scores higher when I use FSR instead of DLSS.

Exact same here! 3060 and FSR seems better.

[SigmaOZ]

Nice finding!.


I have tested both and DLSS looks better in my opinion, I can see a little more detail in the very thin lines, it does look sharper also.

[Larirawiel]

Currently, if you want the best possible image quality and your PC is at least decent, set your framerate target for DLSS at 30 FPS so it basically never triggers, and you get to reap the benefit of the DLAA.

You can also use DLSSTweaks and force DLAA forever.

Edit, here my settings:



Edit2: And i have openend a thread with the suggestion to give the players more control over DLAA/DLSS:
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...A-DLSS-options



Cheers

[MiloslavBlazena]

You can also use DLSSTweaks and force DLAA forever.

Edit, here my settings:



Edit2: And i have openend a thread with the suggestion to give the players more control over DLAA/DLSS:
https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...A-DLSS-options



Cheers

Thanks for this. I know you can tweak DLSS using the Nvidia control panel but I was just trying to simplify it further.

[aiqa]

FF14 settings are always weird. Even Nvidia is confused by FF14 settings, Gforce experience enables LOD because it thinks "well... without LOD you wouldn't have distant objects". But enabling LOD settings in FF14 mean you get lower quality distant object, and disabling LOD options in FF14 means you get full quality distant objects.

Regarding the DLSS options. It's obvious the "always on" has a lower render resolution. What I think happens is DLSS is always on in both, but with "when below 60" it lowers render resolution when framerate drops below 60fps. While "always on" always lowers render resolution.
So basically, while you're above 60 fps with "when below 60" you get DLAA, or DLSS quality mode. And when you drop below 60 fps or with "always on" you get a lower render resolution, so the equivalent of a lower DLSS setting.

[MiloslavBlazena]

FF14 settings are always weird. Even Nvidia is confused by FF14 settings, Gforce experience enables LOD because it thinks "well... without LOD you wouldn't have distant objects". But enabling LOD settings in FF14 mean you get lower quality distant object, and disabling LOD options in FF14 means you get full quality distant objects.

Regarding the DLSS options. It's obvious the "always on" has a lower render resolution. What I think happens is DLSS is always on in both, but with "when below 60" it lowers render resolution when framerate drops below 60fps. While "always on" always lowers render resolution.
So basically, while you're above 60 fps with "when below 60" you get DLAA, or DLSS quality mode. And when you drop below 60 fps or with "always on" you get a lower render resolution, so the equivalent of a lower DLSS setting.

When I use DLSS in other games, the upscaling tech typically results in a pretty good image quality, but for the benchmark it causes horrible aliasing underneath the DLAA being applied. I don't know if it's implemented correctly or the resolution it lowers to on a (hidden scale) is extremely low. The lower the resolution when using DLSS in other games, it becomes blurrier, not more jagged and then blurrier. It's not very good.

I should also mention that it's possible the poor image stability in the screenshots of my first post being caused by the upscaler being turned always on could be due to my resolution, 1440p. FFXIV plays nice with settings related to 1080p, 4k, etc., but 1440p is an irregular choice between these two and its possible their implementation is not dividing the pixels evenly.