What is Nvidia's AI-powered DLSS 3.5? How does it work?

Nvidia's DLSS technology has been a game changer for PC gamers who want to enjoy the benefits of Ray Tracing without sacrificing performance. DLSS stands for Deep Learning Super Sampling and it uses artificial intelligence to upscale lower resolution images to higher resolution with minimal quality loss.

DLSS has been continuously evolving since its launch in 2018 and the 2023 version, DLSS 3.5, promises to deliver even better results for Ray Tracing games and applications. Read on to learn what DLSS 3.5 is, how it works, and what it means for you as a gamer or creator.

What is DLSS 3.5?

DLSS 3.5 is the 2023 evolution of Nvidia's DLSS technology. It introduces the new Ray Reconstruction technique that uses AI to generate higher quality pixels for scenes with Ray Tracing applied.

Ray Tracing is a technique that simulates how light behaves in the real world, creating realistic shadows, reflections, and overall illumination. However, Ray Tracing is computationally intensive and requires huge processing power from your graphics card. That's why Nvidia introduced DLSS, which uses AI to upscale lower resolution images to higher resolutions while maintaining or enhancing image quality.

DLSS 3.5 goes even further by using AI to reconstruct missing or noisy pixels in Ray Tracing scenes. Unlike previous versions of DLSS, which used a manually adjusted denoising engine for each light pass, DLSS 3.5 uses a unique neural network that can generate higher quality pixels for any transmission of light. This means that DLSS 3.5 can reduce artifacts such as inaccurate color, inaccurate lighting and ghosting that sometimes occur when Ray Tracing.

How does DLSS 3.5 work? What is Ray Reconstruction?

DLSS 3.5 combines the best features of previous DLSS versions while also introducing a new technique called Ray Reconstruction. Ray Reconstruction is a new way of using AI to improve Ray Tracing quality by creating higher quality pixels from low quality pixels.

Ray Tracing works by passing light rays from the camera into the scene and calculating how they interact with objects and materials in the scene. Each ray represents a pixel on the screen, and the more rays there are, the more precise and detailed the lighting effects are.

However, transmitting more rays also requires more processing power, which can reduce performance and resolution. To ensure this balance, the Ray Tracing method typically uses fewer rays than pixels on the screen and then uses a denoising algorithm to fill in the missing pixels by averaging or interpolating neighboring pixels. .

Denoising algorithms can produce good results in some cases, but can also produce artifacts such as blurring, color bleed, or ghosting. These artifacts can reduce the realism and immersion of Ray Tracing games.

Ray Reconstruction is an AI-powered denoising algorithm that uses an artificial neural network to create higher quality pixels from low quality pixels. Unlike conventional denoising tools that use manually tuned rules or heuristics to fill in missing pixels, Ray Reconstruction uses a data-driven approach that learns from millions of pixels. example of a high-quality image rendered using the Ray Tracing method.

It analyzes each pixel on the screen and compares it to the corresponding ray in the scene. It then uses information from the light rays to more accurately reconstruct pixels that match the color, brightness, and direction of the light source.

What are the benefits of DLSS 3.5?

Older versions of DLSS compete favorably in upgrade comparisons. However, it brings even more benefits to gamers and creators who use Ray Tracing in their games and applications. Here are some of its benefits:

1. Improved image quality : DLSS 3.5 can produce higher quality images than DLSS 3 by using more data and a more advanced AI network. DLSS 3.5 can also preserve more detail and avoid artifacts that can occur when applying Ray Tracing, such as inaccurate lighting, color bleed, or noise.
2. Increased performance : DLSS 3.5 can increase the frame rate and resolution of Ray Tracing games by reducing GPU load and effectively upscaling visuals. DLSS 3.5 can also bring greater performance benefits to Ray Tracing games, using the Ray Tracing method for all aspects of the scene, such as shadows, reflections, refraction, overall lighting and surrounding obscurity.
3. Wider compatibility : DLSS 3.5 will work with all RTX series GPUs, not just the latest RTX 40 series GPUs. This means more gamers will be able to enjoy the advantages of DLSS 3.5 in their favorite Ray Tracing games.
4. Enhanced creative capabilities : DLSS 3.5 will also be available to creators who use Ray Tracing in their 3D editing applications, such as Chaos Vantage, D5 Render, and Nvidia Omniverse. DLSS 3.5 will help them create high-quality and more accurate render previews in these applications, saving them time and resources.

As you can see, DLSS 3.5 is a comprehensive upgrade from DLSS 3.

Lesley Montoya

Update 12 October 2023