Through a mod, gamers have been able to try out a version of Nvidia's controversial DLSS 5 before its official release. This hasn't done anything to help the tech's reputation as an AI slop filter, as its AI-powered "improvements" to game visuals often produce uncanny results, conflicting with the developers' original vision.
However, the tech has one public supporter in the industry: Daniel Vávra. He is best known as the director of both of the Kingdom Come: Deliverance games, and often weighs in on discourse in the industry. This has been no exception, with Vávra praising DLSS 5 while sharing the results it produces with Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and arguing back against fans who want generative AI nowhere near game development.
This all kicked off when Vávra used character models in KCD2 to defend DLSS 5. He said that because the AI filter didn't change the model's geometry, it didn't go against the artists' vision, and actually looked closer to how the model would have looked when the artist created it.
"I often criticised the character artists’ work when certain faces in the game looked lacking in detail and plasticity, and they’d often show me that it looked fine on their computers and that the problem was with the lighting in the game," says Vávra. "Well, now it looks right in the game, too! This is how those faces were supposed to look. The AI isn’t making anything up."
While this won some people over, others pushed back, showing examples where DLSS 5 changed character models dramatically. Others said this was a moot point, because he had not provided the original render he mentioned for comparison, so we can't see if this is really what the artist would have wanted.
In response to the pushback, Vávra made more posts in support of using AI in game development. "I’m retired for now, sipping whiskey, and having a great time, so I don’t give a f**k," he said. "The whole AI situation is really funny. A very vocal group of people hates it, and absolutely every developer is terrified that they’ll come after them, so they all swear up and down that they definitely don’t use any AI. The reality? Of course that EVERYONE uses it! Every one! [sic]"
He doubles down on that last point. "Programmers can’t get anything done without it anymore. Most developers are building their own AI tools for just about everything," he says. "It can generate high-quality character models, it helps animators, and it’s used by concept artists, 3D artists, screenwriters, and designers... Research, writing, ideas development, concepts... Even people who don’t know how to program use it to create tools that programmers never had time to code for them."
To round off, he then posted a meme, parodying the usual "your AI slop bores me" image. Instead, his reads "your human slop bores me", which has only upset fans further.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.thegamer.com/kingdom-come-deliverance-director-pro-ai-rant-dlss-5/
