Developers Using DLSS To Compensate For Poor PC Optimization

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Can DLSS Save Bad PC Ports?

Modern upscaling technologies like DLSS and FSR have improved PC gaming, allowing graphics cards to achieve higher frame rates without sacrificing much visual quality. 

However, the previous year has shown several poor PC ports from various developers, with games like Forspoken requiring absurdly powerful hardware on PC while delivering bad performance across the board.

With the increasing popularity of upscaling, many developers are now using DLSS and FSR as substitutes for polished PC releases. The upcoming Atomic Heart might be the most prominent example of this scenario. 

Mundfish’s CEO recently confirmed that Atomic Heart would include Denuvo DRM. This is not uncommon for modern games, but the CEO acknowledged the performance hit that PC users would face due to the Denuvo implementation. 

When a game utilizes Denuvo, it can strain the CPU, and previous results have shown an impact on in-game fps. However, CEO Robert Bagratuni is convinced that PC users should not worry. 

He stated:

Nvidia DLSS will be able to win back losses, if any.

This also means that AMD users will be in a bad position if Atomic Heart is not an excellent PC port without DLSS. While Nvidia’s newest implementation, DLSS 3, can significantly improve frame rates, it is only available to three RTX 4000 graphics cards.

Additionally, games like Cyberpunk 2077 encourage using DLSS 3 for ray tracing, and Nvidia has also started to include DLSS 3 performance for marketing without being too transparent about it. 

Gotham Knights also include support for DLSS on PC. However, the game cannot benefit much from the upscaling technology because it is CPU-limited due to a lack of proper optimization.

Since the increasing popularity of the PC Gaming market, many had hoped that bad PC ports would be a thing of the past. However, recent examples have shown that even DLSS and FSR cannot save games like Forspoken and The Callisto Protocol. 

With an increasing push for next-gen visuals and ray-tracing implementations, it is more critical than before for developers to ensure games are well-optimized for various PC hardware configurations. DLSS and FSR are incredible innovations that can help PC users in multiple ways, but using them as a crutch could set a bad precedent for future PC games. 

Read Next: Nintendo Switch Surpasses PS4 To Become Third Best-Selling Console

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