NVIDIA DLAA to improve image quality in older games
Elder Scrolls Online which debuted in 2014 does not require a very powerful GPU. This is a massive online multiplayer that can successfully be played at high settings and resolution with upper mid-range GPUs. The graphics cards such as RTX 3080 can easily run the game at 4K with 120+ FPS. This is why some users may not want to enable upscaling technology, which by principle renders the game at lower resolution.
This is where ESO developers came up with the idea of adopting NVIDIA DLSS but without an upscaling component. This essentially means running DLSS at native resolution and claiming the benefits of smooth edges thanks to AI-powered antialiasing technology.
Alex Tardif, who is a Lead Graphics Engineer at ZeniMax Online Studios, says that DLAA may require more power and thus not be as fast as Temporal AntiAliasing (TAA), but the end result is better.
What was not stated though is whether DLAA works on non-RTX cards, which lack Tensor core acceleration. Otherwise, this technology would only serve as an image quality improvement, not as a performance booster.
Huge thanks to the team at NVIDIA for humoring and then supporting us releasing this when we brought up and tested this hijacking of their DLSS tech into its own thing. It's not something every game would need, but for ESO it just made sense. Great stuff <3
— Alex Tardif (@longbool) September 17, 2021
