Nvidia’s new Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing technology is said to provide “incredible edge smoothing”, the developer promises – assuming a good graphics card.
The Elder Scrolls Online will be the first game on the market to use a new graphics technique from Nvidia called DLAA, short for Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing. This was announced by Creative Director Rich Lambert and Lead Graphics Engineer Alex Tardif during the DLC presentation of ESO: Deadlands.
DLAA is related to DLSS (Deep Learning Sumper Sampling), which has been in use for several years. “It’s the same concept, however you won’t get a performance boost from DLAA.
Instead, the technique delivers really incredible edge smoothing,” Lambert promises. Nvidia had promised more FPS while delivering better graphics for many games when it introduced DLSS.
How does DLAA work?
- But where exactly is the difference? Whereas with DLSS the image is first calculated in a lower resolution and then upscaled by a neural network (upscaling), DLAA retains the resolution. Instead, an extra layer of edge smoothing is placed over the computed image, which is also fed from the neural network.
- What hardware do you need? This way, unsightly flickering and staircase effects are supposed to disappear almost completely, without the need for massive hardware power. A modern graphics card is nevertheless a must for DLAA: nothing is possible below a model of the RTX 2000 or 3000 series, Lambert confirms.
Since DLSS technology already achieves native resolution and in some cases even surpasses it, it is quite conceivable that DLAA will at some point make sharper edge smoothing possible with lower performance costs through AI support than conventional antialiasing methods such as MSAA or the now common TAA.
We test how well DLSS works in games today for you in the video:
You can try out the new DLAA for yourself in ESO as soon as the new Update 32 goes live on the test servers. DLSS will also be available then, so you can even combine both Nvidia technologies. It is not yet known which other titles will receive DLAA support.
AMD’s answer to DLSS for all Radeon graphics cards is called FidelityFX Super Resolution and is already supported by a whole list of games!
