DLSS 5 gets toned down for its Hogwarts Legacy debut next month
The Verge Tom Warren
DLSS 5 is coming to Hogwarts Legacy next month, and Nvidia has toned down the face changes. After the backlash, the new screenshots look much less weird.
Based on reporting by The Verge, Tom Warren — read the original for the full story.
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When Nvidia first showed DLSS 5 earlier this year, it got slapped with the label of gen AI for video games. That didn’t exactly land well with gamers, and the face edits in the demos were a big reason why. A Hogwarts Legacy student looked noticeably older. Grace from Resident Evil Requiem looked heavily altered too.
Now DLSS 5 is getting its proper debut in Hogwarts Legacy, and Nvidia seems to have pulled back hard. The company posted fresh comparison screenshots today, and the facial changes are much subtler than before. Teenagers no longer look dramatically transformed in the new images.
That shift says a lot. Nvidia is still pushing the technology, but this version looks far more cautious than the one it showed off at the start of the year. The controversy clearly made an impression.
So the first real public rollout of DLSS 5 is arriving with the sharp edges sanded down. That may make the tech easier to sell to players. It also makes the earlier version look like a test balloon that got popped in public.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
This is the usual AI hardware move: show off the flashiest version first, then quietly back away once people point at the uncanny faces. Gamers have a low tolerance for being told a strange look is progress, which is healthy for once. If Nvidia wants this stuff to stick, it has to feel like an upgrade, not a cosplay filter gone rogue.
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