As I looked back on PC gaming tech in 2021, one feature continued to tug my ear — Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling . DLSS didn’t come out in 2021. Nvidia released the A.I.-assisted upscaling tech in 2019, but this is the first year it has felt like the must-have feature Nvidia promised a few years ago.
That’s because Nvidia made some key changes with DLSS in 2021. In July, Nvidia opened up the DLSS software development kit to any developer. Previously, developers would need to apply for the kit. Nvidia also expanded the DLSS plugins for Unity and Unreal Engine, bringing in features like Linux support.
That changed with DLSS 2.0, and Nvidia has been improving the feature since. Nvidia released DLSS 2.3 in November, which improves objects that may flicker due to the upscaling, as well as removes much of the ghosting present in previous versions. They’re small improvements, but improvements nonetheless.
That was mostly spurred on by the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, both of which brought ray tracing to the mainstream at the tail-end of 2020. However, 2021 is when we saw the much-anticipated addition of ray tracing to Doom Eternal, as well as games like Far Cry 6, Resident Evil Village, Battlefield 2042, and the Crysis Remastered Trilogy.