Nvidia Introduces Official DLSS Plugin for Unreal Engine

By admin On Feb 13, 2021

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Nvidia introduces an official DLSS plugin for Unreal Engine 4, which adds rendering support to this engine. It makes it easier for developers to implement DLSS 2.0 in their UE4 games.

The plug-in appeared in the Unreal Engine Marketplace this week and is available as a zip file from Nvidia’s website, including installation instructions and a quick-start guide. Users of Unreal Engine 4.26 or higher can implement the feature directly into their projects with this plug-in, without the need for separate applications or separate Unreal Engine branches. In theory, every upcoming UE4 game can support the rendering technique.

Developers who want to use the plug-in must have a system with Windows 10 64-bit and an RTX video card with the GeForce 461.40 driver or newer. The function works with Vulkan and DirectX 11 and 12. Thanks to the plug-in, the rendering technique is fully available from the Unreal Editor interface, reports Nvidia. Users can choose from several DLSS performance modes through the Unreal Editor, which adjust the render resolution and amount of upsampling. This allows developers to directly see how DLSS works in their games.

DLSS in Unreal Engine 4.26. Image via Nvidia

DLSS stands for deep learning super sampling. This technique only works on GeForce RTX video cards. DLSS renders games in a lower resolution and fills in the missing details with the help of artificial intelligence, which should ensure higher frame rates. The technology uses the Tensor cores in RTX GPUs for this. In the first DLSS version, developers had to train a separate algorithm for each game, based on gameplay footage at 16k resolution. Since the introduction of DLSS 2.0, this is no longer necessary. Instead, the second version uses a standard neural network, which is used by all DLSS games.

It has been known for some time that Nvidia is working on an Unreal Engine 4 plugin for DLSS. The company already reported in December that such a plug-in would be coming, although the GPU manufacturer only mentioned a closed beta at the time. There are already Unreal Engine games with DLSS support. Fortnite, which runs on Unreal Engine 4, already has support for the rendering technique.

AMD does not have an answer to DLSS yet, although the company is working on a similar technique. The company says it is working on a FidelityFX Super Resolution feature, but has not yet shared many concrete details. Hungarian tech site Prohardver published a rumor earlier this month, which states that the technology may be introduced this spring, VideoCardz also writes. The technique would also use Microsoft’s DirectML API. AMD has not yet confirmed these claims.