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NVIDIA DLSS 5 Neural Rendering's reveal earlier this year was met with extreme skepticism, and the general perception of the upcoming technology hasn't changed even with some of its best showings, including the significant improvements it will bring in games like Bethesda's Starfield. Although it has yet to officially launch, NVIDIA DLSS 5 already leaked online due to its inclusion in a fresh update for NBA 2K26, allowing users to test it out in all sorts of different games, to varying results.

Among those who tried out the leaked NVIDIA DLSS 5 is Kingdom Come: Deliverance series director Daniel Vávra, who praised the technology heavily, highlighting how, in its current state, the technology isn't what NVIDIA originally presented.

"After all the controversy about NVIDIA’s DLSS 5 being a terrible AI slop, I played around a bit with the leaked DLSS5 version in KCD2," Vávra said on X. "First off—what was leaked isn’t even remotely what NVIDIA originally presented. It doesn’t alter the geometry of the models or the appearance of the characters in any way. I repeat: It doesn’t alter the geometry of the models or the appearance of the characters in any way!"

In its leaked state, which will likely correspond to the first official release coming in the near future, NVIDIA DLSS 5 takes "existing normal maps and create much better skin texture and facial detail than the lighting model in the game. It also looks a bit like an attempt at subsurface scattering and other advanced skin rendering techniques. But sceptics could say, that its just a fancy version of clarity and dehaze filters which have very similar effect."

"I often criticized the character artists’ work when certain faces in the game looked lacking in detail and plasticity, and they’d often show me that it looked fine on their computers and that the problem was with the lighting in the game," Vávra said. "Well, now it looks right in the game, too! This is how those faces were supposed to look. The AI isn’t making anything up."

One of the highlights of NVIDIA DLSS 5, according to the co-founder of Warhorse Studios (which is currently working on the next entry in the series as well as on an open-world RPG based on The Lord of the Rings), is making ambient occlusion look like it's on steroids. "You have no idea how terribly—and I mean really, really—annoyed I was that in KCD2 we couldn’t render shadows from hats, hoods, and helmets on characters’ heads, or even shadows from small details on character models (buckles, laces, pouches). DLSS5 does this, and it does it absolutely brilliantly! On top of that, it improves the rendering of shadows in hair (5), so they finally have the right density and darkness."

While Daniel Vávra finds NVIDIA DLSS 5 improves characters' faces the most, it also brings some improvements for environments as well, though more subtly. "It doesn’t do much in the environment, but interestingly, it lightens shadows in some places and renders textures within them, while darkening them where it makes sense. So there’s a slight improvement here as well. It also renders shadows in grass and vegetation better. Which is definitely a good thing."

For these reasons, according to Vávra, NVIDIA DLSS 5 delivers an excellent photorealistic upgrade to the character lighting model, and it's not what we saw months ago when it was presented. "I see huge potential here for the future, and it’s absolutely great that even older games lighting could be improved this way."

After all the controversy about NVIDIA’s DLSS 5 being a terrible AI slop, I played around a bit with the leaked DLSS5 version in KCD2. First off—what was leaked isn’t even remotely what NVIDIA originally presented. It doesn’t alter the geometry of the models or the appearance of… pic.twitter.com/agrmq5heDC

As with every new technology, the backlash was expected and somewhat justified, as the controversial Resident Evil Requiem showcase frankly looked terrible. However, if NVIDIA DLSS 5 Neural Rendering was improved as much as Daniel Vávra highlighted, and if it gets properly implemented in games without the same abuses we have seen too often for Super Resolution and Frame Generation, we could be standing on the cusp of a significant change for the entire gaming industry, much like when DLSS's second version was revealed.

About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.

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