Nvidia's DLSS brings massive boost to VR, including No Man's Sky

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DLSS support also coming to Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition

No Man's Sky spaceship battle
(Image credit: No Man's Sky)

Nvidia is increasing the number of games that support Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) technology, and in a first, will include VR titles like No Man's Sky. 

In order to be the best possible experience, VR ideally needs very high frame rates. As headset screen resolution increases, there’s a real challenge around driving those pixels and maintaining a frame rate of 75Hz or higher. While 75 gets the job done, ideally, 90 or more frames per second is needed for the best possible experience. 

The biggest game getting DLSS support is No Man’s Sky, which runs in both VR and traditional modes. Driving it at 4K resolutions will challenge even a modern GPU, and thanks to the RTX 3080 restock shortage, the only people that seem to have cards are pesky scalpers. That means that anyone with a 20-series card and DLSS support can push more pixels and maintain a solid frame rate. 

According to Engadget, DLSS can improve the VR performance of No Man’s Sky by 50% in Ultra quality. That should mean that even more modest computers can push a stable VR framerate. The Radius and Wrench are the other two VR titles which are getting DLSS support. 

Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition, Scavengers, Everspace 2, Amid Evil, Aron’s Adventure and Redout: Space Assault are also all getting enhanced DLSS functionality. 

If you’re unclear, DLSS works by applying machine learning to a lower resolution image, making it appear far higher in quality than it actually is. Think of it as really smart video upscaling. Although, it can't universally work in any game. It needs to be baked into a game's code by developers before it can work. DLSS offers modes to satisfy people who want the best possible frame rate, and those who care more about quality. 

The bad news is that only RTX 20-series and RTX 30-series cards support DLSS 2.0, and those are all in very short supply at the moment.

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Ian Morris

Ian has been involved in technology journalism since 2007, originally writing about AV hardware back when LCDs and plasma TVs were just gaining popularity. Nearly 15 years on, he remains as excited as ever about how tech can make your life better. Ian is the editor of T3.com but has also regularly contributed to Tom's Guide.