Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing

DLAA collects game rendering data including raw low-resolution input, motion vectors, depth buffers, and exposure information. This information feeds into a convolutional neural network that processes the image to reduce aliasing while preserving fine detail.

The neural network architecture employs an auto-encoder design trained on high-quality reference images. The training dataset includes diverse scenarios focusing on challenging cases like sub-pixel details, high-contrast edges, and transparent surfaces. The network then processes frames in real-time.

Unlike traditional anti-aliasing solutions that rely on manually written heuristics, such as TAA, DLAA uses its neural network to preserve fine details while eliminating unwanted visual artifacts.

The first game that added support for DLAA was The Elder Scrolls Online, which implemented the feature in 2021.{{Cite web |last=Dastoor |first=Vaspaan |date=2021-09-20 |title=The Elder Scrolls Online Will Be The First Game To Use Nvidia DLAA |url=https://www.thegamer.com/the-elder-scrolls-online-will-be-the-first-game-to-use-nvidia-dlaa-/ |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=TheGamer |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Hruska |first=Joel |date=2021-09-21 |title=Nvidia's DLAA Could Be a Huge Step Forward for Anti-Aliasing |url=https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/327256-nvidias-dlaa-could-be-a-huge-step-forward-for-anti-aliasing |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=ExtremeTech |language=en}} By June 2022, DLAA was only available in six games.{{Cite news |last=Editor |first=James Archer Hardware |last2=Archer |first2=James |date=2022-06-27 |title=Nvidia DLAA: How it works, supported games and performance vs DLSS |url=https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/nvidia-dlaa-how-it-works-supported-games-and-performance-vs-dlss |access-date=2025-03-04 |work=Rock, Paper, Shotgun |language=en}} This number rose to 17 by February 2023.{{Cite web |last=Bashir |first=Samir |date=2023-02-14 |title=Game optimization software can enable DLAA support in DLSS-compatible games |url=https://www.igorslab.de/en/software-for-optimizing-games-can-enable-dlaa-support-in-dlss-compatible-games/ |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=igor´sLAB |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Game tweaking tool can enable DLAA support in DLSS-compatible games |url=https://videocardz.com/newz/game-tweaking-tool-can-enable-dlaa-support-in-dlss-compatible-games |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=VideoCardz.com |language=en-US}} In June 2023, TechPowerUp reported that "DLAA is seeing sluggish adoption among game developers", and that Nvidia was working on adding DLAA to the quality presets of DLSS to boost adoption.{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2023-06-08 |title=NVIDIA Finds a Clever Way to Boost DLAA Adoption—To Turn it into a DLSS Preset |url=https://www.techpowerup.com/309779/nvidia-finds-a-clever-way-to-boost-dlaa-adoption-to-turn-it-into-a-dlss-preset |access-date=2025-03-06 |website=TechPowerUp |language=en}} As of December 2023, DLAA is supported in 41 games.{{Cite web |last=Walton |first=Jarred |date=2023-12-04 |title=Nvidia reaches an RTX milestone, with over 500 games and applications that use DLSS, ray tracing, and AI features |url=https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/nvidia-reaches-an-rtx-milestone-with-over-500-games-and-applications-that-use-dlss-ray-tracing-and-ai-features |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=Tom's Hardware |language=en}} In early 2025, an update for the Nvidia App added a driver-based DLSS override feature that enables users to activate DLAA even in games that do not support it natively.{{Cite web |last=Temsamani |first=Fahd |date=2025-01-14 |title=Nvidia DLSS Override feature could bring DLAA to other games |url=https://www.club386.com/nvidia-dlss-override-feature-could-bring-dlaa-to-other-games/ |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=Club386 |language=en-GB}}{{Cite web |last=Mujtaba |first=Hassan |date=2025-03-25 |title=NVIDIA App Update Now Enables Full DLSS "Override" Options, Custom Super Resolution Scaling Also Available |url=https://wccftech.com/nvidia-app-update-enable-full-dlss-override-options-custom-super-resolution-scaling/ |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=Wccftech |language=en-US}}

TAA is used in many modern video games and game engines;{{Cite web |last=Karis |first=Brian |title=High Quality Temporal Supersamplin |url=https://de45xmedrsdbp.cloudfront.net/Resources/files/TemporalAA_small-59732822.pdf}} however, all previous implementations have used some form of manually written heuristics to prevent temporal artifacts such as ghosting and flickering. One example of this is neighborhood clamping which forcefully prevents samples collected in previous frames from deviating too much compared to nearby pixels in newer frames. This helps to identify and fix many temporal artifacts, but deliberately removing fine details in this way is analogous to applying a blur filter, and thus the final image can appear blurry when using this method.{{Cite web |date=2020-06-09 |title=GTC 2020: DLSS 2.0 - Image Reconstruction for Real-time Rendering with Deep Learning |url=https://developer.nvidia.com/gtc/2020/video/s22698-vid |access-date=2022-06-26 |website=NVIDIA Developer |language=en}}

DLAA uses an auto-encoder convolutional neural network{{Cite web |title=NVIDIA DLSS 2.0: A Big Leap In AI Rendering |url=https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/nvidia-dlss-2-0-a-big-leap-in-ai-rendering/ |access-date=2022-06-26 |website=www.nvidia.com |language=en-us}} trained to identify and fix temporal artifacts, instead of manually programmed heuristics as mentioned above. Because of this, DLAA can generally resolve detail better than other TAA and TAAU implementations, while also removing most temporal artifacts.

While DLSS handles upscaling with a focus on performance, DLAA handles anti-aliasing with a focus on visual quality. DLAA runs at the given screen resolution with no upscaling or downscaling functionality provided by DLAA.{{cite web |author=((maxus24)) |date=2021-09-22 |title=NVIDIA DLAA Anti-Aliasing Review - DLSS at Native Resolution |url=https://www.techpowerup.com/review/nvidia-dlaa-anti-aliasing/ |access-date=2025-02-22 |website=TechPowerUp |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923083036/https://www.techpowerup.com/review/nvidia-dlaa-anti-aliasing/ |archive-date=2021-09-23 |url-status=live }}

DLSS and DLAA share the same AI-driven anti-aliasing method.{{Cite news |last=Archer |first=James |date=2022-06-27 |title=Nvidia DLAA: How it works, supported games and performance vs DLSS |language=en |website=Rock, Paper, Shotgun |url=https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/nvidia-dlaa-how-it-works-supported-games-and-performance-vs-dlss |access-date=2025-02-22 }} As such, DLAA functions like DLSS without the upscaling part. Both are made by Nvidia and require Tensor Cores. However, DLSS and DLAA cannot be enabled at the same time, only one can be selected depending on whether performance or image quality is prioritized.

TechPowerUp found that "[c]ompared to TAA and DLSS, DLAA is clearly producing the best image quality, especially at lower resolutions", arguing that, while "DLSS was already doing a better job than TAA at reconstructing small objects", "DLAA does an even better job".

In a Cyberpunk 2077 performance test, IGN found that "DLAA provided somewhat similar results [FPS wise] to the normal raster mode in most cases but got significant performance boost with the help of frame generation", a feature not available when using native resolution.{{Cite web |last=Hooda |first=Rehan |last2=Mathur |first2=Moulik |last3= |last4= |first4= |last5= |last6= |first6= |date=2023-09-25 |title=Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Performance Review |url=https://in.ign.com/cyberpunk-2077-phantom-liberty/194835/feature/cyberpunk-2077-phantom-liberty-performance-review |access-date=2025-03-05 |website=IGN India |language=en-in}}

Rock Paper Shotgun found that, while DLAA is "not a completely perfect form of anti-aliasing, as the occasional jaggies are present", it "looks a lot sharper overall [than TAA], and especially in motion."

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• [https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/technologies/dlss/ Official website of DLSS], which also includes information about DLAA

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