Star Wars Outlaws: DLSS vs. FSR vs. XeSS Comparability Overview

Introduction

Star Wars Outlaws is the latest installment within the Star Wars universe and is about between the occasions of The Empire Strikes Again and Return of the Jedi. The sport is on the market now on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Collection X|S, developed by Ubisoft’s Huge Leisure on an improved in-house Snowdrop engine. The PC model helps a number of cutting-edge applied sciences which embody:

• Direct Storage 1.2
• Ray Traced International Illumination
• Ray Traced Reflections
• Ray Traced Shadows
• NVIDIA’s RTX Dynamic Illumination (RTXDI)
• NVIDIA’s DLSS Tremendous Decision, Body Technology and Ray Reconstruction (DLSS 3.5)
• NVIDIA’s Deep Studying Anti-Aliasing (DLAA)
• Intel’s Xe Tremendous Sampling 1.3 (XeSS 1.3)
• AMD’s FidelityFX Tremendous Decision 3 (FSR 3) upscaling and Body Technology

To run Star Wars Outlaws at most graphics settings and affordable framerates at native decision, a robust GPU is critical. Due to this fact, upscaling options are essential. Completely different video games have various implementations of NVIDIA’s DLSS, Intel’s XeSS and AMD’s FSR. We’re excited to look at how these temporal upscalers carry out in Star Wars Outlaws, so let’s get began.

Beneath, you will discover comparability screenshots at 4K, 1440p, and 1080p resolutions, showcasing totally different high quality modes for XeSS, FSR, and DLSS. Screenshots for TAA, DLAA, DLSS/FSR Body Technology and DLSS Ray Reconstruction are additionally out there within the dropdown menu. For a dynamic view of those applied sciences in movement, watch our side-by-side comparability video. This video reveals points comparable to shimmering or temporal instability which may not be evident in nonetheless pictures.

All exams have been carried out utilizing a GeForce RTX 4080 GPU at Extremely graphics settings with Ray Tracing and RTXDI enabled. To boost picture readability, movement blur, movie grain, and chromatic aberration have been disabled. We additionally used a GeForce RTX 3080 and Radeon RX 7900 XT for added testing. The sport options DLSS Tremendous Decision, Body Technology and Ray Reconstruction model 3.7.10.

Screenshots

Aspect-by-Aspect Comparability Video

Conclusion

Equally to the earlier recreation on the Snowdrop engine (Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora), the sport closely depends on upscaling applied sciences, that are additionally enabled by default if you first launch the sport. Once we launched the sport for the primary time, one primary subject instantly caught our eye: the considerably blurry and washed out look of the picture. At first, we thought that upscaling was the problem right here, as a result of DLSS was enabled by default, however even with 4K DLAA the sport nonetheless has a blurry look, which we discover a bit disappointing contemplating how wealthy on particulars this recreation is with prime quality supplies. This subject might have been resolved to some extent with a built-in sharpening filter, however the recreation doesn’t supply any in any respect.

Upscaling High quality

Star Wars Outlaws has a really dense and detailed recreation world, surrounded by totally different sorts of timber and vegetation that are at all times in movement as a consequence of dynamic winds and different climate results. These recreation world situations create further strain for upscaling algorithms and never all upscaling options deal with this nicely:

• The FSR 3 implementation has seen pixelation in transferring vegetation and tree leaves with heavy disocclusion artifacts, primarily round the principle character in movement. The pixelation and disocclusion artifacts are essentially the most seen and distracting when driving a speeder, and when aiming down sights throughout fight. The FSR 3 picture additionally has a degraded high quality of particle results, comparable to neon indicators, laser results, hearth and explosion results, waterfalls and water results normally. On a optimistic word, the FSR 3 picture is freed from ghosting or smearing artifacts.
• Sadly, on this recreation the XeSS 1.3 implementation in its DP4a mode doesn’t work appropriately on any high quality mode besides “Extremely High quality.” The general picture on XeSS “High quality” mode and under is extraordinarily pixelated, aliased and jittery to the purpose that we expect that the built-in antialiasing simply is not utilized in any respect. The distinction in antialiasing high quality between XeSS “Extremely High quality” and “High quality” modes is even seen in our screenshots throughout all resolutions. Additionally, even with XeSS “Extremely High quality” enabled, the picture continues to be noticeably softer in comparison with FSR 3 or DLSS in “High quality” mode. One thing is unquestionably flawed with the XeSS 1.3 implementation on this recreation, and it must be fastened as quickly as doable.
• The DLSS Tremendous Decision implementation is the one upscaling resolution that’s secure in movement on this recreation. It’s free from pixelation in transferring vegetation, we did not observe any ghosting or smearing artifacts. The particle results are rendered with a secure stage of element with none breakups in movement, offering a extra complete and immersive presentation, when in comparison with FSR 3 or XeSS 1.3 options.

Body Technology

• As this recreation is just not utilizing model 3.1 of FSR and gamers are restricted to FSR upscaling solely the bottom picture, enabling FSR 3 Body Technology with FSR upscaling will exaggerate the pixelation and disocclusion artifacts to be much more seen throughout gameplay, particularly throughout fight. To alleviate any issues over the GPU {hardware} used, we examined FSR 3 upscaling and Body Technology utilizing not solely a GeForce RTX 4080 GPU, but in addition a GeForce RTX 3080 and Radeon RX 7900 XT, to see how FSR 3 upscaling and Body Technology would carry out on totally different GPU architectures—the outcomes have been equivalent.
• The DLSS Body Technology implementation in Star Wars Outlaws is great, producing a secure picture with none jittering points on the in-game on-screen UI. Small particle results, comparable to rain, mud or laser results, are rendered appropriately, even throughout quick motion. Throughout our testing, general gameplay felt very clean and responsive, we could not spot any points with enter latency. Nevertheless, there’s a draw back when Body Technology is enabled. Whereas it isn’t straight associated to the gameplay, it is nonetheless distracting. When the sport transitions to cinematic cutscenes which are locked to 30 FPS, there’s some stuttering for a couple of seconds.

Ray Reconstruction

DLSS Ray Reconstruction in Star Wars Outlaws tremendously enhances the standard of RT results, producing improved particulars in RT reflections throughout all resolutions, particularly in movement, which ends up in elevated sharpness of reflective supplies. The direct and oblique lighting with Ray Reconstruction turns into extra responsive, and the standard of the lighting is noticeably extra correct and lifelike, tremendously bettering the general expertise. Additionally, general temporal stability and visible readability on skinny objects and different finely detailed objects is considerably improved, eliminating distracting artifacts throughout gameplay. The expertise additionally gives a slight efficiency increase when mixed with “Extremely” RT. Nevertheless, there may be one noticeable draw back in picture high quality with Ray Reconstruction enabled—it is the ghosting and smearing artifacts on transferring NPCs within the distance, which is perhaps a bit distracting for some folks.

Vital to notice is that the DLSS Ray Reconstruction implementation in Star Wars Outlaws is designed to run primarily at the side of “Extremely” RT choice and/or RTXDI:

• Enabling DLSS RR on “Low” or “Excessive” RT preset will lead to an enormous 20-30% efficiency drop.
• Enabling DLSS RR on “Low” or “Excessive” RT preset + RTXDI will result in a ten% efficiency drop.
• Enabling DLSS RR with “Extremely” RT preset will increase your efficiency by 3-5%.
• Enabling DLSS RR with “Extremely” RT preset + RTXDI will increase your efficiency by as much as 15% in comparison with DLSS RR Off.

Efficiency

Relating to general efficiency, the DLSS, XeSS 1.3, and FSR 3 implementations present a stable 45% efficiency increase in “High quality” mode at 4K and 1440p, and round 40% at 1080p in comparison with native rendering. With DLSS Tremendous Decision or FSR 3 in “High quality” mode and DLSS/FSR Body Technology enabled, you’ll be able to count on tripled FPS at 4K and 1440p resolutions and virtually tripled FPS at 1080p decision when in comparison with native rendering. The native DLSS, FSR 3 and XeSS efficiency is just like the native TAA resolution, and the DLAA resolution gives the very best graphical expertise general. DLAA may also be mixed with DLSS Body Technology for a greater than native picture high quality and FPS.