DLSS 5 is a controversial technology for all sorts of reasons—you might have heard about this little thing called AI slop—but perhaps the most infamous is its uncanny look. Real concerns have been raised about the potential for something so aesthetically transformative to preserve a game developer's artistic intent, with Nvidia trying to run interference on this very point.

Director of both Kingdom Come: Deliverance games, Daniel Vávra, has re-entered this battle on the side of DLSS 5. Last Sunday, he took to X to say that some critics of the tech have "literally gone crazy," providing a before-and-after comparison with KCD 2 to say that it indeed helped realize the team's vision.

"On the left is a head messed up by the game engine’s very limited lighting system, which can’t properly render shadows, skin texture, and the detail of normal maps," he wrote, saying the DLSS 5'd version had improved details. "Having no shadows from helmets on faces and fucked up normal map rendering WAS NOT OUR ORIGINAL ARTISTIC VISION."

It's worth noting concerns about AI revising art aren't necessarily about whether it can technically touch up blemishes for a cleaner end product—I'm sure AI would cut Paul McCartney hitting a wrong chord and mumbling "fucking hell" out of Hey Jude if it could, but surely we can agree that little mistake makes the song better. The occasional flub signals the art's humanity. Still, some folks on X were quick to argue against Vávra's point that it was an improvement at all.

"It doesn't look that terrible here, and I can understand where Dan is coming from," said Goosewasinuse in a quote-repost. "My point is that it oils up characters to the nth degree for muh realism, just looks so bizarre." Another from Knight(Fate)1029384756 reads, "It's not my fault you couldn't put the effort into making it better. Instead you use the machine that can't think to make an artistic choice."

Warhorse Studios's relationship with AI continues to prove contentious. Earlier this year, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 English language editor Max Hejtmánek said publicly the studio fired him so he could be "replaced with AI."