u/Inside_Blacksmith480

把这个无良媒体冲烂

Let's set aside the ethics, the influence on the price of hardware and the obvious performance cost, like the discussion itself, what makes a game a good fit for the current version of DLSS 5?

I'm thinking because yesterday I decide to finally give the mod a shot myself, into a game I thought would be perfect for DLSS 5: Lushfoil Photography Sim. For those who don't know, this game is by all means, Unreal Megascan: The Game. It is actually a nice little game where you discover an open area and shot beautiful photos: kinda like PS3's long-forgotten first party exclusive Afrika. This game is probably as photorealistic as an UE5 game can aim for at this moment and considering DLSS5 is trained specifically with photography in mind, this has to be it, the perfect game, right?

Well, what I then realize, is that DLSS5 is indeed a good fit for the game... if the game doesn't look as good as it already is. The difference is noticeable when I turn the toggle on-and-off, but that's almost true for any type of real time comparison. Here is a video from someone else showcasing the difference.

The result left me a bit disappointed, but it also made me think what would be the game works the best with this version of DLSS 5. I have summarized 4 elements that would maximize the visual impact, IN GAMEPLAY mind you, if the game turns DLSS on.

1. The game is aiming for realistic artstyle. Pretty straightforward. There's a reason why Persona 5 doesn't really work with DLSS 5 at all.
2. Most of the game happens on bright outdoor environment or no outdoor environment. If a game spend most of the time in the night, the effect would be rather discounted. Not only the lighting enhancement would be harder to notice, in my opinion, DLSS 5 is not particularly trained well with low-light environment in mind. I tested it with Need for Speed (2015), a game famous for having insanely good looking graphics in 2015 (and still beautiful today) but always in night environment, and the difference? I would say circumstantial. Similar story to Batman Arkham Knight, aside from the characters, the environment difference, especially outdoor area, is pretty minimal with DLSS 5 on and off.
3. The game's lighting pipeline is not particularly effective for dealing contact shadows. This is also discussed in the DF video, where we had seen difference on NBA 2K27 specifically for the crowd, and Forza Horizon 6 on the environment. Particularly, I think Forza Horizon 6 has been the best showcase of DLSS 5 so far in general. The small shadow casting from something like AC unit, Billboard in front of the store, etc. Similarly, Yakuza series also benefit from the enhancement on the environment lighting - a coincidence?

This is where I think DLSS 5 on Lushfoil Photography Sim fails to impress me too. The game is already handling Global Illumination well through Lumen - and it's not some cutdown lumen, it is pretty fully powered. So in the end DLSS 5 made smaller difference than I thought it would do.

4. The game should have pretty good distinction on section of human characters and the environment. Noticeably this is something subject to be changable with official implementation with the character masks. With mods, we have seen effects excellent on environment works awful on characters, despite the characters are supposed to be realistic-looking too. This is where I think Yakuza series fails short - the environment is enhanced nicely with the Dragon engine base, but the exaggreation on human characters are just abnormal.

Nintendo has always been very financially sensitive and I think in general all of their game went for profitability more or less. Considering Nintendo sells a lot of physical games even today I think it's safe to say any game that run out of new physical copies at retailers made their money back, and game keep getting re-print obviously see more success.

So in your opinion what is a Nintendo game that DIDN'T make back the budget? Nintendo never disclose such info and I don't think we can ever factually say a game didn't make back its investment, but I strongly suspect that Metroid Prime 4 is still on the way recouping its cost considering it's probably higher budget than usual (long development cycle + american team), plus the game's physical version has been gone to sale more frequent and deeper than usual Nintendo games, which suggests a potential lack of demand even on the first print version.

And follow the retail copy logic, I think some 3DS probably also saw a loss. I remember Code Name STEAM was discounted like $10 and on bestbuy clearance. Mario Luigi RPG 3 remake on 3DS was very likely a huge financial failure that we know AlphaDream closed door after it released (and multiple reports said it was the worst performing Mario game in Japan in decades)

People are calling it "instant cow-t classic"

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With Xenoblade 2 S2 edition trailer dropped people is once again speculating if Nintendo finally acquired full IP right of Xenosaga series from Bamco after all these years. You can read the GLAR thread here for exact evidences. But let's just assume it's real, here is what I think if this would move the needle for a series re-release in the near future.

First of all, attempt on producing Xenosaga HD collection was mentioned several times since late PS3 era and formally confirmed by Harada (the Tekken director) that it was "considered" but ultimately "failed in a profitable market analysis". I definitely think this could be a misjudge even back then and I think with xenoblade getting more popular with each new entry, the dormed series of Xenosaga would be more likely to make a profit nowadays. And if Nintendo gets the full IP right, that means this option would likely be reevaluated by Nintendo according to their profitability standard. I would definitely consider that a PLUS for the re-release happening despite the potential loss of multiplatform re-release possibility (which, let's be real, if Baten Kaitos can only release on PC outside Switch, I don't think Xenosaga would be able to release on PS or Xbox either, which was probably part of Bamco's profitability concern back then too).

One other aspect despite I hate to mention is that the MSRP of a collection like this can likely go to $80 nowadays compared to just $60 back when Harada made the tweet. Xenosaga trilogy were LONG and certainly holds a lot of value. This sucks but on Nintendo's perspective, this being an option means selling it as a collection is more likely doable now too (As a side note, I think if Mass Effect Trilogy remastered releases today, it will be a $80 game too)

So yes, I think if Nintendo acquired the rights, Xenosaga will finally be rereleased in HD. I won't expect much more than a remaster collection akin to the baten kaitos collection (in fact, the developer working on that is also working on Xenoblade 2 S2 edition may tell us something). Hopefully we will see this series back soon!