FFXIV Dawntrail: FSR vs DLSS Comparison and Tips

[@ThisisCitrus]

Thank you everyone so much for watching! It really means the world to me. I know my videos aren't as polished as awesome creators like Zepla or Meoni but I hope to get there one day! Consider dropping a sub as I plan to continue to create more content for Dawntrail and FFXIV! 💖

[@digitalmc]

Wow a straight forward no bs video on this. Thank you.

[@ThisisCitrus]

Happy to help!

[@HollowedXIV]

Great video, I'll have to mess with this when I get home. Keep it up!

[@ThisisCitrus]

Thank you so much!

[@alanpk0]

Great video! Is it just me or the lastest version of DLSS(3.7.10) makes the image in the game way sharper? Almost as sharp as FSR(which is really agressive and kind like it always was) I kinda like it! DLSS makes the image more stable but smoother and with the new version the sharpness that I was used to in the old game is back. Best of both worlds.

[@ThisisCitrus]

It's definitely sharper but without the ugly AA of TSCMAA, so best of both worlds for sure! The game looks so good now.

[@ex0stasis72]

Thanks! Somewhere between updating my Nvidia driver, swapping for a newer DLSS dll file and forcing DLAA with the DLSSTweaks mod on Nexusmods, I was able to fix my problems with the game where every time I would start moving, everything would get suddenly dim and then brighten again when I stopped moving. Problem solved! I was too lazy to check in-game between each of the 3 changes I made. haha

[@ThisisCitrus]

Hell yeah! Glad you got it fixed!

[@Gillian_FFXIV]

I've been experiencing the exact same issue as you ever since the graphical update & even after applying all of these changes to my game I still cannot get rid of that damned dimming every time I move! ):

[@ex0stasis72]

@@Gillian_FFXIV Ah, ya, I spoke too soon. It improved some aspects of the graphics, but it didn't help this specific problem in some light grassy areas in ShB areas. Then I moved onto other areas and then forgot about the problem. I'd imagine they will fix it in a patch at some point, especially since I recall that they are not finished with the graphics overhauls yet.

[@Gillian_FFXIV]

@@ex0stasis72 Yah that's true and it sort of slipped my mind that we would be receiving more graphical updates down the line. Thank you for your reply all the same! :3

[@Firelord_Ozen]

Amazing simple tutorial. Would love a side by side comparison with Default DLSS vs the new DLSS Update. Also if we wanted to go back to the base game's version of DLSS, would we just do a repair integrity? (not that I want to but just in case)

[@ThisisCitrus]

I thought of side by side comparisons after doing the video, was an "oops" moment on my part. In a future video perhaps! And yeah I believe just delete the DLSS DLL and then repair.

[@rori354]

There's no file to be overwritten with the DLSS dll, should that be the case or am I missing something. A small list of recommended settings in dlsstweaks would also be very welcome if you have the time to share

[@ThisisCitrus]

It should be called nvngx_dlss in your Square Enix/Final Fantasy XIV - A Realm Reborn/game folder.

[@novero5463]

What resolution do you play on? Currently on 1080p myself but I find DLSS to look dramatically better the higher you go when using upscaling.

[@ThisisCitrus]

Playing on 4k! It looks so good.

[@olebrumme6356]

DLSS is just so much better. Some claims it's actually DLAA tho, since it doesn't have any quality options. I tried putting FSR to 67% resolution scale (quality mode), but only saw maybe 3-4 fps improvement over DLSS, and with way worse image quality.

[@ThisisCitrus]

I noticed similar, I believe DLSS has auto quality so that it depends on what your current framerate is, but I couldn't confirm. The game is still heavily limited by the amount of characters on screen, with my 4090 the game will still drop to around 60-70fps in highly populated areas, even with resolution scale set to the lowest I didn't get any framerate increase.

[@shh532]

@@ThisisCitrus It appears to be forced fixed at 0.5X. DLSSTweaks fixed to 1.00X/Force DLAA enabled which works based on the overlay. They have bafflingly implemented FSR and DLSS, including FSR 1 over 2 despite motion vectors, and giving no quality controls. Really weird.

[@ThisisCitrus]

@@shh532 Definitely, I really hope they update the implementation of it over time to allow for more control.

[@olebrumme6356]

@@ThisisCitrus The classic MMO CPU bottleneck, 7800X3D is definitely the best option for now. Did you manually update your DLSS file btw? I always do that with every game.

[@ThisisCitrus]

@@olebrumme6356 I think it's a CPU bottleneck but also a game bottleneck. Cause even my CPU usage isn't high in the situations when my FPS drops in big cities. I did update it with the newest 3.7.1, works great.

[@MSworda]

Which DLSS Tweaks presets do you use for DLAA? I love everything about DLSS in this game except I can't get the anti-aliasing to look right.

[@ThisisCitrus]

TBH I don't use it personally, just using the updated DLSS 3.7.1 fixed all my issues and now my game looks amazing.

[@iTechWytch]

i know this is probably off topic for the video.. but what barding is that your using?

[@ThisisCitrus]

It's the Wolf Barding! You get it from PvP.

[@s0leradier]

The only thing i think you missed was that DLSS is only available on Nvidea Cards where FSR is available on all Video Cards. other then that great video :)

[@ThisisCitrus]

Good catch! I always forget that.

[@reluttr2]

I'm really hoping they decide to update the FSR version in later patches, it caused such a huge stink when they revealed they were using a wildly outdated version of it.

[@asdsad17]

when you turn on DLSS, TSCMAA + camera jitter is turned on by default. By default, DLSS doesn't do anything unless your fps goes below 60fps. There is no DLAA here. TSCMAA and TSCMAA + camera jitter is different. The camera jitter option will remove the shimmering. compare fsr 100 (native) + TSCMAA + camera jitter to DLSS. Don't trust me. check it yourself. as for fsr version. it has fsr 1.0 look.

[@ThisisCitrus]

That's not correct in my experience and through my own tests. When you turn on DLSS it uses DLAA, DLSS has its own AA and is on at all upscaling levels, when at max FPS set by your refresh rate it uses full DLAA. I tested TSCMAA + camera jitter, it is as it said, TSCMAA is the same as TSCMAA + camera jitter except the camera jitter version it makes things blurrier but the shimmer effect is still there. TSCMAA is just TAA + CMAA. I will do some more tests to confirm in the morning though.

[@eriuz]

probably they are using an older version of fsr

[@ThisisCitrus]

Yeah I believe that was confirmed, its unfortunate but hopefully they update it soon. Could be an issue with having to make it work on consoles.

[@eriuz]

@@ThisisCitrus fsr works on console without problems even the frame generation part works on console

[@ThisisCitrus]

@@eriuz FFXIV doesn't have frame generation on consoles though, not even on PC. While FSR does work on consoles I think its an older version, but I could be mistaken.

[@eriuz]

@@ThisisCitrus i say that because of the quality at high resolution dlss and fsr 3 looks the same unless you zoom in to pick the tiny details but a lot of developers are kind if lazy implementing the last versions of fsr which are easy to implement if you have dlss they use the same information to work