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Helldivers 2 may get DLSS eventually but it won’t be soon

As much as I've been enjoying Helldivers 2 recently, there are some improvements that can be made. The server situation is finally starting to clear up, but on the visual side, we are still limited to what appears to be FSR 1.0 for upscaling. In our review of the game, I pointed out that the addition of DLSS, Intel XeSS and newer versions of FSR wouldn't go amiss. Unfortunately, it sounds like we won't be getting those updates anytime soon. 

The team at Arrowhead has primarily had to focus on fixing up the server situation so more players can log in and play simultaneously. Server capacity has been increasing recently and the game now supports over 800,000 concurrent players. Now, Arrowhead is looking towards new content and gameplay improvements, rather than lingering on the technical side of the game.

In response to fan questions about the addition of DLSS or FSR 3, Arrowhead CEO, Johan Pilestedt, stated that his focus right now is on gameplay, rather than implementing cool new tech. PC Focus took this to mean that DLSS would not be coming to Helldivers 2 at all, but Pilestedt quickly responded to deny this. In a reply to another user in the thread, he clarified that while he loves “DLSS and other performance boosting tech”, when the decision comes down to “more awesome content vs more tech”, he would prefer to put the resources into the gameplay/content side.

Arrowhead is a small studio but with the popularity of Helldivers 2 at the moment, I wouldn't be surprised if Nvidia, AMD or Intel reached out to offer some support in implementing these features to help them get there faster. Hopefully by the end of this year, the team will have features like DLSS and newer versions of FSR implemented.

While newer versions of DLSS and FSR are easier to implement in engines like Unity and Unreal Engine thanks to plug-ins, Helldivers 2 is actually developed on an older engine, Stingray, which is no longer supported by the company that created it. As a result, bringing these features to Helldivers 2 would likely take more development time compared to other modern games.

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KitGuru Says: Helldivers 2 runs very smoothly and looks fantastic in its current state but those who are struggling to run the game would very much benefit from the visual and performance improvements that newer upscaling methods bring. The focus is on content for now but once the ball is rolling on that, I do hope Arrowhead revisits this. 

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