Introduction

Last week we reviewed the AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0 community mod for Cyberpunk 2077, and the loyal modding community continues to improve games before developers even release their patches. Dying Light 2 is the next game to receive FSR 2.0 support through a community mod. The way this mod works is by hooking into NVIDIA's DLSS algorithm through a customized DLL replacement. FSR 2.0 and DLSS 2.0 are very similar in their nature, so all it takes is translating the DLSS calls into their FSR 2.0 equivalents. Theoretically, this method should be compatible with all games supporting DLSS, but some manual per-game adjustments are needed. Just to clarify, Techland has not added official FSR 2.0 support to the game, and we do not know if they ever will. What we are reviewing today is the community patch to replace DLSS with FSR 2.0.



How to install the AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0 Mod for Dying Light 2 (download link):

• Extract the .reg files and run EnableSignatureOverride.reg, which may require admin permission. The directory these are extracted to does not matter.
• Extract nvngx.dll to Dying Light 2\ph\work\bin\x64 so it is next to nvngx_dlss.dll and DyingLightGame_x64_rwdi.exe.
• Make sure the game has Renderer Mode set to D3D12/D3D12 Ultimate in the Advanced Video Settings.
• Launch the game, open the graphics options, and enable the "DLSS" setting.
• The game will now run with FSR 2.0.

Below, you will find comparison screenshots at 4K, 1440p, 1080p, and in different FSR 1.0, FSR 2.0, and DLSS quality modes. For those who want to see how DLSS, FSR 1.0, and FSR 2.0 perform in motion, watch our side-by-side comparison video. The video can help uncover issues like shimmering or temporal instability, which are not visible in the screenshots.

All tests were made using a GeForce RTX 3080 GPU at Ultra graphics settings with ray tracing enabled; motion blur and depth of field were disabled for better image viewing. DLSS was manually updated to version 2.4.3 by swapping the DLL file.

Screenshots

Side-by-Side Comparison Video

Conclusion

In Dying Light 2, all upscaling solutions are implemented with a separate sharpening slider in the settings menu, and this time around, we set the sharpening filter to 45 for FSR 1.0, FSR 2.0, and DLSS 2.4. Even though sharpening filter values are the same across all available upscaling solutions, the FSR 1.0 image looks much more sharpened because the FSR 1.0 sharpening implementation uses incorrect values in the render path. Even setting it to 0 in the menu will have it apply some level of the sharpening filter in the render path. FSR 2.0 also only supports the DirectX 12 API in this game. If you were playing the game in DirectX 11 mode, DirectX 12 now has to be enabled in order to utilize FSR 2.0.

Compared to FSR 1.0, FSR 2.0 image quality is a very noticeable upgrade at a slight performance cost. In our previous testing of FSR 1.0 in Dying Light 2, we stated that the image quality with it enabled is pretty underwhelming because of incorrect sharpening filter values, excessive shimmering on the whole image at lower resolutions, no Ultra Quality mode, which was added a month later in a game update, and a very blurry overall image across all modes except 4K Ultra Quality/Quality mode. All of these issues with FSR 1.0 were resolved with this unofficial FSR 2.0 community patch. You might still see the shimmering at very low internal resolutions; 1080p performance mode, for example. But other than that, shimmering issues were greatly reduced.

However, as this mod is not an official implementation, it has some issues FSR 1.0 and DLSS 2.4 do not. The most noticeable of those with this FSR 2.0 mod is excessive ghosting on NPCs at medium and far distances. The level of these ghosting issues is similar to DLSS 2.1. In some scenarios, it may even look like smearing, which most people will find quite distracting. Also, the FSR 2.0 mod conflicts with in-game motion blur, creating black borders around the image as if squinting, so we recommend turning off motion blur. The ray tracing features, like reflections, are working as intended with the FSR 2.0 mod applied.

Compared to DLSS 2.4, FSR 2.0 provides a similar level of image quality if we exclude the few issues we described earlier, which may of course be fixed in the future. FSR 2.0 eliminates excessive shimmering in comparison to FSR 1.0, small details in the distance are rendered more correctly and completely, and the image is less blurry and oversharpened at lower resolutions. The most noticeable difference between FSR 1.0 and FSR 2.0 is at lower resolutions. In Quality mode, FSR 2.0 manages to deliver better performance and drastically better image quality while running at lower internal resolution compared to FSR 1.0 Ultra Quality mode. Performance-wise, FSR 2.0 works at a slight performance cost in comparison to FSR 1.0 internal resolutions, and compared to DLSS 2.4 in this game, FSR 2.0 basically works identically to DLSS 2.4 in terms of performance gains.