Lossless Scaling: Frame Generation For Every Game - But How Good Is it?
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- čas přidán 23. 07. 2024
- What if frame generation was available for every game and worked on Intel, Nvidia and AMD GPUs? And what if you could actually have TWO interpolated frames instead of just one? And how about some high quality scaling options included in the mix too? That's the pitch for Lossless Scaling - an inexpensive scaler with intriguing frame generation capabilities - so what's the quality level like? What are the benefits and drawbacks? And what are the best use-case scenarios? Alex Battaglia reports.
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00:00:00 Introduction
00:00:53 How does Lossless Scaling Frame Generation work?
00:02:37 How does it look in motion? Lossless Scaling vs. FSR 3 vs. DLSS 3
00:06:48 Input latency and game feel
00:07:55 How can you use it best?
00:15:02 Conclusion - Hry
Finally we can download more performance lol
Memory unlocked: I'm a kid and a friend tells me that 3dfx acceleration is a program you can buy on a few floppy discs in a store
Couple that with the download more RAM app and you're set for life!
with amd you can just enable AFMF which is superior to LS and close to FSR3.
@@evono9207it actually not superior…you need to buy and try
@@evono9207 oh hell no, lsfg is far superior than fluid motion.. its been proven over time.. the reason why fluid motion can't compete with lsfg is that fluid motion is still new and needed more refinement... the only thing from AMD that compete with lsfg is fsr 3 frame gen..
Thanks for covering this because I have to say many of the reviews say there are NO downsides at all with it, which is obvious bs. This is an amazing effect, though, when you have no other options. The developers deserve all the praise they receive!
there is nothing to praise, that has been done decades ago... its actually pretty bad in my opinion and the false name "losless" is a nogo at all. that is scam because there is a lot of loss in the quality
Lossless scaling refers to integer scaling which was the original point of the problem @@PrefoX
@@PrefoX "there is nothing to praise, that has been done decades ago." And he managed to capitalize on it, what's your point, I don't see any other readily accessible software that does what LS does? Even FSR mods are locked behind a patreon subscription. And there's no way you went going into this program thinking there's no loss in image quality just because of the name lmao, you must get "scammed" a lot. No where does the developer promise no loss in image quality and anyone with a shred of common sense would know that's to be expect when even more advanced tech like FSR/DLSS/XESS have degradation in image quality.
@@PrefoX The lossless claim refers to the scaling (it is in the name). Somehow i see comments like yours constantly when people are discussing this program, why the hate?
This crap is ruining gaming@@godsvoid
Tried Lossless scaling a month ago. Super happy with the program. But yeah. Everything you covered is exactly what people need to know. Definitely not a program to use blindly. But when it works, it can be a great boon.
Exactly, it has limits, but great in a lot of cases
Feels great for me on PCSX2, where games are almost always limited to 60 (or 50) fps since framerate is normally linked to the engine speed.
@@matone1z I use it the exact same way. Gran Turismo 4 works wonders but the rpm needle sometimes wiggles like a wet noodle when you shift.
Yea banger emulation tool works on tons
@@matone1z locking frame generation to your monitor refresh rate is good too.
Bought this Software for 0.79€ during 2020 Halloween Sales to upscale some old Visual Novels, Very impressed with how much it has improved.
It might have been a relatively good option for scaling VNs in 2020, but at this point I'd highly recommend using Magpie for that purpose instead. It's much more efficient (especially when there are a lot of identical frames, as in most VNs) and has many more options that allow for more scalability & customisation, as well as being a free program.
@@names-are-for-friends but no frame gen I guess
@@DragonOfTheMortalKombat you don't need frame gen for VNs, lmao.
What's this trend with people saying "I brought something in a sale", do you require a medal for that or something ? Weird...
@@gamerxt333What's this trend with people saying "What's this trend with people saying ____", do you require a medal for noticing that or something ? Weird...
The best benefit of Lossless Scaling has to be the fact that, unlike modded solution, it does not tinker with any of the game code and processes. It simply captures the output like OBS would, and that means it plays nice with anti-cheat. In fact I pretty much played all of Shadow of the Erdtree with it and online.
Isn't that a waste. Elden Ring is archaic and fromsoft stupidly makes all their games 60fps hard cap. Despite being games you need amazing reaction time for
I imagine fromsoft is like ppl can't c above 60 fps anyway why bother?
@@thedoomslayer5863 No it triples your framerate, even if its a hard 60fps lock.
@@glintstone415yes but it adds input lag. And in these fromsoft games that is a death sentence
Hoo boy the brainrot in the thread upscales the scarlet variety by 3x
I have gtx 1060 6 GB and I was getting 30 to 40fps in every new game but after using this app, it has given a new life to my GPU ...
Yes just lock the game to 30 fps and use lsfg
@gamerhemanth2369 i don't know how to lock the game at 30 fps. And it just works fine without that.
@@_captain_yt use Msi afterburner
@@gamerhemanth2369why would i lock it? I need 120 fps.
@@TheRealGigaCatYou don't need 120 FPS, you *want* 120 FPS.
Gamed over 300 hours using this app, it's really good for handheld PCs
For the steam deck also??!:0
@@the100ways6 unfortunately it's not available on steam os at the moment , only windows
@@barozzbaro3283 That would be sweet if it worked on Steam deck
@@barozzbaro3283 I could see it happen. The program is sold on steam.
@@barozzbaro3283just run it forcing proton compatibility?
valve needs something like this for deck
The program is sold on Steam so it just needs a Linux patch.
@@Skylancer727 its not possible on linux
@@mal-avcisi9783 it is possible to use frame gen on the steam deck as I’ve done it with a mod on cyberpunk. But it’s not the easiest thing ever.
AMD already has Fluid Motion Frames, which I believe does the same thing.
@@selohcin AMD FMF is horrible. The Frame Generation stops at any given moment, if you move the mouse and so on
I would definitely love to see a deeper dive into the app, as it has many options. There are settings that you can play with and get better results, like "Allow tearing," for example, allows for tearing, but if you have a good monitor with low latency, the tearing wouldn't be that noticeable, yet the input latency will drop significantly. Also, there are multiple capture methods that (except GDI, which is for a few very old titles) have different ups/downsides like DXGI, which works amazingly with dynamic FPS, but if you play a game that runs at stable FPS (by stable I mean very rare changes in the FPS; especially good if it is sub ~45 game), then it would be better to enable WGC which captures the frames with less artifacts and good pacing (WGC suffers when the FPS is dynamic and looks/feels worse, it is meant for stable (mostly locked) FPS, but it captures better). WGC requires a bit of additional tinkering tho, like double FPS lock (one lock on the game and one on the LS itself; for example- if you are running Alan Wake 2 at 30 fps locked and stable- set the capturing method to WGC, lock the game to 30, lock LS to 60, and you will have the magic (optional but helps in some cases- you can also enable the LS vertical sync and set it to "Max Refresh Rate") Also the of upscalers has multiple very interesting options like the LS1 upscaler which is a spatial upscaler with machine learning and does better job preserving details than FSR1 (even at performance mode, where it is faster than FSR1; LS1 can upscale to 2x the input resolution, and after that it just stretches the picture, which is the only limit of the upscaler, unlike FSR1 which will upscale with no limits, but noticeable visual degradation). Also, the dev combined bicubic upscaler with AMD CAS and create the Bicubic CAS option which is amazing for machines that get low fps and need both upscale and FG to get to a proper state. So, yeah, the program actually has a lot of additional options that can make the final result way better/smoother both visually and as feeling (input latency and other factors) if they are used and used correctly.
PS: One final good tip- you can watch series/movies/yt videos/twitch/etc, and apply LS FG to them. For such usage, just open the video in the browser, have the LS prepared, make the video fullscreen, and hit the hotkey combo for LS. For online videos, I recommend the usage of WGC capture and the LS vsync enabled and set to "Max Refresh Rate" (secondary FPS lock wouldn't be needed for videos/movies/streams, unlike the game usage of WGC).
Good info
Those are some good tips. I play with lossless scaling for a longer time now, but I didnt know about some of this :). Thanks
Very good tips. I've been trying wgc recently a lot too. Kinda wish I've found out about it sooner. It's just superior than DXGI in pretty much every front. Better visual, less performance hit, lesser input time.
There is a lot of combinations possible in the app. There is performance mode both in FG area and for the image upscaling. I mainly use FSR, since its performance mode gives a really good boost for games that need it.
@@leandrofodis WGC good for gaming or is it for just for movies?
i don't get doing it on movies or yt vids. is it on when the content is 30fps or 24fps and you want a fluid video? like 60fps or 120? is that ehy?
Multiplying framerate using the Terrance Howard method
🤣😂
The you can download more fps guys been real quiet since Terrance Howard dropped this
I got some free frames here mayne, it looks a little funny sometimes but i think you might still like it. it uses perfect symmetry in a geometric isotope to create a new reality mayne. enjoy.
Terryology!!!
Bbeeerrroooohhh...
og FF7 modded to widescreen and 60fps and then to 120fps using the duck app has been one of my favorite things this year
I'd love to hear more, what's so enjoyable about it? I love ff7 but I'm curious what's so special about playing a game like that at a higher refresh ratw
@@XDevonBueno It'd be quite an experience having the ability to witness FF7's combat system, which ran at 15fps, be able to run at a full 120fps. I'd imagine it would be quite daunting at first after being used to the game at such a low frame rate.
One of the first things I had a great experience with after a recent update to LS was Paper Mario with the 60fps mod and LSFG to 120fps.
I am confused, what is the duck app? Are you talking about LSFG?
@@RicochetForce Ok thanks.
By the way I checked out that Gaia mod. Crazy stuff they are doing now.
Even crazier.....they just figured out a way to bring Aerith back. And the game works like that. After 27 years.....just crazy the things they have done on that game.
The distortion at the border of screen remembers VHS tapes, if you're old enough to remember that :) when tapes often would play with some distortion or garbling at the top and/or bottom lines, often in old or low-quality recordings or because of misaligned heads etc.
back then 3D games ran at 15 fps, the frame generation was our imagination.
@MarquisDeSang Our hard drives, all our fans, even some parts you didn't expect would SING - that's how you know it's Good Graphics.
I miss those days and wish ppl still thought it like that. I want PC games that push 4090s into the 40s and lower FPS. I want POWER shown!!
they could fix that by cutting of the corners a bit and upscaling the image. Would be an interesting option.
@@marcgtsr you can do it lossless scaling
@@opinali with my settings I don't get that border effect. I'm using it on my Legion Go only at this time.
The biggest issue i constantly see with users is they don’t actually know how frame gen works so they’re always surprised when 3x looks bad at 20 fps base with their intel uhd graphic
Yes lol
I actually used it at 20fps and thought it still looked really good. Granted I was also using it with Ocarina of Time with incredibly simple graphics but to me it looked nearly flawless. Only one I noticed was the distortion at the bottom of the screen. Doesn't really bother me much though as my screen has some vignetting.
Yep basically lossless works like taa l, the high fsp and resolution th3 better result
@math3capanema I mean any visual bug looks better the higher the frame rate. Even aliasing is less obvious the higher the frame rate. Lossless Scaling's generation just works the same as the interpolation you have on TVs, it just views 2 frames and makes a median one. The flaws of 2x mode are easily missed because of the fact real frames make up the vast majority. The flaws show up most in scenes without logical motion like fire, explosions, particle effects, etc. It's also not great at dealing with extremely fast motion especially if there's motion blur.
This is why the feature is best for games where things have very logical motion other than particle effects. Games also don't tend to have as many camera cuts removing that issue entirely.
Lossless scaling can also be used with video as well just like the one on TVs. This means you can also combine this with Nvidia's upscaler making videos like 60% AI generated. It also shows how it works best on game footage over really anything else.
It is kinda nice on a 3080 at 2x. Clean fast and very little lag. Takes my default 45+ fps to 90+ fps basically across the board.
lossless scaling will really help older games like gta vc, san andreas and iv that are generally capped at lower framerates bc of physics
what? you can already play those games at 60fps
@@UlyssesM you need patches and many of them don't work properly when u play them above 30 fps, gta san andreas doesn't let u finish driving school, the mission where u get into the andromeda and many more bc the driving physics don't work
@@condevampichoco7395 that happens if you turn the “frame limit” setting off but IIRC there was a patch that let you play at 60fps (could be wrong)
@@UlyssesMnow at 120 or 180 fps
GTAIV works almost perfectly at native 60fps aside from, literally, 3 QTEs in the entire game (wich, you can just use FusionFix to cap the FPS for those parts
I was just trying to uncap The Evil Within. You posted this, I did it, it's fixed. I love it. Couldn't bear the low FPS and bow I can enjoy a good game again.
Hell yeah!! Sebastian is one of my favorite characters possibly in a game or one of them! Just a dope game, I really feel like it could still be revived one day, for a third game. RIP TangoGameworks
9:16 I’m so glad Freedom Fighters is getting love in 2024. Love that game. Never forget getting the disc on PC and loading it up for the first time. Insane story but great gameplay
Facts. Still bothered there's no way to validate my CD key on windows 10.
One of my favs of ps2
Something like this would be amazing if integrated on the Steam Deck UI, similar to what we have for FSR2. Imagine that: you set FPS to 90 and turn on 2x frame generation. The game will be locked at 45fps and frame gen will interpolate to 90fps, automatically.
Works like charm in my heavily modded Skyrim! Also does wonders with emulators such as RCPS3 and Yuzu!
exactly
You can also use Lossless Scaling on other programs.
Sometimes I use it on CZcams videos (browser) or OBS.
Nintendo Switch + HDMI IN + OBS + Lossless Scaling (2x FG) = 60 fps Xenoblade 3 / BOTW.
Wow... nearly triple the latency :D
@@samcandles Yeah.
Maybe an issue for BOTW but not really for Xenoblade 3.
I don't really notice any significant input latency issues.
Maybe I'm not very observant. 😅
If your PC can handle it you could just emulate them, if you own the games there's nothing really immoral about it.
Nice for watching sports
you can double your fps with LG Trumotion on your OLED TV.
Or just overclock your switch.
One thing no one talks about is that there is an option in the LS app that massively reduces latency. if you click on the “Allow screen tearing” option the input is way better. It even says that in its description. It probably wont always work well but for me i have yet to notice any screen tearing and I use it all the time now.
With a vrr display, nvidia reflex/amd low latency, turning on screen tearing, and locked framerate it really boosts this tool's input latency and visual boost.
I just got this to try with Rome total War as that is hard to keep playable frame rates and this tool is a god send. The allowing tearing has improved latency too without any tearing, although I locked the frame rate to 30 and it feels smooth/playable now on either 2x or 3x frame generation (although 3x is a bit too much moving around alot)
@@Chobbito I also had good results with it in Napoleon Total War,
@@skapunker1986 great to hear, it's really a god send in these classic games that only used one CPU core. even games like Fallout 3 which has engine issues if you go over 60fps, you can lock it to 60 and this boosts it 120fps with frame gen and I managed to play for hours without a single issue or crash
I just commented this before I read through the comments. Allow tearing in x2 makes the input latency imperceptable for me with mouse and keyboard in Helldivers 2. With it off it's honestly unplayable. Also I'm not sure why he couldn't get the game to be smooth locking frames with RTSS. Worked fine for me.
I specifically have been using this for games locked at 60 or games that run poorly at higher framerates like you said in the video
Its genuinely just for fluidity and im really glad this program exists so i dont feel bad about complaining about games just for some reason not supporting the pc platform properly.
This software has been a life changer for me so far. My RX6700XT rig is still going strong but some of the newer games are really starting to put it through its paces, especially on my Ultrawide QHD 144hz monitor. Lossless Scaling means that those demanding games hitting only 50-60 can reach well over 100 again, which will tide me over until I eventually upgrade my GPU in a year or so.
It's hard to go back. It makes games so smooth and when you turn it off it feels much worse
People needed to know about this little yet generous software !
I feel like I did this for years when i connected my PC to my 3d TV and enabled 120hz motion smoothing.
I mean you basically did it's the same thing just for gaming now
That's always the first thing I turn off. I don't want my inputs to feel like mere suggestions.
@@IntegerOfDoom those had around 200ms of lag in general. Still ok for fps in solo.
You completely sold lossless gaming for me as I’m watching this at 2x speed on my 120hz iPad and I can feel the smoothness, I noticed the artefacts but it didn’t matter to me at all. I’ll 100% use it when I get a gaming laptop.
This software is great and definitely helps when you’re playing a game with technical shortcomings, like a UI that doesn’t scale properly on higher resolutions or older games that stutter. It works wonders for that
13:47 "No Fame-Rate Cap"
Look, I know Jin Sakai lost his honor, but fame is definitely something he got in return.
😂
Jin Sakai is 100% the $hit. His standoffs are legendary
I noticed this in the video, which is actually impressive because I'm drunk.
😂😂😂
You can reduce significant latency by using an in-game frame limiter to cap the frames at half or a third of your monitor's frequency. You also need to disable in-game VSync. Only enable it through the LS application.
I am using Lossless Scaling with my GTX 1080ti on a 4K TV, and with the LS upscaler plus 2x frame generation, I am extremely satisfied.
The best method is to turn on "allow tearing" on the bottom right. It basically cuts the added latency in half.
omg, buy a new graphics card, who still plays with such an old card?
GTX1070 user here, I waiting the RTX10000 series with DLSS v7.8, saludos.
So enabling vertical sync via LS doesn't increase input latency?
placebo.
it doesn't work that way. it may be smoother and therefore feel like there is less latency, but it 100% will give more latency.
but I agree that smooth frames instead of staters are more important than some minor delay, and give better visual results and are easier on the brain.
I bought this program a couple years ago, had no idea it had been updated!
Yeah they just added the feature in the last year and the 3X mode only came out about a month ago.
The updates are announced in the Steam community page of the app and in the Discord server of the app. The app still gets updates and will get more updates on the FG, as well as the upscalers list.
oh man been waiting for this. Thanks
Brilliant video! Thank you as always for all your amazing work team.
Fun fact,You can also use Lossless Scaling for videos and even on browsers.
Yep...you can actually frame gen a low frame rate video if you're curious.
And all you get is artifacts
@@maybebutwhatever I don't notice any artifacts using it while watching videos.
matters what type of video it is, I feel like its easier to notice artifacts in videos cause youre not as focused as you would be on a game.
Artifacting is less of an issue than soap-opera effect. TVs all have had this functionality built in for over a decade now, and it wasn't used for games because it created too much latency. For TV and movies though, it's popular with the masses but enthusiasts hate it.
I was literally just looking at this tool last night. Great video, thanks!
You should compare it to the TV's frame interpolation.
It's especially good for old emulated games, such as gamecube/wii/3ds games.
Ah, I'll have to give this a try. I normally play on the real hardware but I bought this and haven't been able to find a good use for it yet. I doubt my issues with its fg will be different in emulation but the upscaling options intrigue me. Thank you.
Frame generation is really important for emulators
@andyccchan why do you say that? I've been playing with it since reading the op comment and can't say it has been a game changer or even an entirely positive experience. I tried some N64, DS, Saturn, Dreamcast and PS games. I can't say I found a single one that I would prefer to play with this fg. It certainly makes thing look smoother but the controls take a big hit. I'm sure there are some games it's great for ,but for me, it has added frustration to everything I play. It felt really bad with games that needed it. If I was just watching it, then it was great, but the lag made everything difficult. Just like lag from really low fps stuff with native fg. It was OK with games that ran at 60fps but aren't the games that needs the extra frames and most that run at that run at that higher fps for the responsiveness which is taken away when doubled.
@@mrcrunch8000 Well said. I also find frustation about the mouse movement and control
it's good for everything, it has saved my PC, for dragon's dogma2
use it for old games with controller and it's golden, re4 is probably one of the best use cases, night and day difference. On the other side I've seen people buy it to play cs at higher fps... these people are not very bright and I guess thats where the majority of criticism stems from
These videos are so relaxing to watch.
Amazing tech and review!!
Very useful on the Steam Deck in Win11. The fact it works on almost anything is the key... Yes there are sometimes better options but this is always a base option and that's cool!
been using it on the deck with elden ring, noticed the input delay is really bad, did you fix this on your end or is it really like this?
@@clarke2816it is like that if your base fps is below 60
You can even upscale video and double the framerate. Its crazy hah
I've been waiting for someone to cover this in detail!
thanks for the review been waiting for it to see some real technical explanation of it, please don't forget that you can also use it on everything else not only video games, like web browsers, video players, image viewers, so can be used to watch movies and series too, also a tip: setting up a shortcut for scaling (like ctrl+alt+L) is faster than clicking and waiting 5 seconds to scale/disable scaling
Picked this up a couple days ago. Very happy with it. Been using it for Beyond Two Souls as the community fps unlocker seemed to be incompatible with the (also community) 16:9 patch in my testing. These edge cases pop up all the time, so between that and emulation this will see significant usage on my rig. Going to try out ratchet & clank’s up-rezzed PS3 versions with frame gen next! edit: okay so I couldn't get ratchet collection ps3 to boot in rpcs3 but Lossless Scaling works fine with pcsx2 which I swapped to instead
Couple of things worth mentioning that was missed in the video: 1) You can use this application for anything, not just games. Works great in video too. 2) It increases power consumption by quite a lot. A 2080 uses about 95 watts extra when using this.
I haven't had any luck with videos. Using it with Chrome for youtube just results in the screen turning black.
@@Skylancer727 change capturing method to gdi
It only raises power consumption if your GPU isn't fully loaded. If it is, the base framerate before FG will just drop because of the power limit
@@kendokaaa No, it doesn't only raise power consumption if your GPU isn't loaded. I definitely get smoother video both when using Firefox (youtube and other websites) and normal video players. Just keep in mind that if you have G-Sync, then it can be a bit wonky, since developer of this tool didn't implement support for that - it still works for me with no issues in some cases and with some issues in others (disabling G-Sync solves all tho). I hear that other VRR work fine, but didn't test it myself.
@@staryimoze what they mean is that it won't raise power consumption beyond what your GPU will already draw at full load. The power limit is imposed by the driver and card, software cannot push the power higher than the configured limit.
I recently started Windwaker and just got this after seeing this video. Honestly this is a game changer for older games locked at 30
I knew this day was coming! Thank you Alex!
Finally DF video on this.
Honestly i only use this because i have to, i love playing without headphone (if i run it high rr natively my gpu is noticably noisy). many modern games still stubborn to implement modern upscaling/fg (looking at you HD2 & Elden Ring). And hey it works on emulation too
Fromsoft is just behind in many ways. FFS their games are locked to 60 fps ON PC like WHAT IS THAT
@@thedoomslayer5863 Yeah lol, what's up with that. It's not like they have 2024 graphics, it looks like 2015 game
@@thedoomslayer5863That's cause their games have multiplayer.
@@deathtrooper2048 No. Thats not a excuse. Stop trying to excuse them being 10 years + behind in pc settings and optimization.
@@rzkrdn8650 Yup. But you cant mention ANYTHING negative about them or their games or the fromsoft fanboys will come in screeching like regarded lemmings.
Yay coverage of this!
It is not the miracle some claim it to be. There are downsides for sure. It varies wildly from game to game.
Worth every penny in my book. Just gives another tool to play around with.
I have a 165hz vrr monitor and locking shooters to 82fps to frame gen to 164 is amazing.
Vingetting around the edges and nvidia reflex make a huge difference with this program.
Super high framerate
Older games
Helldivers 2
Elden Ring
Another brilliant vid from Alex.
Been waiting for this video!
I've been using this tool to play Elden Ring at 60fps since my CPU is really bad and can't put more than 40fps in this game and, to my surprise, it looks really nice. The borders of the screen are like you said in the video, but after a while i forget about it and just enjoy the fluidity.
I also use this to play AC Mirage because my CPU stutters a lot when the game gets close to 60fps, so i locked to 40 and used frame gen to make more fluid. It looks great, i barely even notice that it's using frame gen.
Great tool, but i adds unecessary sharpening to the image, even with the upscaling features turned off.
A Lossless scaling review with actual older titles!!! Been using it on some old, emulated games and it's been quite fascinating to use!
I think understanding the limitations of the program and it's quirks will set your expectations correctly, and if it's viable for your use case is absolutely a great buy.
It's crazy how good it works with just the frames and no motion vectors. Its not ideal but if you just play a game you can easily ignore its problems.
Yep! I'm playing X Men Origins Wolverine at 60fps (most of the time) using Lossless Scaling + Xenia emulator.
@@joshtarpley3183you can get the x men origins native pc port for free from myabandonware if you’re interested!
@@joshtarpley3183You do know that there's a PC port that natively supports 60FPS, right?
@@mrturret01 where?
Nice to see lossless covered on the channel!
I actually just changed my setup - went from 2 1080p monitors to a single monitor and a 4K 55' TV.
Running a 4060, everything running great at 4K thanks to Lossless scaling! Yes, there is some input latency that gets added, but unless you are super sensitive to it I really doubt most people would notice - any newer game will also include Nvidia Low Latency which can help counter it a little bit.
The great thing about Lossless is that - if you FULLY understand that it won't look perfect and in some games you have to compensate for some extra latency - you are going to get a lot more longevity out of your hardware, or be able to push it even farther if you want to without having to invest $1k into a new GPU.
I have been waiting a long time for this video
Any similar test for those motion interpolation mode in TVs especially Samsung 's gaming one which seem to introduce least latency, when used alone or even combined with either of this 3? 😅
2:38 This is a fantastic comparison and it clearly explains the current issues with upscaling.
I wish you guys could do something similar to consoles showcasing this effect since it's something I don't quite recall in previous generations being as pronounced as is now is.
The comparison is not with the upscaling per se, but the "frame gen" component of it. Which are two different things
and currently it does not exist on consoles
they also did the video on this artifact, it came from TAA
I mean it's not as necessary on consoles as consoles are usually used on TVs and TVs already have frame interpolation built in. If you're TV is less than 10 years old it likely has a motion smoothing or "action mode". This is just frame rate interpolation built into the TV. Only downside is I've heard the input lag from this is usually much worse than a program like this.
@@Skylancer727 Most people just turn that off because it looks so bad.
@Shadowninja1200 if you think it looks bad, well that's exactly what this feature is exactly. A frame interpolation with no connection to the game itself.
People don't like it for TV shows because it makes things almost unnaturally smooth in slow moving scenes. Basically it goes against the cinema buff mentality. Still many cinema buffs recommend using a low setting if your TV has it for 24hz movies. 24hz doesn't match our TVs so smoothening is required to not stutter.
The vibe of this video, especially the music was really cool, right from the start.
i waited for this video, thx DF
I wonder what would happen if you did DLSS3 up to 120Hz and then Lossless Scaling up to 240.
A 4k/240 final video starting life out as 720P/60 internally would be hilarious to see.
You could technically do it with FSR 3 + AFMF on Radeon GPUs. The two weren’t meant to be combined, so iirc the end result was a jittery, teary, high-latency mess since both the interpolators tried to display their generated frames at the same time. There’s videos where techtubers try the two out together. I imagine the result would be no better with DLSS 3 + LSFG, since they’re not even from the same software devs.
Then combine that with lossless scaling. It's just the image version of training AI on LLMs!
@@Vorexia AFMF gets disabled when moving the camera a little fast so its pretty useless
@@od1sseas663 I’m aware
Couldn't be worse than the soup that was Jedi Survivor at launch on console.
Nailed it , I've owned lossless scaling for years but only boot it up for the golden olden games, funny as i recently started a turok series playthrough with 120 fps via LGS :) game changer
why would you need high FPS on older games when they run much faster FPS to begin with using a modern PC?
@@ravenstarfire8816 cause they have locked fps, most of the time
I think this program shines the most when combined with RPCS3 which struggles to emulate PS3 titles on PC for over 30FPS. This combination will unlock Uncharted 3 gameplay on PC for steady 60FPS experience!
I think this could be a game-changer for a lot of emulated games, especially switch and ps3
Amazing video! This technology looks promissing, but helps some weak machines to run games that before was impossible. But we need to understand the quality cost.
Salve Combo!!
Que incrivel ver um canal fantastico assistindo outro canal maravilhoso!
Esse programa não tem um mente pc fracos, até por que a geração de frames em si é bem pesadinha. Isso é mais pra jogos que tem framerate bloqueado.
been waiting for this video ❤
Would it be possible to force reflex on using Special K or would that feature not be compatible with Lossless Scaling since i think reflex caps fps a few below refresh rate which might not play nicely when going from 60 to 120.
I bought this from the Steam store before and was pretty disappointed so I got a refund. After watching this video, I realized that I needed to have more realistic expectations and so I got it again. I like to play a lot of Kairosoft management sims. These typically run at 20fps with a few exceptions that run at 30fps. Going from 20 to 40 looks really nice and there aren't that many glitches or weirdness that happens. Going from 30 to 60 is also quite nice. I tried the x3 option to go from 20-60 but there were a few more glitches than I'd like. I think using this for pixel art games is a great way to boost the perceived frame rate and add to a smoother experience. Definitely recommended.
@DigitalFoundry really needs to review said features of software. They just breeze through Lossless without doing a deep dive on its settings. This review was better than the last but they didn't cover much of how to properly use the tool. You can allow screen tearing to reduce latency and its worth the payoff especially native portrait handhelds. You should diable v-sync in game but can enable it inside Lossless. There are key selectable capture APIs (DXGI/WGC) for frame generation inside Lossless that have different pro and cons to seeing artifacts with performance differences but none of them were shown here in this video or the last video. AFMF requires all games to be run in exclusive full screen mode which doesn't always bode well for handhelds that have native portrait displays. Lossless requires running in a window mode which helps get around exclusive fullscreen limited games. Plus if you run a game in borderless fullscreen you end up forcing the game to the native resolution set by windows. This can hinder your performance if you need the game to run at lower resolutions. In Lossless you can assign a scaling option to reduce the resolution by a custom scaling factor to increase performance. Tick the Status box arrow inside Lossless to see the reported rescale numbers. The Lossless upscalers can also help sharpen games that are over soften because of temporal aliasing. I believe Lossless works better for 1st person games vs 3rd person if you wish to observe less artifacts but its a major boon for handhelds even if the goal is going for lower frame targets. You have selectable performance modes to lower the frame gen costs on your gpu (you should also mention?). You can limit the frames to 33 fps in RTSS and set display to 100hz at 3x performance LSFG 2.1 mode or shoot a slightly higher cap for less latency. There is a lot of experimentation needed as one Lossless capture api will yield different results per game engine.
This is already covered perfectly. This is not intended to be a how-to or a deep dive into the intricacies of the software. It covers the tech in an easy to understand way; which is essentially @DigitalFoundry’s MO.
Is there a reason Alex never uses driver level frame caps? I always just cap my frames in the nvidia control panel and it works great.
No GPU vendor has consistent frame timings in their performance caps, and at least with Nvidia, you need to reboot the game between changes, which could significantly slow down testing. Special K is the only program that enforces proper frame timing with FPS caps.
driver frame rate cap is somewhat unstable and just not as good as rtss or special k cap
Does special K play nice with online games or will it be flagged by anticheat?
@@PintsofGuinness special k will be flagged by anticheat but rtss won't have that problem. generally rtss is easier to use so, to the non-enthusiast-tinkerers i think rtss is better option. special k is a very powerful tool but it's very finicky and doesnt work with all games.
I've never had an issue with NVIDIA control panel framerate caps, and I have it set globally for every program. Maybe if you're a super enthusiast tech person you could notice some issue but I can't.
Such a cool little tool; Thanks for getting it on my radar. Highlights so far have been: FFX/X2 HD up from it's 30 fps cap to 60, KOTOR 60-120, Skyrim 60-120, and getting Arkham Knight up above it's 90fps limit.
Wave Race Blue Storm is finally out of its 30 FPS lock hell thanks to this.
Something you didn't touch upon at all is the performance cost of using Lossless Scaling, you basically need 20% GPU headroom for it to work
Facts, and the higher the base framerate the higher the cost "is"
A game I use this A LOT is The Crew: Motorfest, since its locked to 60fps. It adds latency, yeah, but the image fluidity is amazing.
Thanks for mentioning brother, I'm thinking of using this with Crew MF.
What's your experience like in terms of ghosting? Also, what GPU are you using? 🤩 thanks bro!
@@Mew_York_Kitty Ghosting, or artefacts rather, appear mostly around the character/car you are using if you look hard enough in my experience
@@TotallyCreativeNameBtw awesome, thanks for your feedback brother - appreciate you! 🍾🍻🌟
@@TotallyCreativeNameBtw totally fantastic name btw😆
@@Mew_York_Kitty the gsme have already a weird artifacting with screen space reflections around the car, while it add some artifactings, is not that distracting tbh
Thanks for covering this! This is an incredible piece of software that has it's use cases. Not the silver bullet for everything but still very usefull!
Tipped me over the edge, and got the app on the Steam Sale - I can't go back to playing without it now!
Isn't this then very comparable to most modern TVs' built in frame interpolation methods (SONY's Motionflow for example)?
Which for the record you always recommended not using.
Visually yes, but the input latency is a huge difference. With Lossless Scaling you have about 85ms input latency while even the fast LG OLEDs give you about 400ms input latency when using its Motion Interpolation.
I use LS FG alot with ps3 emulated games, its has its flaws but its great for older titles.
Haven't tried the frame generation in the program yet, but this program's upscaling capabilities are perfect for being able to play on a 4K display on low to mid-range GPU's.
the absolute best way to use it is : limit your fps by 60, double it with X2, literally as smooth as if you had 120 fps, and the latency with X2 isn't that high (especially with the beta 2.10 version now, it's almost to the point where it's hard to tell compared to 2.9)
I get all your points DF, I do. But let me just add this:
Yesterday we bought it with my gf and have been using it in particular in a very heavy game: Darktide 40k. It helped smooth and improve the experience we both had by a ton:
-she now runs a locked 30 -> 60 fps with no frame drops on High settings
-while I can run a locked 60 -> 120 fps with no drops of High plus Ray Tracing. I used to play High only without RT to get varied performance of 60 to 120 depending on how busy the map, now I just lock it to 60 and it runs at 120 with no issues with RT!
And we just feel the good points, have not really felt a "oh this feels like it takes longer to move or aim or is less responsive". We might just not be noticing it, but I do encourage everyone to test it out.
darktide is shit.
@@sametekiz3709 Cool opinion bro.
@@sametekiz3709 To each its own, but it certainly is addictive and her main gripe was she could not maintain stable performance. Now she can and this helps her experience the game much better!
exactly same experience here. with a 3070TI, a friend has a 4090 and only plays D4 at 60, with ULTRA RT and all you can have, but has a experience of 120. just keep in mind that if you are below 85%, you can lock the Frame rate to 60, experience will be like 120 in most of the games, because theres no added input lag, or the added amount is not noticeable by humans. at elast in most of the games.
why do you mention your gf ? it has nothing to do with the topic. i am writing this text with my mom, my brother and my schoolfriend from 30 years ago.
One of the best advantages of Lossless Scaling is allowing us to play 30fps locked console games in 60fps.
I play Zelda Tears of the Kingdom in the Nintendo Switch and Lossless Scaling at 60fps by using a capture card.
"capture card"
Damn to latency must be horrific.
Soldier I solute you!
Are people not playing games now? What profit do you get in this case lol
@maybebutwhatever he said he's playing on Switch. He's using a capture card and playing the game through the recording window rather than directly on his monitor.
If he was playing it on PC he wouldn't need lossless scaling. There's been native high frame rate patches for Tear since like a week after the game came out.
@@Skylancer727 that's not true also. On most systems totk won't hold 60fps, sadly.
I got this a few days ago and haven't tested it on much but I did try a couple supermassive games like The Quarry and The Devil in Me by turning on the 30fps cap in game and then using 2x frame gen and they ran surprisingly smooth. I don't personally need it on those games but it's a good use since the input latency doesn't matter much and there isn't a lot of fast movement, it's pretty much like a movie for the most part.
Glad you covered this, amazing software I've been using for a while for modded minecraft due to poor optimization. Able to boost it from just under 60 to 72 with some scaling snd then with the frame gen even at 2x i can max my frame rate at 144 and the basic imaging of minecraft seems to be pretty easy because the artifacts are not very moticable unless you're looking for them.
Machine learning is a stretch. This tech exists in most mid to high end tvs. Sony calls its motion flow
Not everyone has a high end tv, and most play on gaming monitors anyways
I don't think you know what machine learning is. They used it to set up the parameters of the interpolation most likely, not to perform the adjustment itself.
@@waltuhputurdawaymost play on TVs
Freedom Fighters deserves a sequel❤
In racing game locked at 30fps, like NFS Rivals which is one of my favorite, this tools helps immensely. This is the only reliable way to play this game at 60 fps. Some effects or HUD elements can be little messed up, but overall experience is much more fluid and therefore much more enjoyable. I still cant get over the fact that it is locked to 30 fps. What were they thinking.
Great to see this excellent app covered by DF finally. I use it everyday now, from integer scaling pixel art to turning nearly every games from 60 to 120fps, to even making some old 30fps games look watchable again, it just works great. I only wish they would allow the fps to go past your monitor Hz rate, and improve the framepacing/refresh rate tolerance. x3 Framegen is almost impossible to use for me because you need the perfect refresh rate for correct framepacing, and my gaming TV doesn't allow for weird custom refresh rate like 89.94hz.
I heard it does not work with HDR on, is it true?
It has HDR Support, which you can activate
@@dirkb.8052 ok but how does that work, hdr works in full screen but app requires you to go borderless
"Lossless"
It was named back in that days, when main function was Integer Scaling, if I recall.
Then the program received FSR, LS1 (great upscaler), and other upscale options.
At last we get LSFG 2x, and then 3x.
6:49 love perfect dark zero background music
love you help alot thankfully
I will definitely check the Lossless Scaling with OKAMI, a beautiful game that was locked at 30fps and the studio who made it disbanded..
Not just Okami. Its a big plus for a lot of older games that ran at 30 fps locked. A lot of PS2 games I played on emulator, I ran LS with it too. Almost no issue barring one or two input delay sensitivity moment.
@@IsaacSperrowwait, so for example the warriors on pcsx2 (ps2 emulator) is locked to 30 fps. using lossless scaling i can get past the 30 fps lock?
you can disable the lock in the game through emu settings, but it breaks the gamespeed and makes everything lightning fast. would this tool allow me to run at a smooth 60 with no gamespeed issues?
Yes exactly@@toasty-turnpike
@@toasty-turnpikei believe so, yes
@@toasty-turnpikeYes, LSFG runs completely separately from the engine itself so it's essentially taking whatever frames the game's engine is producing and interpolates that up. I might add that by design none of these FG solutions really work right if your base FPS is lower than 60. I can't speak for LSFG specifically, but any game I've tried with DLSS 3 or FSR 3 on ended up looking worse than native in motion if my base FPS dipped below 50, so I'm going to assume LSFG behaves the same way considering it's technically inferior to Nvidia and AMD's FG solutions
I mean, sure there are some issues, but when you're playing a game that's either locked to 30 fps, or your PC can only play at like, 30 -40 then the added frames are a game changer. It lets older hardware run so much better.
It's really only for games with locked frame rates. I've noticed the frame rate interpolation is extremely heavy on the GPU. Really if you're playing a game you system can barely handle lossless scaling will only moderately help.
Helldivers 2 at 60fps on a 7840U yes please
@@Skylancer727 Yeah people who think this a free performance tool haven't really been paying attention to the performance hit from when activating it. I mean sure, you'll probably end up with better framerate with LS enabled, but it won't definitely be by much.
@@PedroAndrade25 I disagree, Star citizen and Elden ring both saw massive uplift because of it for me. This software just does what NVIDIA should have done with their DLSS/FRG/etc. but were never able to to that extent.
@@cryonim Probably because your system is good enough to have more than enough spare load to run the tool comfortably. But people with old hardware thinking they're going to get massive FPS boost are in for a rude awakening.
Lossless scaling is the kind of software that has been widely used in specific demographic. Although this video focus on high end pc, the primary target user might have different experience, and here is why.
LS is very popular among windows gaming handheld community. Current handhelds like rog ally have limited performance (gtx 1650 level, time spy 3000 pts) but tiny screen (7 inch), which makes LS perfect for this use case. I use my legion go to play helldivers 2. Originally, the game would only run at absolutely lowest setting at 30fps, but with LS I can boost it up to low-mid at 50fps, which makes it a game changer that turn barely playable to somewhat enjoyable. Also, the artifacts are not visible unless you intentionally try to look for it due to the small screen. Input latency might be higher, but since handhelds uses controller, you will not fell it in non-competitive titles.
Flight sim is also another community that extensively use LS. Games like msfs2020 are extremely resource intensive, and people with mid-range rigs like 4060 struggle to get good framerate. Due to the nature of flight stick, input latency is not really an issue, so most users target 25-30 fps for better visual fidelity. Now with LS, they can have stable 60fps without compromising on immersion.
At last, LS is originally designed as an upscaling software, and certain games like galgame, visual novel, and avg that have artworks shipped in 720p and 1080p can be better enjoyed on large monitor from LS's upscaling algorithm like anime4K.
The HUD elements bugging remind me of some reshade effects like motion blur, (cshade motion blur is the best example) even the bubbling effect on the screen borders!, honestly this is really amazing:]
The level headed introduction is absolutely needed to prevent potential misunderstandings about what it offers.
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However
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I am *very* impressed by the increased fluidity. Of course it introduces artefacts! But the kind of "warped" artefacts it produces are way less distracting to me, than the typical "pixel-mess" artefacts fsr3 introduces. Also I got fsr3 never to consistently present with good frame pacing, dislike how it handles transparent UI, how it breaks very easily with water and shadow effects.., while LSFG is absolutely flawless** in that regard(*granted, as long as the base-fps is stable) (*it's of course not flawless! But for a screenspace effect with no engine integration....oh boy I am impressed!)
@@RicochetForce Yeah I've also noticed if you're using it for very simple older games the artifacts are almost nonexistent. These are really the best use cases for the app anyways so it's an amazing tool to have.
I kinda wonder if Microsoft will just add a feature like this directly to Windows with how easily it works. I do remember hearing Microsoft mention some AI upscaling for Windows 11 but I remember it just being for videos like Nvidia's super resolution. I could see something like this happen for them to push their AI uses.
@RicochetForce yeah but 4x or 3x with motion vectors is just a slight improvement to the interpolation they already have. It's not as universal as this is. But AMD did make a driver based upscaler so they do seem more likely to add a feature like this to their drivers. Nvidia seems more focused on targeting the new high budget games to flex their hardware superiority.
@@RicochetForce I meant it's not as revolutionary as a program you can use on any game period. More than 2x on modern games really only matter for those with the rather rare 240hz and above displays.
Lossless Scaling gives me 50 fps in Elden Ring instead of 25... now its playable so theres that.
It's also very good for video content and that's where i use it the most actually, i watch some live rediffusion on youtube and sometimes it's not a good 1080p quality so with this tool the video is smooth and look much better. Even for anime who run at less than 30fps, getting x2 frame rate and a even sharper image is definitly is big improvement and i don't notice the artefact 99% of the time :D
I recently started using this with StarCraft II. It's a huge boost for that game. It's also helped a lot with Sons of the Forest. That game has never been smooth, but it helps in busy bases a lot. I've also been using it to run Red Dead Redemption with Xenia at 100 fps.
Freedom Fighters. Blast of a game
“FAME-RATE…” cool!!,😂 (13:50)
Love LLS, my old laptop lives again.
Another bonus I'd like to add: I like to play lower end games on my main setup because it's convenient, and during this time of year, it gets hot. Locking the game at 30 and using LS to do 60, actually uses less power on my RTX 3080 than running native 60. It's great.
Solid idea. I have the same problem. No AC in my gaming room.