DLSS Patch Hitting Battlefield V Tomorrow!

DLSS Patch

Are you enjoying Battlefield V? I know I have been! With the introduction of RTX features such as Ray Tracing to the game. Battlefield V marked the introduction to real-time ray-traced lighting effects for the masses. When we benchmarked the game at launch, RT pretty much cut the framerates in half. However, a patch was soon released that saw some benchmarks increase by up to 80% when it comes to framerates. Now it seems they’re about to boost even higher with DLSS.

Check out our Battlefield V DXR Feature Here!

Deep Learning Supersampling

Here’s what Nvidia had to say about DLSS;

“DLSS leverages a deep neural network to extract multidimensional features of the rendered scene and intelligently combine details from multiple frames to construct a high-quality final image. DLSS uses fewer input samples than traditional techniques such as temporal anti-aliasing (TAA) while avoiding the algorithmic difficulties such techniques face with transparency and other complex scene elements.”

Again in English, please?

Basically, it’s a super advanced upscaling engine. It renders the scene at a lower resolution. However, a supercomputer trained AI is then taught how to upscale that image to the quality of the high-resolution one. Both increasing fidelity in the graphics and putting serious go-faster-stripes on the frame rate too. I’ve used it behind the scenes a few times, and it’s pretty much GPU witchcraft.

More DLSS

Ray tracing can be savage on the frame rate, but DLSS is the Ying to the RT Yang. If anything, DLSS has the power to improve framerates by more than RT takes away. Furthermore, it can also be used on its own to boost performance, it’s not particularly tied to ray tracing anyway. Metro Exodus launches this week, and we’re busy testing that with both RT and DLSS too. However, the only other examples out there right now are FFXV and 3DMark Port Royal. The RTX train has been slow, but momentum is building.

We’ll be re-testing Battlefield V in the coming days, so stay tuned!

What Else is New?

This update isn’t just DLSS. It adds map and vehicle improvements, four-player co-op and more. Check out the full changelog below.

Battlefield 5 February 12th Update Release Notes

Netcode / TTK / TTD Improvements

• Added a new system that will ensure consistency between TTK (Time to Kill) and TTD (Time to Death) regardless of the network performance issues (high latency, jitter, packet loss, etc.) encountered by players. With this change, the damage sequence from first bullet to last bullet hit will always properly be paced over time and will avoid bundling of damage (superbullets).
• Increased the amount of damage updates that can happen in a single packet. This will ensure that the damage is sent to the player as fast as possible and avoid very delayed damage from
  weapons like shotguns.
• Fixed an issue that caused the client to receive an incorrect amount of damage that would get corrected by the server shortly after. In some cases, the health correction for the client would only happen when a new damage update happens, which led to a desynced state where the player would try to self-heal or interact with other healing sources unsuccessfully.
• Fixed an issue where the player’s health would wrongly update due to incorrect high frequency prioritization. This would commonly happen if there were a lot of players in the area. This issue could present itself when, for example, players tried to heal themselves, but no health was applied when the health pouch was used.
• Fixed an issue where players still could take bullets damage for too long from a player that was recently killed, especially if that player had high latency. When the player is now confirmed killed on the server, damage from that player will be rejected. This change will not affect grenades, rockets and other projectiles that are not bullets.
• Improved the visual replication of projectiles. This will ensure a more consistent directional damage feedback and will increase the accuracy of directional hit indicators.
• Improved the HUD health updates when taking damage.
• Fixed an issue where camera shakes would get delayed. This impacted how fast the player could read the damage feedback.
• Made several improvements to vaultable object detection.

Vehicles

• Fixed an exploit where players could destroy their own vehicles to gain points.
• The Blenheim Mk IF and Stuka B-1 now properly use “flight zoom radius” settings for the minimap.
• Fixed an issue with the Flakpanzer AA which caused it to deal an unintended amount of damage to airplanes when using the default four-barrel gun.
• The AA gun barrels on the Valentine AA tank now follow the movement properly when the user is aiming in zoomed-in mode.
• The Blenheim MK IF and Blenheim MKI is again able to get more ammo when flying through the reload checkpoint for their primary weapon.
• In Single Player, the hit boxes for planes have been increased during the Under No Flag War Story, in the section when the player uses the Flak 38.
• The resupply icon is now properly displayed for the Sturmtiger when players are in first person perspective in the resupply area.
• The Churchill Mk VII Tank now takes damage as intended when getting hit on the front sides and rear.
• Increased the velocity and drag of all tank shells. The shells travel faster in short encounters but have similar ballistic curves and velocity at distance. This makes tank fights at mid range feel more powerful and immediate, without enabling tank sniping at long range. Additionally, this creates a larger gap between HE and AP shell ballistics, making AP shells easier to aim at longer ranges.
• Increased the armor value of heavy tanks by 25% against tank cannons. The Tiger and Churchill were outmatched by upgraded medium tanks, and generally were not survivable enough against threats to justify their lower speed and maneuverability.
• Increased the damage values of all armor-piercing specialized shells by 30%. These shells rely upon hits from good angle far more than the basic HE shells. Their damage values were too low to compensate for the angle damage, making them less effective than HE shells in many situations. AP shells should now be a better choice than HE shells when fighting tanks and making good shots, but a worse choice if the angle of attack is poor.
• Increased the damage of all tank shells versus infantry by 12%. This should make the tank shells properly lethal against infantry who are crouched, prone, or sprinting.
• Slightly reduced the splash damage of the PIAT against infantry, especially at close ranges.
• Fixed several vehicles which took more than the intended amount of damage when a shell ricocheted off their armor: Panzer 38t, Churchill Crocodile, Halftracks, Panzer IV, Staghound, and Tiger.
• Reduced the damage of the Churchill Mk VII Howitzer upgrade against Vehicles. This shell should be highly effective against infantry, and the lethal potential of the shell against infantry is unchanged. For vehicles, the HESH projectile is still highly effective against all targets, and thus is now more attractive as a Specialization in the tree.
• Increased the amount of aim assist on vehicles to be equal to the soldier aim assist.
• The BK37 now detonates when hitting tanks, even at very poor angles. This increases the damage done versus tanks for these poor angle shots.
• Increased the burn time of the flares dropped by airplanes and launched by tanks to be equal to the Recon’s spotting flare.
• Spawning into the Panzer 38T on a squad mate will now have a smoother transition with less camera clipping issues.
• Fixed a bug which would hinder players from entering a vehicle if Dynamite was placed exactly on the top of the entry indicator of a vehicle.
• It’s no longer possible to danger ping a vehicle through smoke.
• Improved tank tracks on terrain to look better after multiple tanks have driven over the same area.
• Ragdolls now properly disappear after a player has redeployed after getting killed in a seat of a vehicle.

Weapons, Gadgets, and Specializations

• Adjusted the weapon settle sway animation when moving from hip fire to ADS to better match the actual accuracy transition. The sight will now settle in place faster.
• Fixed an issue where in some rare cases the Medic would be unable to self-heal.
• The Turner SMLE will now show the soldier reloading the weapon by properly adding bullet by bullet.
• Added the missing sight rewards for the Zk-383’s progression.
• Fixed a bug with the bipod which enabled players to mount it mid-air next to walls.
• Sniper decoys can no longer be placed upon each other to reach unintended areas.
• Fixed an issue where Spawn Beacons would snap onto surfaces above the player (trees etc.).
• Greatly improved the detection of areas where players are allowed to deploy Spawn Beacons.
• Greatly improved the detection of obstacles between the player and the potential Spawn Beacon.
• Disabled placement of Spawn Beacons under water.
• Reduced the maximum distance at which a player is allowed to deploy a Spawn Beacon to 1,35m instead of 2m to reduce conflicts with obstacles between the player and the “potential Spawn Beacon”.
• On the Practice Range, all parts of the MG42 weapon are now visible.
• Fixed a bug where the player’s weapons sometimes would become invisible when exiting a vehicle.
• Fixed an issue when using an ammo pouch which could result in the animation showing a health pouch instead or vice versa.
• Fixed a rare bug which could result in players being unable to reload the KE7 if they, with exact timing, activated aim down sights when the last bullet in the magazine was fired.
• Mines placed by your team will no longer explode if you drive over them with a vehicle that has a towable attached.
• The Zk-383 magazine is no longer misaligned when reloading viewed from third person.
• Fixed a bug where, after using Squad Reinforcements, the squad radio would not de-equip.
• The Tanker and Pilot classes no longer build Fortifications faster than the Support class with the engineer Combat Role.
• The overheat effect on machine guns is no longer misaligned in third person.
• Players are no longer able to aim down sight with the Squad Reinforcement binoculars which was causing a black mesh to block the player’s view.
• Fixed an issue where Ammo and Health crates could sometimes fall through the game world.
• Spawning on the Spawn Beacon now makes you face the proper direction (towards the beacon).

Weapon balance

Shotgun Slugs

• Increased two-hit kill range to 30 m (was 25 m) and increased one headshot kill range to 50 m (was 35 m) when using the Solid Slug specialization. Slugs were a bit disappointing in terms of damage over distance, so we slowed down their damage drop-off.

PIAT

• Reduced reload time to 2.75 s (was 2.9 s) and increased reload threshold to 0.6 (was 0.5). The PIAT’s reload timer was slightly longer than the animation looked, and it was possible to skip parts of the reload time by doing a weapon swap.

KE7

• Increased initial vertical recoil to 0.7 (was 0.65), decreasing to 0.52 (was 0.5) after four shots.
• Increased horizontal recoil to 0.48 (was 0.45).
• Changed recoil pattern. The KE7 was still slightly too controllable for its rate of fire, so we increased recoil across the board.

Turner SMLE

• Reduced maximum damage to 40 (was 45).

M1944

• Reduced maximum damage to 40 (was 45).
• Reduced range at which one head and one body shot is lethal to 30 m (was 35 m).

Gewehr 1-5

• Reduced maximum damage to 36 (was 40).
• Reduced range at which one head and one body shot is lethal to 10 m (was 30 m). These semi-autos had a very high chance to get a kill with only two hits on a wounded target, which seems unnecessary given their good base TTK. Additionally, the Gewehr 1-5 was extremely strong up to 30 meters whenever you landed one headshot, so we reduced this range to 10 meters.

Zk-383

• Increased horizontal recoil to 0.765 (was 0.68) when using the Light Bolt Specialization. With the increased rate of fire, the Zk-383 was a bit too accurate compared to the M1928A1 considering the flexibility from being able to use the bipod.

Bayonet

• Removed damage reduction during bayonet charge, added a 1.3 sprint speed multiplier. This brings the behavior of bayonet charge in line with Battlefield 1.

Maps and Modes

• Frontlines – Fixed an issue where some maps had no constructible Fortifications.
• Fjell 652 – Fixed an exploit where players could stand on the cliff face when they should have been out of the combat area.
• Fjell 652 – Players can once again build all kinds of Fortifications when playing Frontlines.
• Devastation – Fixed an issue where players could get stuck or fall through the ground in the library area.
• Devastation – Fixed collision on multiple places to prevent players from using map exploits.
• Devastation – Fixed an occluder that was sticking out.
• Devastation – Fixed some collision to stop people from getting stuck.
• Devastation – Added a ladder Fortification to the library.
• Devastation – Moved a health station in the library to not clip with another asset.
• Devastation – Added collision to allow people to easier access the second floor of the library.
• Fjell 652 – Fixed a rock that was unvaultable near Flag E on Conquest.
• Aerodrome – On Breakthrough, fixed an issue which resulted in players getting spawned outside of the combat area.
• Panzerstorm – Fixed a floating stationary anti-air gun.
• Panzerstorm – Improved the transitions between weather states.
• Panzerstorm – Improved the borders on the deploy screen when playing Conquest to show neutral borders more accurately.
• Panzerstorm – Fixed some floating Fortifications.
• Panzerstorm – Borders on the deploy screen are now easier to see if the fog weather state is active.
• Arras – Spawn Beacons placed by the church tower now properly get destroyed when the church tower gets destroyed.
• Arras – The hedgerow collision has been tweaked to reduce the chance of projectiles incorrectly hitting invisible collision.
• Narvik – Turrets and cannons can now be rebuilt and repaired on this map.
• Hamada – Players are now able to control the free camera in spectator mode when switching between table top to free camera mode.
• Rotterdam – Fixed an issue with a ladder where players were able to reach an unintended area below the water.
• Rotterdam – Made it easier to climb out of the water near the B flag on Conquest.
• Rotterdam – Players are no longer able to climb to the rooftop located near point D on Conquest.
• Rotterdam – Fixed some issues with the combat area and its collision where previously you could drive through backdrop houses with a tank.
• Rotterdam – Adjusted terrain a tiny bit to prevent players from glitching below it.
• Rotterdam – Added collision to prevent people from climbing on houses around the D flag.
• Practice Range – Decreased the explosion size of the skeets as they could block the view of the other skeets.
• Aerodrome – Fixed a spawn point on Frontlines where players could deploy out of bounds in a tank when playing as Axis.
• Aerodrome – Players will no longer jump high into the air when vaulting over bomb cart carrier after vaulting over the railing on the balcony just straight above it in the airplane hangar.
• Practice range – Fixed a bug where it was not possible to switch to another weapon after using the M30 Drilling.
• The Last Tiger War Story – Fixed an issue where players could end up in an infinite loading screen after the last cinematic in the story had ended.
• The in-game chat has been disabled during the Final Stand game mode to hinder players from exposing the position of players.

UI/HUD/Options/Assignments

• The Frontlines tutorial video now plays when players go into the Frontlines menu for the first time.
• Under advanced search, Frontlines no longer appears as “Frontlines Small” and is once again able to find matching servers.
• Fixed the estimated times duration to be more accurate on the multiplayer mode selection screens.
• Fixed an issue where the health pouch reminder indicator could be visible while the player was in a vehicle.
• Fixed an issue when users managed to complete two Tides of War nodes within the same round which caused the Tides of War widget on the pause menu to not display the next nodes.
• The indicator that shows when a player needs a health pack from a Medic will no longer show if the player already is in the process of healing up.
• The background now properly updates when players go in and out of the “Progression” screens as well as the “Armory” screen.
• Fixed an issue where the UI sounds would not play in the vehicle customization screen.
• The Social menu now shows if your friends are playing on the Practice Range.
• When a squad leader with a squad tries to join a full server and ends up in the server queue, the squad will now follow the squad leader if they choose to leave the queue and join another server.
• Players will no longer get a Company Coin purchase confirmation screen in the Specialization screen for upgrades that they have yet not earned.
• Fixed an issue in the Armory where some offers that were sets did not appear to be sets.
• Fixed an issue where the Tides of War widget on the pause menu would not show when players transitioned between rounds.
• The Tides of War in-game progression notifications are now shown more consistently.
• The total weapons number shown in “Your Company” on the replace weapon button have been removed.
• Fixed a bug where the time spent in vehicles was not tracking properly when spawning into them.
• Fixed an issue with the Options screen where the page would auto scroll back to the last used option when changing any slider options.
• Platoon tags now show up in the Profile section.
• Changing characters will no longer change the equipped cosmetic items but will stay the same as the user has selected.
• Soldiers and vehicles in the frontend should no longer show until all its assets are fully loaded in on first boot.
• Fixed an issue which made it difficult to see some facepaints when applied in the Armory.
• Added an auto focuser to Spectator Mode’s free cam and player view director modes. This can be found under the depth of field settings in the Camera tab. It can be set to either “Point” or “Player” mode. In point mode, the focus distance will be automatically adjusted to keep the selected point in focus. A point can be selected by clicking anywhere with the mouse cursor, or on consoles by aiming the camera and pressing A on the Xbox One or X on the PlayStation® 4. In player mode, the focus will be kept on the player who is currently selected.

Stability

• Multiple crash fixes and stability improvements.

PC-Specific Improvements

• This update includes further optimizations to DXR ray tracing performance and introduces NVIDIA DLSS to Battlefield V, which uses deep learning to improve game performance while maintaining visual quality.
• Rotterdam – The deploy screen has been improved when using a widescreen monitor, and no longer displays any low-resolution textures or unintended backdrop buildings.
• Spectator mode – added key bindings for increasing and decreasing field of view in free cam and player view director modes. Defaults are PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN.