Epic Games lead producer calls criticism of DLSS 5 'absolutely insane'

Nvidia's DLSS 5 reveal has pulled in strong reactions. Jean Pierre Kellams, lead producer at Epic Games, said those who claim it 'doesn’t look better/is detracting from art direction' are 'absolutely insane' and called the lighting and shading improvements 'bonkers.' He argued that if the same effects were shown as a next‑gen hardware reveal rather than AI, people would react very differently.

Ryan Shrout, formerly of Intel, went hands‑on with the demos and described the tech as 'not a face filter,' pointing out that improvements were comprehensive across entire scenes — he cited a coffee maker moment as particularly convincing. Shrout emphasized developer control, saying the artistic‑intent concerns would be valid if DLSS 5 were a black box, but that is not what he encountered.

Kellams highlighted Nvidia's Grace Ashcroft demo as an example of practical change: 'Her skin shader has much better subsurface scattering (she doesn't have the Japanese game character perfect skin). Her lips actually have creases now.

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