Modders enable FSR 4 in Vulkan games ahead of AMD with Optiscaler
Optiscaler brings FSR 4 support to Vulkan API games ahead of AMD
With the new v0.9.0-pre10 Test Build of Optiscaler, game modders can now enable support for AMD’s AI-powered FSR 4 upscaler in games using the Vulkan API. This is a first for AMD’s FSR 4 technology and addresses one of the primary weaknesses of FSR 4 compared to Nvidia DLSS.
So how does this work? Optiscaler is a tool that can swap upscaling solutions within games. This allows gamers to utilise upscalers like FSR 4 and XeSS in games that are otherwise unsupported. Now, AMD users can enable FSR 4 in Vulkan API games using “Vulkan w/DX12”, which translates Vulkan calls to DirectX 12 calls to enable FSR 4 support.
Right now, FSR 4 is only officially available in DirectX 12 titles. This means that popular Vulkan API games like DOOM: The Dark Ages and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle cannot use AMD’s new AI upscaler natively. This changes with Optiscaler’s newest release build.
Added Vulkan w/Dx12 support – FSR4 VK w/Dx12, FSR 2.1 VK w/Dx12
– OptiScaler v0.9.0-pre10 Test Build
Modders are making AMD look bad
FSR 4 has been available for almost a year, and it remains locked to DirectX 12. While AMD has added FSR 4 to a large number of DirectX 12 games via its driver-level “FSR upgrade” feature, support for other APIs remains unavailable. If you want the newest version of FSR on any DirectX 11 or Vulkan API games, you’re out of luck.
AMD’s inability to bring FSR 4 to Vulkan is a stain on its reputation. The fact that modders have enabled this first is a bad look for AMD. If modders can do it, why can’t AMD’s engineers? Are AMD too focused on AI to give gamers the features they want?
As it stands, AMD’s AI-powered FSR upscaler is incompatible with Vulkan. This needs to change. If it doesn’t, it will stand as a reason why gamers should choose Nvidia/DLSS over AMD/FSR.
FSR 4 is a huge upgrade over AMD’s FSR 3.1 and older upscalers. In fact, FSR 4 in performance mode looks better than FSR 3 in quality mode. AMD needs to expand FSR 4 to support more APIs and to support its older RDNA 3/3.5 graphics architectures. Doing both would secure a lot of consumer goodwill.
You can join the discussion on modders enabling FSR 4 support in Vulkan API games on the OC3D Forums.
