MHW-DLSS4

A proper DLSS 4 port for Monster Hunter: World, implemented as a drag-and-drop Stracker's Loader plugin. Compatible with FSR4 using OptiScaler.

The game shipped with DLSS 1, which looks soft and smeary. This plugin runs current DLSS automatically: the version the NVIDIA driver has downloaded, or an nvngx_dlss.dll of your choice.

Zoomed-in crops, comparing vanilla DLSS1 and mod's DLAA at Max graphics.

Features

• DLAA (default): native resolution, DLSS replaces the game's TAA.
• Quality / Balanced / Performance / Custom: lower render resolution, DLSS scales up to the output resolution.
• Three sharpening filters after DLSS, set in the ini: NVIDIA's NVSharpen (default), Vanilla, or AMD's RCAS.
• NVIDIA Reflex, with or without DLSS.
• DX12, DX11 and HDR are supported.
• Open-Source
• Can be used with OptiScaler to switch to FSR4, see Nexus sticky post for community instructions.

Requirements

• An NVIDIA RTX GPU, plus either a current driver (it includes DLSS for you) or an nvngx_dlss.dll 3.x or 4.x of your choice (see Using a specific DLSS version). 310.x (DLSS 4) is recommended.
• Stracker's Loader, or any loader that loads the DLLs in nativePC\plugins.

Install

1. Extract the zip into the game folder. You get:

   nativePC\plugins\MHW-DLSS4.dll
   nativePC\plugins\MHW-DLSS4.ini
   

   The plugin keeps its other files in nativePC\plugins\MHW-DLSS4\. It copies the NVIDIA driver's DLSS file to MHW-DLSS4\driver\nvngx_dlss.dll automatically, and again whenever the driver gets a newer one. Never put an nvngx_dlss.dll directly in nativePC\plugins: Stracker's Loader loads every DLL there. Leave the game's own nvngx_dlss.dll in the game folder alone; it is no longer used, but it does no harm.
2. Start the game, set NVIDIA DLSS to On in the graphics options, and keep Image Quality on High. Anti-Aliasing is greyed out while DLSS is on; whatever it shows, the plugin uses the game's TAA together with DLSS and keeps FXAA off.

To uninstall, delete MHW-DLSS4.dll, MHW-DLSS4.ini, MHW-DLSS4.log and the MHW-DLSS4 folder in nativePC\plugins.

Settings

You can edit nativePC\plugins\MHW-DLSS4.ini while the game runs; changes apply within a second (except DLLPath).

Key	Values	Meaning
Mode	DLAA, Quality, Balanced, Performance, Custom	Render resolution. The game never renders below half resolution, so there is no Ultra Performance mode (an old UltraPerformance setting runs as Performance).
RenderScale	0.5 to 1.0	Scale used by Mode=Custom.
Preset	Default, J, K, L, M	DLSS model preset. K is the DLSS 4 transformer; L and M are the DLSS 4.5 models meant for the performance modes.
Sharpness	0 to 1, Game	Sharpening after DLSS; 0 turns it off. 0.33 (default) is moderate, 1 is strong. Game follows the in-game DLSS Sharpness slider on the same scale.
Sharpener	NVSharpen, Vanilla, RCAS	The sharpening filter, see below.
DLLPath	folder or file	The nvngx_dlss.dll to use. Empty (default): the one the driver has. See Using a specific DLSS version. Read when the game starts.
AutoExposure	0 / 1	Let DLSS estimate exposure (presets L and M always do).
Bypass	0 / 1	DLAA mode only: show the game's TAA for comparison.
LowLatency	Off, On, Boost	NVIDIA Reflex, see below.
LogLevel	Debug, Info, Warn, Error	How much goes into MHW-DLSS4.log next to the plugin.

Ini file can also have an [Advanced] section: settings measured for this game, now built in. You can delete that section.

Sharpening

Current DLSS no longer sharpens the image, and it ignores the game's DLSS Sharpness slider. So the plugin sharpens the image itself, right after DLSS:

• Sharpness sets the strength, from 0 (off) to 1 (strong). The default, 0.33, is a light touch.
• Sharpness=Game lets the in-game DLSS Sharpness slider set it instead. The new value applies once you apply the graphics settings in the game.

Sharpener picks the filter:

• NVSharpen (default): NVIDIA's sharpening, the same filter as the Image Sharpening option in the NVIDIA driver settings. A good all-rounder.
• Vanilla: the sharpening of the game's original DLSS, rebuilt for this plugin. It brings out fine texture detail more than edges, and it stays fairly mild: 1 is the strongest the original game allowed.
• RCAS: AMD's sharpening from FidelityFX Super Resolution. Similar to NVSharpen at low values, the strongest of the three at high values.

The same Sharpness gives a different amount of sharpening with each filter. These settings look about the same:

	NVSharpen	Vanilla	RCAS
Light	0.33	0.33	0.25
Medium	0.66	0.66	0.5
Strong	1	(its maximum, 1, is between medium and strong)	0.75

In Balanced and Performance, the image DLSS upscales already carries fine grain from the game's post-processing, and sharpening brings it out. Keep sharpening lower there: about 0.33 with NVSharpen or RCAS, 0.5 with Vanilla.

NVIDIA Reflex and frame rate caps

The plugin adds NVIDIA Reflex to the game. It works with NVIDIA DLSS on or off.

• LowLatency=On (default) lets the driver start each frame just in time for the graphics card. The game already keeps few finished frames waiting, so the gain is small: about half a millisecond in my tests. Boost also keeps the graphics card at full clock speed, for about 2 ms less input lag and more power use.
• A frame rate cap adds input lag in this game, whichever limiter you use: the game shows a frame one update after it reads your input, and every update waits for the cap. In my tests (RTX 4080 SUPER, 1440p, DLAA) the time from the mouse to the finished frame was about 15 ms at 165 fps without a cap and about 24 ms at 60 fps.
• Cap with the game's own Frame Rate option or with Max Frame Rate in the NVIDIA Control Panel or NVIDIA App; both add the same input lag as long as LowLatency is on. Reflex lets the driver's cap wait at the start of the frame; without it the driver waits later in the frame, which cost about 7 ms more at 60 fps in my tests.
• DLSS itself adds no input lag: DLAA measured the same as DLSS off, and the upscaling modes lower it, because the graphics card finishes each frame sooner.

Using a specific DLSS version

By default the plugin uses the newest DLSS your NVIDIA driver has downloaded. To use a particular nvngx_dlss.dll instead, for example an older version you prefer, one from another game or when playing on Linux:

• Easiest: put the DLL into nativePC\plugins\MHW-DLSS4. The plugin uses it when it is newer than the driver's.
• Any version, newer or older: set DLLPath in MHW-DLSS4.ini and restart the game. DLLPath can be a folder that contains nvngx_dlss.dll, or the DLL file itself under any name (handy for keeping several versions side by side).

A path without a drive letter starts in the game folder, the one with MonsterHunterWorld.exe (for example C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Monster Hunter World). ..\ goes one folder up, which reaches your other games in the same Steam library. Examples:

; nvngx_dlss.dll in nativePC\plugins\MHW-DLSS4, even when the driver has a newer one
DLLPath=nativePC\plugins\MHW-DLSS4

; a renamed copy in the same folder
DLLPath=nativePC\plugins\MHW-DLSS4\nvngx_dlss_310.4.dll

; the DLSS of another game in the same Steam library
DLLPath=..\Cyberpunk 2077\bin\x64

; a full path; spaces are fine, quotes are optional
DLLPath=D:\DLSS versions\310.9\nvngx_dlss.dll

Never put an nvngx_dlss.dll directly in nativePC\plugins: Stracker's Loader loads every DLL there. If the path is wrong, the log says so and the plugin falls back to the driver's DLSS.

Always use reputable sources to obtain nvngx_dlss.dll files, like DLSS Swapper, but DON'T use it to swap .dll, only for direct downloads.

Troubleshooting

The plugin writes everything it does to nativePC\plugins\MHW-DLSS4.log. When something seems off, look there first.

• The NVIDIA DLSS option is greyed out or missing: the log says why. Usually the GPU is not an RTX card, or the driver is too old.
• The log says "no nvngx_dlss.dll" or "DLSS is not available": the driver has not downloaded DLSS 3 or newer yet, and no other nvngx_dlss.dll was found. Put one (3.x or 4.x) into nativePC\plugins\MHW-DLSS4, or point DLLPath at one. DLSS 1 files do not work.
• Which DLSS version is running? The log line starting with nvngx_dlss.dll: shows the version and where it came from. You can also turn on NVIDIA's on-screen DLSS indicator: set the registry value HKLM\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\NGXCore\ShowDlssIndicator (DWORD) to 1024, and back to 0 to hide it.
• NVIDIA App DLSS override: it works on top of this plugin, as in any other DLSS game.
• The game starts in DirectX 11 after a crash: the game switches itself to DirectX 11 after a graphics crash. Turn DirectX 12 back on in the graphics options.
• To compare with the game's own TAA: set Bypass=1 in DLAA mode, and back to 0 afterwards.

How it works

In short: the game still thinks it is running its own DLSS 1, but every DLSS call goes to the plugin, which runs current DLSS instead. No game files or game code are changed; remove the plugin and the game is back to normal. The technical details are in docs/technical.md.

Known limitations

• In Quality, Balanced and Performance, DLSS upscales the image after the game's post-processing (depth of field, motion blur, tone mapping), where the game's own DLSS 1 sat. DLSS is designed to work before those effects, so the upscaling modes can't look quite as good as in games built for current DLSS.
• Texture sharpness follows the mode of the area you loaded: after changing Mode while playing, textures get the new sharpness at the next area change (or after a restart).
• In DLAA, the game's own TAA still runs underneath and its result is thrown away. That costs a fraction of a millisecond.

Building from source

See docs/technical.md.

Licence

MHW-DLSS4 is released under the BSD 2-Clause License: you can use, change and share it, also as a built DLL, as long as the copyright notice and licence text come along. The DLL also contains parts of NVIDIA's DLSS SDK, NVIDIA Image Scaling and AMD FidelityFX, which keep their own licences (listed in MHW-DLSS4-THIRD-PARTY.txt in the download).