--- title: "Nvidia’s “Slop Tracing” Feature That Uses AI to Yassify Video Games Leaked, and the Results Are Even More Horrifying Than Anyone Thought Possible" description: "An unfinished version of Nvidia's controversial DLSS 5 feature has leaked, and the results are not impressing gamers." date: "2026-09-01" modified: "2026-09-01" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/nvidia-slop-tracing-leak" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" --- # Nvidia’s “Slop Tracing” Feature That Uses AI to Yassify Video Games Leaked, and the Results Are Even More Horrifying Than Anyone Thought Possible ![A screenshot of a new Nvidia AI filter feature for video games.]() *WreckedElkJr via X* When Nvidia unveiled its new DLSS 5 feature, which uses AI to overhaul the visuals of video games, gamers knew what they were getting into. The official demos Nvidia had shared previously [looked uncanny](), disjointed from the game's original aesthetic, and worst of all, bore that unmistakable AI sheen. Gamers reviled it as "slop tracing" — a play on Nvidia's ray tracing graphics tech — and it spurred so much backlash that even Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who nowadays is usually too busy hyping the AI boom to pay attention to the company's gaming roots, got [dragged into defending it](). Now, adding to Nvidia's woes, an unfinished version of the upcoming feature was accidentally leaked, and [modders have jumped on the opportunity]() to see just how bad it can get. The results have been horrors far beyond what anyone could've anticipated. One [viral video]() shows a cutscene from the classic 2001 title Halo: Combat Evolved. With the bootleg DLSS 5 enabled, it looks less like it's been injected with cutting edge tech and more like it's been put through fourteen different stages of compression to make a deep fried meme. The colors are blotchy, bordering on cheap HDR, and [faces are rendered]() in disturbingly hyperrealistic detail. Bringing back the magic of how these old games look in your childhood, right? That's how it looks with the settings cranked up to the max. But as that tester [opined](), "even in the BEST circumstances it takes out everything and makes it look incredibly generic." https://twitter.com/WreckedelkJr/status/2093896139523187055 Nvidia's AI feature also, apparently, absolutely tanks your frame rate. *The Verge* [spotted]() one user who tried running it on the 2024 game Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and said their frames per second were cut in half. Another who tried slapping it on GTA V saw their frames drop from 90 to 29 frames per second. A particularly egregious DLSS abomination [making the rounds]() shows the iconic Final Fantasy character Cloud Strife — or at least what's supposed to be Cloud Strife, since it looks more like someone cosplaying as him with a heavy helping of makeup. In other words, Cloud was "yassified." To be clear, this isn't an official release of DLSS 5, and many examples we're seeing are pushing it to its absurd extreme. Still, it illustrates just how drastically the AI tech can trample a game's original aesthetic, replacing it with something cheap and gaudy. It also stands in stark contrast to how it was originally hyped up. After DLSS was announced in March, Huang hailed it as gaming's "GPT moment for graphics." He sounded less evangelical, though, as the backlash didn't die down, [claiming to also hate]() "AI slop" while insisting that DLSS 5 was doing something different. **More on AI:** [*The Music Industry’s New Lawsuit Against Anthropic Should Have Dario Amodei Shivering With Fear*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()