DLSS 5 Bridge

A bridge for DLSS 5 Neural Rendering add-ons in DirectX 11 and Vulkan games, with an optional optical-flow path for games without DLSS.

A ReShade add-on that mirrors a DirectX 11 or Vulkan game's DLSS onto a private DirectX 12 session, where a compatible neural rendering add-on can process it. For games without DLSS, it can build substitute inputs from ReShade's depth and NVIDIA Optical Flow, or a ReShade motion-vector shader. The game's files are not patched.

This bridge does not do neural rendering itself. It needs a separate compatible DLSS 5 Neural Rendering add-on, such as RenoDX's renodx-dlss5.addon64, distributed in its Discord channel, together with its nvngx_dlssnr.dll. The bridge only gives that add-on a place to work.

If it is useful to you, you can help cover the AI tooling used in its development:

Releases and their notes: github.com/NIGos/dlss5-bridge/releases.

Release status (7 September 2026). v1.4.12 is the stable release and the code on main. v1.4.13-pre2 adds a Vulkan Frame Generation initialization fix and retains pre1's D3D11 partial-output fix for BG3 split screen. Both defects are reproduced in ngxGym; actual FG/MFG output in Endfield and complete BG3 split-screen rendering still need in-game confirmation.

Some neural add-ons support additional graphics APIs directly. Whether you need this bridge depends on the add-on build and the game. See the compatibility notes below; support for NGX D3D12 calls alone does not guarantee compatibility.

What it does

The DLSS 5 add-on is not modified. It receives genuine NGX D3D12 calls on a private D3D12 device, and its result is copied back into the game's output. Three routes; the substitute is off by default:

Route	Game	Contract
D3D11 bridge	DirectX 11 with DLSS	The game's Color, Depth and MotionVectors are copied into shared textures, evaluated on D3D12 and copied back. The bridge follows the supplied dimensions, regions and parameters, with defaults for missing values.
Vulkan mirror	Vulkan with DLSS	The game's own, mirrored the same way through imported D3D12 textures. vk_mirror=1, the default.
Substitute contract	Games without DLSS that expose usable depth and motion inputs through ReShade	DLAA at back-buffer size, using NVIDIA Optical Flow or a ReShade motion-vector shader. Requires synth=1; availability depends on the API, driver and inputs.

With source=auto, the game's own DLSS takes priority. Prefer that route when the game has DLSS. The substitute can also run while the game's DLSS is off, but switching between the two has limitations described below.

The substitute is a real DLSS feature fed approximated inputs, and it shows: text softens and dense foliage smears. It is an option, not a default.

Requirements

An NVIDIA GPU and driver that support DLSS, plus a neural add-on and model compatible with that GPU. D3D12 support alone is not sufficient. Required files:

File	From
ReShade 6.0 or newer with full add-on support	reshade.me. Install for the game's rendering API: D3D11 uses a local proxy DLL; Vulkan uses ReShade's Vulkan layer. A local dxgi.dll is not the Vulkan installation method.
A compatible neural rendering add-on, such as renodx-dlss5.addon64	its Discord channel. Use one neural consumer at a time; see compatibility notes below.
nvngx_dlssnr.dll	shipped with that add-on
dlss5-bridge.addon64	this project
nvngx_dlss.dll	Use the game's existing DLSS for the native mirror. For the substitute path, supply version 3.1.13 or newer beside the executable, even in a game without DLSS. The driver alone does not supply the required SR snippet there.

The neural add-on's own toggle has to be on, in its panel or in ReShade.ini.

The neural add-on's build matters, and its version number does not identify one. Two builds of 2026-08-28 declare the same version; the newer one needs to see this add-on's D3D12 device through ReShade's proxy, and underneath it reports active and writes nothing. The log prints a SHA-256 for every add-on beside this one, says whether that build has been measured here, and keeps the proxy for a build that needs it.

Install

Install ReShade for the correct API, then copy dlss5-bridge.addon64 and the neural add-on's files into its add-on search location, normally beside the game executable. On first run the Bridge writes dlss5-bridge.cfg with defaults for games using their own DLSS. Games without DLSS need the opt-in below. Keep only one Bridge DLL installed; back up old DLLs outside the game folder. To remove the Bridge, delete its .addon64 file.

The settings file's first line is the version that wrote it. A different version replaces the file with its own defaults on first run and says so in the log; the same version never touches it. # dlss5-bridge keep as the first line keeps a file across versions.

Games without DLSS. The substitute contract needs three files beside the game's executable that such a game does not bring: the DLSS 5 add-on and its nvngx_dlssnr.dll, and a nvngx_dlss.dll of version 3.1.13 or newer, copied by hand from any game that has DLSS. The NVIDIA driver does not supply that file in the game's folder. Open ReShade's overlay and, in DLSS 5 Bridge, enable Replace DLSS when the game isn't using its own (or set synth=1). Enable neural rendering in the separate neural add-on's panel too. Optical flow is selected by default; the Bridge panel shows whether usable depth and motion inputs are available. If the DLSS DLL is missing, the panel and log name it.

Upgrading from 1.1.0 or earlier: the files were called dlss5-dx11-bridge.addon64 and dlss5-dx11-bridge.cfg. Delete the old .addon64 — ReShade loads both, and the older one ends up on screen. The old .cfg is read where no current one exists.

The Bridge hooks supported NGX entry points in memory. Hook selection has guards for unsupported exports; it does not patch every export indiscriminately. The prerelease additionally leaves the Frame Generation DLL untouched.

Configuration

dlss5-bridge.cfg is re-read about once a second, so most keys take effect without a restart. While a Vulkan mirror session holds the session the file is not re-read until the game's DLSS goes quiet.

Key	Default	Meaning
vk_mirror	1	Hook the Vulkan NGX entry points and mirror a Vulkan game's own DLSS. Read once at launch. Depth aspects carried: D32_SFLOAT, D32_SFLOAT_S8_UINT, D24_UNORM_S8_UINT; a 16-bit aspect is refused by name.
synth	0	Allow the substitute contract, for a game with no DLSS and for a game whose DLSS is switched off. One switch in the panel.
synth_after	0	With synth=1, seconds of silence from the game before a substitute is built for a game that has never asked. 0 is the default 10 s. A delay, not an opt-in.
source	auto	auto prioritizes the game's DLSS and permits the substitute when synth=1; mirror and synth pin one; off disables both processing paths.
ofa_grid	2	Grid of the driver's optical flow engine on the substitute path: 1, 2, 4, or 0 to use a ReShade motion-vector shader instead.
ofa_perf	20	Optical flow effort, NVIDIA's own values: 5 slow, 10 medium, 20 fast.
mv_sign_x, mv_sign_y	0	Force the motion-vector sign (1, -1); 0 uses the provider's convention or the engine's measurement. Diagnostic.
vk_present	0	How the substitute's result reaches a Vulkan back buffer: 0 copies where the image allows it and draws it otherwise, 1 copies only, 2 draws always.
vk_sync	0	How the substitute's Vulkan transport orders itself against the private D3D12 device: 0 parks the game's queue on a Vulkan event while a worker thread runs the optical flow and the evaluate, 1 waits the queue idle on the CPU instead, 2 pipelines. 1 costs a full CPU-GPU serialisation every frame and is the fallback if the park misbehaves on a driver. 2 runs one frame's evaluate while the game renders the next, so the wait the game's queue reaches is on work that started a frame earlier rather than on work that starts when it gets there -- at the price of showing the result one present later, which is about 17 ms at 60 fps and 33 at 30, and one more Output texture. That texture is the back buffer's own size and format, so it is width x height x bytes per texel: 8.3 MB at 1920x1080 and 24.6 MB at 3840x1600 for a 4-byte format, double each on an RGBA16F back buffer.
stage	3	Processing level: 0 disables processing but leaves hooks installed. D3D11: 1 input copies, 2 plus depth conversion, 3 full processing. The substitute needs 3; the Vulkan mirror records from 2 and copies results back at 3 with mode=2.
mode	2	0 never writes to the game, 1 transport only, 2 the full path.
skip_game	1	D3D11 only: skip the game's DLSS evaluate when the bridge can replace its full output. Vulkan always forwards the game's evaluate.
flags	-1	DLSS.Feature.Create.Flags. -1 copies the game's value. 107 is treated as unset (an old default); use 108 to force that pattern.
subrects	1	Fallback for DLSS.Enable.Output.Subrects when the game sets none. D3D11 bridge only.
reset_every	0	1 sets the NGX Reset flag every frame. Diagnostic.
pixels	0	1 reads pixels back to the CPU on frames 2 to 4. Diagnostic; stalls the GPU.
dred	1	Ask D3D12 to record what the GPU was executing, so a device reset can be explained. Read when the session opens.
skip_exe	1	1 hooks the executable's own NGX exports only if no library exports them within a minute, so a game's image is not patched at startup. 0 hooks at once, 2 never.
unwrap	1	Hand NGX the D3D12 device underneath ReShade's proxy. 0 keeps the proxy. A neural add-on build measured to need the proxy, and ReShade loaded as d3d12.dll, both override 1 automatically. 2 forces unwrapping despite those checks; use only for a targeted diagnostic. See the Linux reports below for cases needing 0.
ngx_loader	0	What to do about an NVIDIA driver whose NGX loader drives neural rendering into a snippet that faults (32.0.16.1664 and 1686 with nvngx_dlssnr.dll 310.8.0.0): 0 closes that route in memory at attach, so the DLSS 5 add-on drives the feature itself as it did on 32.0.16.1656; 1 leaves the driver alone; 2 loads the previous driver's loader instead, if the driver store still holds one. Applies only when a snippet measured to fault is beside the game.
shape	0	1 builds the mirrored feature at the render region the game declares on each evaluate (DLSS.Render.Subrect.Dimensions) and rebuilds when that region changes. Confirmed by the PSO2 reporter to fix 0xBAD00005 in #8. Leave at 0 unless needed.
stall_test	0	Holds the private D3D12 queue for this many milliseconds, once, at the 60th submission, to exercise the stall path. Diagnostic.
unwrap_list	0	1 hands NGX the command list underneath ReShade's proxy. Diagnostic.
probe	0	1 runs a standalone NGX D3D12 probe at attach and logs the result. Diagnostic.
hash_out	1	Once per feature build, 60 frames in, read the input and the output back and log a hash of the output, the mean of each channel of both, and the brightness ratio out/in. One readback per build; 0 disables. D3D11 bridge only.

Status panel

ReShade's overlay has a DLSS 5 Bridge window. It shows which route holds the session and why, the contract in use, the motion-vector source on the substitute path, and whether frames are still arriving. One switch, Replace DLSS when the game isn't using its own, writes synth; Detail, Speed and Direction write the optical flow and sign keys. A Details checkbox adds what a bug report needs: build, transport, create flags, file paths, every add-on in the folder and the neural add-on's ReShade.ini section.

The panel writes single lines into dlss5-bridge.cfg and reads the file back like any other edit. There is no save, reload or reset: deleting the file restores the defaults on the next launch.

The panel has compatibility handling for ReShade 6.0.0 through 6.8.0. A ReShade built without its overlay, or the "Release Signed" build, has no panel; the log says so and nothing else is affected.

Log

dlss5-bridge.log beside the add-on records the environment, every add-on and NVIDIA model file in the folder with its SHA-256, the contract read from the game, the presentation (output format, colour space, HDR or SDR contract, the exposure texture's value), every NGX result, a cumulative delivered-frame count every 600 frames, on the D3D11 bridge the brightness the output came back at relative to the input, and a timing line:

[bridge] 600 frames: bridge CPU 0.84 ms/frame | frame interval 16.00 ms (62.5 fps) | spread 5.74-29.93 ms | bridge is 5% of the frame | d3d12 43200/43202 (2 behind)

bridge CPU is time inside the add-on, mostly waiting on the GPU. spread is the widest and narrowest frame interval in the window. d3d12 N/M is how far the D3D12 side runs behind; a few is ordinary pipelining.

The bridge adds texture copies, synchronization and, on the substitute path, motion estimation, as well as the neural pass. Their cost depends on the API, scene, resolution, GPU and settings. This CPU timing includes waits and does not establish whether a game is CPU- or GPU-limited. Compare the same scene and settings in separate runs; Vulkan configuration changes may require a restart.

Reporting a problem

A screenshot of the panel with Details ticked answers the first questions. Past that, attach fresh dlss5-bridge.log and ReShade.log files. Please name the game, API, Bridge version, GPU/driver, neural add-on/model build, and whether DLSS, FG/MFG and HDR were enabled. Reports from titles not listed below are useful even when everything works.

Compatibility

Developed and verified on one GPU, on Baldur's Gate 3 (D3D11 and Vulkan), Red Dead Redemption 2 (Vulkan) and Skyrim Special Edition (D3D11). Every release is run through ngxGym, a synthetic DLSS host that exercises both backends, mode changes, contract faults and the substitute contract against real NGX, without a game.

NVIDIA drivers 32.0.16.1664 and 1686 route neural rendering (NGX feature 18) into nvngx_dlssnr.dll itself. The 310.8.0.0 build tested with those drivers faulted inside D3D12 on that route: with the DLSS 5 add-on present the game terminated or stopped presenting. The add-on closes that route in the loaded _nvngx.dll at attach -- one pointer, in memory, nothing on disk -- and the DLSS 5 add-on drives the feature as it did on 32.0.16.1656. See ngx_loader. Other model builds exist; this is a workaround for the identified combination, not a claim that all current models need it.

Additional reports, scoped to the tested setups:

• Endfield Vulkan, v1.4.12: the reporter confirmed correct neural rendering. FG/MFG is a separate #27 issue under test in pre2.
• BG3 D3D11 with neural-upstream v0.3.0: reported working on RTX 4090 / driver 616.64. Not locally verified.
• Linux/Proton, D3D11 substitute: users report success with NapXDD's addon-dlssnr-linux and unwrap=0 on RTX 4080 and 5070. Hardware optical flow was unavailable in those reports; they used ReShade motion-vector shaders. This does not establish compatibility for other neural add-ons or the Vulkan mirror. ReShade's descriptor-handle fix is tracked in PR #435.

Other titles reported working by users (not a guarantee for every build or mode):

Title	Engine	DLSS from
Baldur's Gate 3	Divinity 4.0	the game
Final Fantasy XIV Online	in-house	the game
The Legend of Heroes: Trails beyond the Horizon	Falcom	the game
Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon	Unity	the game
7 Days to Die	Unity	the game
Skyrim Special Edition	Creation	a DLSS injector mod
Fallout 4	Creation	a DLSS injector mod
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Anomaly	X-Ray	an upscaler injector mod (SSS24)
Assetto Corsa	kunOS	Custom Shaders Patch (Preview 338 or later)

Tainted Grail also has an open, setup-specific device-creation report in #24.

The bridge follows the game's NGX inputs rather than requiring a game-specific integration. DLSS supplied by a mod can be picked up like built-in DLSS; compatibility still depends on the supplied inputs and the other add-ons.

Known limits

The Bridge attempts to stand down on detected failures, but failures in a driver or another add-on can still crash the game or produce an incorrect image.

• Two NGX sessions. Vulkan runs the game's DLSS and the mirrored DLSS. D3D11 can skip the original with skip_game=1 when replacing the full output. The Bridge serializes its intercepted NGX calls with its private work, which can introduce waits.
• Vulkan exposure texture. v1.4.12 carries both R16_SFLOAT and R32_SFLOAT, and supports different input/output color formats. Unsupported exposure contracts are logged and left to the game's own DLSS; changing exposure flags is not an equivalent fix.
• HDR on the substitute path. The input may already include the game's tone mapping and UI. With neural rendering this can alter colors across the whole view. A general solution that preserves the game's presentation is still under investigation; no universal HDR fix is in the stable or pre2 build.
• FG and split screen. v1.4.13-pre2 fixes reproduced FG initialization and D3D11 partial-output defects. Endfield's generated frames and BG3's complete split-screen neural output still need in-game confirmation.
• Substitute before the game's DLSS. This order has caused faults in tested neural add-on builds when native DLSS first appears. Prefer the native DLSS route and leave the substitute off in games that provide it.
• Substitute depth must be back-buffer sized. A smaller or otherwise mismatched depth buffer does not meet the substitute's requirements. The Vulkan substitute reads depth with a compute pass that needs VK_KHR_push_descriptor; a driver without it is refused by name.
• Optical flow on Vulkan runs on a private D3D11 device with two textures of its own, because the driver refuses to open the transport's D3D12 textures as D3D11 aliases. On D3D12 runtimes the engine is not wired; motion vectors come from a ReShade shader there.
• Vulkan mirror runs one frame in flight, one pipeline bubble per frame, and parks the game's command buffer on a VkEvent pair. That park raises two Khronos validation messages per frame by construction (VUID-vkSetEvent-event-09543, VUID-vkCmdWaitEvents-srcStageMask-01158); every NVIDIA driver measured accepts it.
• Resolution, preset and display-mode changes rebuild, and so does the game creating its DLSS feature again, whatever the shape: the create flags can change on their own, as IsHDR does when a game switches HDR on. On Vulkan a display change also recreates ReShade's runtime; the mirror and the substitute both follow it.
• Partial D3D11 output. Stable v1.4.12 copies a partial result at 0,0; this can overwrite the wrong region when the game supplies a nonzero output origin. Pre1 and pre2 preserve the declared origin. The original evaluate is retained on partial-output frames to preserve the surrounding texture.
• Verbose logging is always on.

Related

dlss5-d3d12-fix addresses a different failure of the same neural add-on: a DirectX 12 game whose DLSS output carries a mip chain. Check that project's diagnosis before using it; STANDBY/FAILED alone does not identify that problem.

Building

Windows SDK and MSVC; no external dependencies. src\build.cmd sets up the MSVC environment and runs the two lines:

rc /nologo version.rc
cl /nologo /W4 /O2 /MT /EHsc /std:c++17 /Ireshade /LD dlss5-bridge.cpp version.res ^
   /Fe:dlss5-bridge.addon64 /link /DLL user32.lib advapi32.lib bcrypt.lib

bridge.h, bridge.inc, synth.inc, vkmirror.inc and depth_convert_spv.h are included by the .cpp. The version is in two places that stay in step: BRIDGE_VERSION in the .cpp and the numbers in version.rc.

Third-party code

• The ReShade add-on API headers under src/reshade/ are Copyright 2014 Patrick Mours, BSD 3-clause; their licence is in src/reshade/LICENSE.md and travels with every binary.
• depth_convert.comp and depth_convert_spv.h are from AlanBacker/dlss5-vk-bridge, MIT, verbatim, with their dual copyright in the array's header. Two ideas in vkmirror.inc come from the same project: creating the shared textures on D3D12 and importing them into the game's VkDevice, and parking the game's command buffer on a VkEvent pair.

Everything else is this project's own, under MIT.