VRChat DLSS5 Cam

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VRChat DLSS5 Cam applies NVIDIA DLSS 5 Neural Rendering to the output of VRChat's camera on a GeForce RTX card and records the result as a lossless PNG. Images and videos on disk pass through the same pipeline, individually or as a batch. It is an ordinary Windows application: the VRChat process is never touched, and no mod is required.

Features

• Live camera. VRChat's Stream Camera is received over Spout and previewed in real time with DLSS 5 applied. A global hotkey (Ctrl+Alt+P) saves a lossless PNG while VRChat stays in the foreground.
• Images and video files. Screenshots and recordings can be dropped onto the window, adjusted and exported: PNG for stills, MP4 (H.264 / HEVC, audio track preserved) or a PNG sequence for video.
• Batch processing. Every file that is opened is collected in the library below the preview. Any selection can be processed in a single run, either with the shared parameters or with per-file parameters, and each file can be turned, mirrored or cropped beforehand.
• Real DLSS 5 guidance. Motion vectors from NVIDIA Optical Flow and a depth map from Depth Anything V2 are supplied to the network, so video and the live camera are processed with the same temporal cues a game would provide. An optional DLAA pass can clean up edges first.
• Comparison and inspection. Wipe, side-by-side and original views, wheel zoom, drag panning and a fullscreen mode make the difference before and after processing verifiable at 1:1.
• Built for daily use. Dark and light themes that follow the Windows setting, undo and redo with a full history, user-defined presets, a search across every setting, a resizable layout, an automatic update check, four languages (English, 简体中文, 日本語, 한국어), a dedicated interface thread for a consistently responsive window, and a command line for scripted runs.

Requirements

Windows	Windows 10 21H2 or Windows 11, 64-bit
Graphics card	NVIDIA GeForce RTX. The RTX 50 series and the RTX 40 / 30 / 20 series each have a build of the runtime in the archive (next row), so nothing has to be added for any of them. AMD Radeon RX 7000 / 9000 with the Radeon edition (VRChatDLSS5Cam-win64-amd.zip), which runs the neural pass through DLSS-NR-on-AMD, a separate project installed from the application (see AMD Radeon cards). Cards from other vendors are not refused: the application works as a viewer and recorder on them. DLAA and the hardware optical flow stay NVIDIA-only, and block matching takes over as the motion source.
DLSS 5 runtime	Included. The archive carries nvngx_dlssnr.dll 310.8.0.0 in two builds: runtimes\blackwell\ holds the build as shipped with games (RTX 50) and runtimes\universal\ a community-adapted build of the same runtime for RTX 40 / 30 / 20. The build for the installed card is chosen at start and the other is tried when it fails. Both files are NVIDIA's software under NVIDIA's terms and are not part of this project's MIT-licensed source (see THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md); nothing has to be obtained from anywhere else.
VRChat	Any build with the Stream Camera Spout Stream option (desktop or VR). Required for the live camera only.
Video files	Windows Media Foundation (part of Windows). The N / KN editions require the Media Feature Pack; HEVC files may require the HEVC Video Extensions from the Microsoft Store.

Getting started

Your graphics card	Download	Notes
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20 / 30 / 40 / 50	VRChatDLSS5Cam-win64.zip	The DLSS 5 runtime is in the archive.
AMD Radeon RX 7000 / 9000	VRChatDLSS5Cam-win64-amd.zip	The Radeon edition; it fetches DLSS-NR-on-AMD's installer for you at the first start. See AMD Radeon cards for what to expect.

1. Download VRChatDLSS5Cam-win64.zip from the latest release and extract it to any location. (Radeon card: VRChatDLSS5Cam-win64-amd.zip instead, see AMD Radeon cards below.)

2. Nothing else has to be copied. The DLSS 5 runtime is in the archive under runtimes\, in one build for RTX 50 and one for RTX 40 / 30 / 20; the application picks the build for the installed card at start and switches to the other one when that fails. The build in use is named next to Runtime in the DLSS 5 section, and the path is recorded in log.txt.

   VRChatDLSS5Cam.exe
   runtimes\blackwell\nvngx_dlssnr.dll   RTX 50
   runtimes\universal\nvngx_dlssnr.dll   RTX 40 / 30 / 20
   runtimes\other\nvngx_dlssnr.dll       a runtime for another vendor (not included; Radeon cards use the Radeon edition)
   

   A file of your own can be used instead: nvngx_dlssnr.dll next to VRChatDLSS5Cam.exe is tried after the build for the card, and any file can be selected under DLSS 5 Neural Rendering → Runtime path.

3. In VRChat, open the Camera, switch it to Stream mode and enable Spout Stream in its settings.

4. Start VRChatDLSS5Cam.exe. The camera picture appears in the preview with DLSS 5 applied, and the badge next to the Enable DLSS 5 switch reads Active.

5. Frame the shot in VRChat and press Ctrl+Alt+P (or use the Capture photo button). The PNG is written to Pictures\VRChat DLSS5 Cam.

Notes on the live camera

• The stream resolution is decided by VRChat. Raising camera_spout_res_width / camera_spout_res_height in VRChat's config.json produces a sharper input, and the application adapts to it automatically.
• When the neural pass is too slow for a live preview on a given card, Neural pass only for captures in the DLSS 5 section keeps the preview on the plain picture with the neural, motion and depth passes at rest, and runs the neural pass for each capture only.
• Processing rate cap in the Display section limits how many camera frames per second are processed, which keeps the GPU free for VRChat.

AMD Radeon cards

The Radeon edition, VRChatDLSS5Cam-win64-amd.zip, runs the neural pass on Radeon cards through DLSS-NR-on-AMD, a separate project by Daniel Blanco that brings DLSS 5 neural rendering to AMD hardware by attaching to programs that use FSR. Nothing of that project is included here: the edition hosts an FSR context (AMD's FidelityFX API, amd_fidelityfx_dx12.dll, MIT) for it to attach to, and fetches its installer from that project's own release page when you press the button. That project's licence allows personal, non-commercial use and no redistribution or modification, which is why its installer is never part of this archive.

1. Download VRChatDLSS5Cam-win64-amd.zip from the latest release and extract it to any location. It carries amd_fidelityfx_dx12.dll and the RTX 50 build of nvngx_dlssnr.dll next to the executable (the installer of step 2 converts that file into its own weights); the NVIDIA-only files (nvngx_dlss.dll, runtimes\) are not in it. The GeForce edition offers Get the Radeon edition… when it finds itself on a Radeon card (--edition amd on the command line does the same) and swaps its files the way an update does.
2. Start VRChatDLSS5Cam.exe. The start-up card and the DLSS 5 section offer Install DLSS-NR-on-AMD…, with the licence linked next to it. One press downloads dlssnr_on_amd_setup.exe into the program folder and runs it in the background, taking the folder and the DLL name it proposes for the executable; no window and no key press are needed. When it has finished, the application restarts by itself, and the DLSS 5 section reads Runtime: Loaded FSR … · FSR host and DLSS-NR-on-AMD v…: loaded (version.dll) · up to date, with the badge next to Enable DLSS 5 reading Active. If the folder needs administrator rights, or the card is one the port does not support, the installer opens its own window instead so its message is visible.

The DLSS 5 section shows the installed release next to the latest one. When a newer DLSS-NR-on-AMD is out, the section says so and the button reads Update to …; it and Run the installer again… fetch the installer and open its window, where U updates (keeping the settings and weights) and R removes it. An installation made before this version is recognised by the installer file next to the executable.

On this route the strengths of the neural pass up to 1 belong to DLSS-NR-on-AMD and are set in its own overlay (End key; its Mode there stays at inline, which a saved frame needs, see below); this application's Preset, Style and strength values are not passed to it. The controls that act after the pass (Output blend, strengths above 1, Neural pass resolution) work as usual. DLSS-NR-on-AMD needs Windows 11, a Radeon RX 7000 or RX 9000 card and Adrenalin 26.1.1 or newer; its release page states the current requirements. Host route under Advanced selects the route by hand (Automatic picks the FSR host on a Radeon card and the direct route on a GeForce card).

The Radeon edition has been run on an RX 9060 XT: still pictures at 720p and 4K, video files, batch processing from the command line and the live VRChat camera (at a lower frame rate than on a GeForce card; see the list below). DLSS-NR-on-AMD's installer sets an inline budget of 200 ms, suited to a game, after which a frame shows the previous frame's result; the application raises InlineWaitMs in dlssnr_on_amd.ini to 1000 after the install (or at start-up, with one automatic restart, when the file still has a lower value) so that a saved picture or video frame carries its own result, and keeps Inline at 1 there. Nothing else in that file is changed. log.txt (%LOCALAPPDATA%\VRChatDLSS5Cam\) lists the DLSS-NR-on-AMD files next to the executable and ends with the last lines of that project's own log (dlssnr_on_amd.log in the program folder); reports with it are welcome in the issues.

What to expect on Radeon in this version

• Cards. Radeon RX 7000 and RX 9000 on Windows 11 with Adrenalin 26.1.1 or newer, the cards DLSS-NR-on-AMD supports; the author's tests ran on an RX 9060 XT. On an older Radeon the FSR host still runs, but without the port's network, and the picture comes back unchanged.
• Works. Still pictures, video files, the batch queue, the live VRChat camera with captures and timelapses, the depth network, the controls after the pass (Output blend, strengths above 1, Neural pass resolution), updates and the edition switch.
• Slower. DLSS-NR-on-AMD runs its network inline and the frame waits for it: about 25 ms at 720p and 180 ms at 4K on the RX 9060 XT, so a 4K live picture reaches a few frames per second. A Maximum resolution cap under Neural pass resolution and the Processing rate cap keep the live picture fluid; saved pictures and videos come out the same, only later.
• No hardware optical flow. The optical flow engine belongs to the GeForce driver; on Radeon the motion vectors come from GPU block matching, which is coarser in fast motion. The status dot under Frame guidance says so.
• Strengths and presets. The port keeps its own Preset, Style and strengths up to 1, set in its overlay (End key), as described above. Moving those sliders here therefore composites the existing result at once (values above 1 take effect in the composite) instead of running the picture through its passes again, which on a Radeon costs about four seconds at 4K for no change in the picture.
• The depth network and the port take turns. The port's network and the depth network (DirectML) do not share the card: a neural pass that ran alongside the estimator's warm-up stretched from 0.17 s to 2.7 s, past the driver's two-second limit, and the graphics device was lost (the driver restarts, the program has to be started again). Since v1.5.0 the program waits for the estimator before every neural pass, so the two never overlap; the first passes of a picture start once the estimator is ready. The three-second stall of one frame seen earlier in a 4K batch, a watchdog spike in the port's log, was the same overlap.
• Idle load. Once a picture has run its passes the card idles (about 2 % on the RX 9060 XT, the same as on a GeForce). One CPU core, though, stays busy from the first neural pass until the program closes: a thread of DLSS-NR-on-AMD polls the card at full speed (its inline mode). That thread belongs to the port; releasing the FSR context does not end it.

Planned: an optical flow pass of this program's own, ported from the optical flow of the AMD FidelityFX SDK (MIT), to replace block matching on Radeon and to serve as a second source on GeForce.

Images and video files

A file can be dropped onto the window or opened with Open image… / Open video… in the Source section. The picture appears in the preview and every slider takes effect on it immediately. The ✕ button beside Open… closes the file again: processing stops, the preview empties and the file stays in the library. Process & save PNG (images), Process & save video (videos) or the hotkey writes the result next to the source file as <name>_DLSS5_<w>x<h>.png, .mp4 or a folder of PNG frames.

For video, the controls under the preview play and pause the file through the whole pipeline, step one frame at a time, and show a thumbnail of the frame under the cursor on the seek bar. Start here / End here limit the processing (and the audio) to a range, and Whole video clears it. By default the output matches the source: same codec, frame rate and bitrate. With Match the source switched off, H.264, HEVC or a PNG sequence and the bitrate can be chosen manually. The Capture section shows roughly how long the file will take with the current settings.

Batch processing

Every file that is opened or dropped is collected in the library below the preview; Add files… and Add folder… add more. A double-click on a thumbnail opens that file in the preview for adjustment. A single click selects it alone, Ctrl+click adds or removes one file, Shift+click extends the selection from the file clicked last, dragging on empty space draws a selection rectangle, a click on empty space clears the selection, the box on each thumbnail toggles it, and Ctrl+A selects every readable file. The Delete key takes the selected files out of the library while the mouse is over it (or after the last click was inside it); the files themselves stay on disk. Process selected or Process all then runs the files one after another, with a bar on each thumbnail showing the progress and the state remaining visible afterwards.

The right mouse button opens a menu on a thumbnail: show the file in Explorer, take it out of the library, or give it its own DLSS 5 parameters in a separate window. With several files selected the same menu offers Own parameters for N files…, which sets the values for all of them at once; each file keeps its own copy afterwards.

A small toolbar over the preview of a library file turns, mirrors and crops it: a quarter turn to the left or right, a horizontal or vertical mirror, or a crop frame whose corners and edges are dragged (dragging inside the frame moves it), confirmed with Enter or Apply and dropped with Esc. The last button restores the file to its original state. Each file keeps its own orientation and crop, processing and the saved result use the turned and cropped picture, and every step is recorded in the history and can be undone. The live picture has the same toolbar without the crop: a turn or mirror of the VRChat camera picture applies to the preview, the captures and the timelapse alike, and is kept across sessions. The toolbar itself can be moved: drag it by the grip at its left end, and drop it past an edge of the picture, or press the arrow at its right end, to tuck it away at that edge, where a small tab brings it back. Its place is kept across sessions as well.

Working with the interface

• Three sections cover the everyday work: Source (what comes in), DLSS 5 Neural Rendering (how it looks) and Capture (where it goes), followed by Display and About. The Advanced switch in the DLSS 5 section shows or hides the tone and structure sliders, the output blend, the Frame guidance and DLAA pre-pass sections after Capture, and Internals with the timers before About.
• Comparison is done with the wipe (the handle in the preview is dragged), side by side or the original view. The wipe follows the mouse at the interface's own frame rate, even while a video plays slowly. The mouse wheel over the preview zooms around the cursor, dragging pans, and a double-click returns to the fitted view.
• Presets are created in the DLSS 5 section: + saves the current values under a name, the list applies one with a click, and every entry can be overwritten with the current values, renamed or deleted. They are kept in presets.txt in the settings folder.
• Search over the settings is available from the field at the top of the sidebar: only the matching controls and their sections stay visible. Esc or the ✕ clears it.
• Undo and redo cover every change to the settings and every file added to or removed from the library, through Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y or the two arrows in the top bar. The clock button beside them opens the History: every recorded change as a list (Intensity: 1.2, Added photo.png, Removed 3 files, photo.png: own values), with the current state highlighted and the undone states listed dimmed below it. A click on an entry jumps to that state, and the later ones remain available until the next change is made, so the history can be traversed in both directions. Up to 100 steps are kept.
• Fullscreen is entered from the button in the corner of the preview or with F11: the picture alone, over the whole screen. The video controls appear while the mouse moves, and Esc or F11 leaves. Entering and leaving fade, and so does the switch between Live, Picture and Video.
• Dark or light. Theme in the Display section: System follows the Windows app colour setting, or Dark and Light can be selected directly.
• The sidebar slides away behind the slim bar at its edge, and the library has the same kind of bar above it. A click on a bar folds or unfolds the panel; the thin line along the bar's inner edge — the one that turns blue under the mouse, where the pointer becomes a resize arrow — is the drag target for the sidebar's width or the library's height, and the thumbnails grow or shrink with it. Both sizes are remembered for the next start. While a file is being processed the sidebar is locked and offers Cancel.
• Help is one click away: the ? button in the top bar (or Documentation in About) opens this guide in the interface's language.
• At start a small card with the icon, the name, the version (marked Pre-release on pre-release builds), a status line and a moving bar shows what the application is doing; the window itself fades in only once its first frame is ready, so no blank window appears at the start. The file from the last session is opened again only if Reopen the last file at start in the Display section is on (it is off by default).

Keyboard and mouse

Keys	What happens
Ctrl+Alt+P	Capture a photo of the live camera, or process the open image or video (global hotkey, changeable in the Capture section)
Ctrl+Z · Ctrl+Y / Ctrl+Shift+Z	Undo · redo a settings change or a library change (the clock button in the top bar lists them all)
F11 · Esc	Fullscreen preview · leave it
Ctrl+A · Delete	Select every readable file in the library · take the selected ones out of it, keeping the files on disk (mouse over the library)
Space	Play / pause the open video
← → (Shift: 10 frames) · Home End	Step through the video · jump to the ends
I · O	Set the start · the end of the range to process
Mouse wheel over the preview · drag · double-click	Zoom · pan · back to the fitted view
Click a thumbnail · double-click · Ctrl+click · Shift+click · right button	Select only that file · open it in the preview · add or remove one · extend the selection · open the menu
Drag on the library's empty space · click on it	Selection rectangle · clear the selection
Click a bar · drag the thin line at its edge	Fold or unfold the library or the sidebar · change its height or width
Enter · Esc while cropping	Apply the crop · cancel it

Updates

At every start the application asks GitHub for the newest release on the selected channel and reports it when it is newer than the running version. Two channels are offered in the About section under Update channel: Stable (full releases only) and Pre-release (also the builds published for testing before a full release; full releases reach this channel too, and the update window marks each release Full release or Pre-release). Check for updates at start switches the check off, the Check for updates button runs it at any time, and the result of the last check is shown underneath.

When a newer version exists, a window shows its version, its date and its release notes with three buttons. Update now downloads the release zip into %LOCALAPPDATA%\VRChatDLSS5Cam\update, unpacks it, closes the application, replaces the program files and starts it again; the settings and the library are left alone, the bundled runtime builds under runtimes\ are replaced with the release's, and a runtime file of your own next to the executable stays in place. Release page opens the release in the browser and Later closes the window. The program folder has to be writable, which a folder under Program Files usually is not; the application says so, and the update can be applied by hand from the release page instead. A failed check or a failed update is shown as a notification.

This request to api.github.com (and the download from github.com once an update is chosen) is the only network access the application ever makes; nothing else is sent anywhere. Headless and --process runs never check on their own.

Settings reference

All settings, section by section

Section	Setting	Meaning
Source	Input	VRChat camera (Spout), Image file or Video file.
Source	Sender	Which Spout sender to receive; VRChat's camera is VRCSender1.
Source	Custom output resolution	Output at a chosen size instead of the source size. Larger than the source = upscaling: DLSS super resolution (the official DLSS upscaler rebuilds the detail from the source at a render size chosen for the ratio, then the neural pass works on the large picture) or plain Resampling. Super resolution multiplies the pixels every later stage has to process: expect a large drop in speed and more video memory in use; for a live stream set a processing rate cap. Smaller = downscaling. DLSS works up to 8192 pixels a side and the neural pass up to about 45 megapixels: a larger output is finished within those limits and resampled to the requested size.
Source	Match the source	Videos only, on by default: the output uses the codec (H.264 or HEVC), the frame rate and the average bitrate of the source file.
Source	Save as / Bitrate / Keep audio	With Match the source off: MP4 (H.264), MP4 (HEVC) or PNG sequence, the encoder bitrate (5–200 Mbit/s), and whether the audio track is copied.
Source	Hardware decoding	Decode the video on the GPU. Best switched off when a file shows wrong colours or fails to open.
Source	Paper white / Highlight compression	Shown only for floating-point (HDR) Spout textures: exposure reference and soft highlight roll-off before the neural pass.
DLSS 5	Enable DLSS 5 (DLSSNR)	Switches the neural pass on or off. Off releases the runtime; on loads it again from the file.
DLSS 5	Runtime path / Reload	The runtime file in use; empty means the bundled build for the installed card. Reload starts that choice over and loads the file again.
DLSS 5	Host route	Automatic: the direct route on a GeForce card, the FSR host on a Radeon card. Direct: host nvngx_dlssnr.dll itself. NGX core: create the feature through the NGX runtime. FSR host: run an FSR 3.1 context at native size for DLSS-NR-on-AMD to attach to (shown when amd_fidelityfx_dx12.dll is present).
DLSS 5	Presets	Named sets of the DLSS 5 values: + saves the current ones, the list applies one, each entry can be overwritten, renamed or deleted. Kept in presets.txt in the settings folder.
DLSS 5	Style	Render style (default / natural / cinematic) passed to the runtime.
DLSS 5	Intensity	Overall strength of the neural pass, 0–2. Up to 1 it is the runtime's own strength; above 1 the application amplifies the difference between the neural result and the original (which can exaggerate artifacts). At 0 the picture is left untouched.
DLSS 5	Global tone / Local tone	Global and local tone strength, 0–2, with the same rule above 1 (the highest strength above 1 sets the gain).
DLSS 5	Local structure / Skin structure	Detail enhancement, 0–2, same rule above 1. Skin structure may be left at the runtime default.
DLSS 5	Auto mask / UI correction	Automatic subject mask, UI-safe processing.
DLSS 5	Neural pass only for captures	For cards too slow for live use: between captures the neural, motion and depth passes all rest and the GPU stays nearly idle; a capture first runs the neural pass for 16 fresh frames (after the first depth estimate, when depth guidance is on), then saves. Still images are not affected.
DLSS 5	Input exposure / Tone transfer / Colour strength	Output blend. Input exposure (0.25–4×) scales the picture the network sees and is undone afterwards. Tone transfer and colour strength (0–2) set how much of the neural pass's brightness and colour changes reach the output; 1 / 1 reproduces the neural result exactly, 0 keeps the original.
DLSS 5	Shadow strength / Highlight & glow strength	Output blend, 0–2: how much of the neural pass's darkening and of its brightening reaches the output. 1 / 1 = as rendered.
DLSS 5	Neural pass resolution	Sizes the neural pass: the full picture, a cap on its long edge (a large source, for example 8K, is processed at a fixed, smaller size) or a percentage of the picture. A reduced pass has its change upsampled onto the full-resolution picture; lower values cut the GPU load at the cost of the finest detail.
Capture	Folder / Keep alpha / Also save the original / Hotkey / Time-lapse	Where and how photos and videos are saved.
Capture	Estimated time	Rough processing time of the open image or video with the current settings, refined by every run.
Frame guidance	Motion vectors	NVIDIA Optical Flow (with a forward/backward consistency check), GPU block matching, or none.
Frame guidance	Depth	AI estimated (Depth Anything V2 Small on DirectML; update interval and network resolution adjustable), flat, gradient, or zero.
Frame guidance	Auto reset	Clears the temporal history on scene cuts. Off by default.
DLAA pre-pass	Enable / Preset	Optional DLSS anti-aliasing pass at native resolution before neural rendering. While DLSS super resolution is in effect it already includes this pass; the preset applies to both.
Display	Theme	System (follows Windows), Dark or Light.
Display	Compare / Fit / Zoom / VSync / Overlay / Show the library	Preview options.
Display	Reopen the last file at start	Open the file from the previous session again at the next start. Off by default.
Display	Processing rate cap	Live camera: process at most this many frames per second and skip the rest. 0 = every frame.
About	Check for updates at start / Update channel / Check for updates	Look for a newer release at every start (on by default), on the Stable or the Pre-release channel, or right away with the button. The result of the last check is shown underneath.
About	Open log file / Open settings folder / Documentation / Project page / Third-party notices / Reset all settings	Version, GPU and driver, this guide, and the maintenance buttons.

Settings are stored in %LOCALAPPDATA%\VRChatDLSS5Cam\settings.ini; the log is log.txt in the same folder.

Command-line options (open files, process unattended, screenshots, headless runs) are listed in docs/COMMAND_LINE.md.

Troubleshooting

• "Waiting for VRChat Spout stream…" – Spout Stream has to be enabled on VRChat's Stream camera, and the camera must be open. Other Spout senders are listed in the Sender box.
• "The runtime files are missing" – the archive was not extracted completely: runtimes\blackwell\nvngx_dlssnr.dll and runtimes\universal\nvngx_dlssnr.dll belong next to VRChatDLSS5Cam.exe. Extract it again, or select a runtime file under Runtime path.
• Neural rendering failed – the application switches to the other bundled build by itself and says so in a notice. When neither build starts, the message under the error says so; a newer graphics driver is the first thing to try, log.txt carries the NGX result code, and Preset 0 together with the NGX core route is worth trying. On a Radeon card the neural pass runs through the Radeon edition and DLSS-NR-on-AMD instead (see AMD Radeon cards).
• FSR host runs, but the picture is unchanged – DLSS-NR-on-AMD is not attached to the process: the DLSS 5 section reads DLSS-NR-on-AMD: not loaded. Install it there (Install DLSS-NR-on-AMD…); the application restarts by itself once the installer is through. When it is installed but not loaded, run its installer again. When it is loaded and nothing changes, open its overlay (End key) to see that it is enabled and try the other Mode; its own log (dlssnr_on_amd.log in the program folder; its last lines also end log.txt) says what it did. The port is a separate project with its own requirements.
• amd_fidelityfx_dx12.dll is missing – the FSR host route needs that file next to the executable; the Radeon edition (VRChatDLSS5Cam-win64-amd.zip) carries it.
• Neural pass active, but the picture is black or unchanged – every neural frame is compared with its input, and a warning appears when the runtime reports success but delivers a black or unchanged picture (log.txt: "DLSSNR output check"). Switching DLSS 5 off and on again starts it fresh. If it persists, that runtime build does not produce a picture on this GPU. (With Intensity at 0 an unchanged picture is normal and no warning is shown.)
• The application does not start / closes immediately – %LOCALAPPDATA%\VRChatDLSS5Cam\ holds log.txt (its last line is the step that failed) and crash.txt. Both files belong in the issue report.
• NGX not initialized / DLAA unsupported – the NGX runtime needs an NVIDIA GPU and a current driver. DLSS 5 still works through the Signed snippet route.
• Depth estimator unavailable – onnxruntime.dll, onnxruntime_providers_shared.dll, DirectML.dll and models\depth_anything_v2_small_fp16.onnx must sit next to the executable (all are in the release package). Until the estimator is ready the application uses zero depth; its state is shown under Frame guidance.
• Optical flow unavailable – on a Radeon card this is expected: the optical flow engine is part of the GeForce driver and has no counterpart on Radeon, so block matching is used and the status dot under Frame guidance says so. On a GeForce card, when log.txt says "NVOF unavailable, falling back to block matching", the GeForce driver needs an update; block matching is used until then.
• The video preview is black – many films start with a fade from black; the preview skips those frames and says so under the picture while the frame on show is still dark. Seeking forward with the bar or the arrow keys moves past them.
• Video file does not open / no encoder available – the formats depend on the codecs installed in Windows. HEVC files need the HEVC Video Extensions (Microsoft Store), and Windows N / KN needs the Media Feature Pack. When the H.264 encoder is missing, PNG sequence is the alternative output. Switching Hardware decoding off helps with files the GPU decoder rejects.
• Low frame rate – switch DLAA off, raise the depth update interval or lower the depth network resolution, lower the neural pass resolution, or set a processing rate cap. The optical-flow grid is best left at 4 px (2 px and 1 px cost far more at 4K). The log prints a Perf: line every 15 s with the cost of each stage.
• The graphics device was lost – the graphics driver reset the card. Windows gives a GPU job about two seconds, and a card that is fully loaded for a long time can miss that: typically a live stream with VRChat rendering on the same card while the neural pass upscales every frame (log.txt: "Device removed", DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_HUNG). Every program on the card loses its picture at that moment. Since v1.5.1 the application starts again by itself once the driver is back, says so in a notice, and keeps the log of the lost session as log-device-loss.txt next to log.txt; its last Perf: line shows the load and the video memory in use. If it repeats, lower the load: a processing rate cap, a lower Neural pass resolution or a maximum-resolution cap, a smaller output resolution (super resolution off), or a frame rate limit in VRChat; a newer graphics driver is worth a try. Scripted runs (--process, --headless, --exit-after) exit with code 2 instead.
• A video exported without sound – a file with several audio tracks (an iPhone MOV carries a stereo AAC track and a spatial audio track that Windows cannot decode, listed first) used to take the first track only. Since v1.5.1 the first track that decodes is used; log.txt names the tracks and the one taken.
• The update cannot be installed – the program folder has to be writable, which a folder under Program Files usually is not. Moving the application to a user-owned folder, or downloading the new version from the release page and replacing the files by hand, both work; settings and library stay where they are.

Sharing results

Photos and videos finished with the application are welcome on X under the hashtag #VRCDLSS5CAM, which also collects the shots posted by others. Bug reports and feature requests are handled through GitHub Issues.

Building from source

Requirements: Visual Studio 2022 (MSVC v143, Windows 10 SDK) and CMake 3.21+.

git clone https://github.com/AlanBacker/VRChat-DLSS5-Cam.git
cd VRChat-DLSS5-Cam
cmake -S . -B build -A x64
cmake --build build --config Release --parallel

The configure step downloads the NVIDIA DLSS SDK (headers, nvsdk_ngx_s.lib, nvngx_dlss.dll) from NVIDIA's public GitHub repository, ONNX Runtime (DirectML build) and DirectML from NuGet, and the Depth Anything V2 Small FP16 model from Hugging Face (-DVDC_FETCH_DEPTH_MODEL=OFF skips the model). All downloads are hash-checked. Shaders are compiled at run time, so no shader toolchain is needed. The FidelityFX SDK v1.1.4 headers and its signed amd_fidelityfx_dx12.dll (MIT) are downloaded from AMD's GitHub repository in the same way. -DAPP_EDITION_AMD=ON builds the Radeon edition (FSR host route, no NVIDIA-only files in the package); the default is the GeForce edition. The DLSS 5 runtime is not part of the build: the release workflow places its two builds into the archives from the runtime-310.8 release.

Architecture

Pipeline and design notes

VRChat Stream Camera ──Spout──▶ D3D11on12 receive ──▶ convert (sRGB / resize)
      ▶ NVIDIA Optical Flow (forward + backward) / block matching ──▶ motion vectors + confidence
      ▶ Depth Anything V2 (ONNX Runtime DirectML, every N frames) ──▶ normalized depth, reprojected in between
      ▶ [DLSS SR / DLAA] ──▶ DLSSNR (nvngx_dlssnr.dll) ──▶ composite / compare ──▶ preview + PNG capture
Video file ──Media Foundation──▶ decode (GPU) ──▶ same pipeline, one frame at a time ──▶ MP4 (H.264 / HEVC + AAC) or PNG sequence

The application hosts the DLSS 5 neural-rendering snippet outside the NGX runtime: the DLL is loaded directly, its module-name check is satisfied, and the DLSSNR.* NGX parameter contract is used to create and evaluate the feature on a D3D12 queue (src/ngx/DlssnrFeature.cpp). The parameters are the same set the RenoDX DLSS 5 add-on exposes.

The guidance scheme is built for video input: same-resolution SDR input, hardware optical flow whose confidence is lowered where forward and backward vectors disagree, monocular depth from Depth Anything V2 normalized (2nd/98th percentile) to inverted relative depth and carried along the motion vectors between inferences, and no per-frame history resets. Everything is an independent MIT implementation (src/gfx/Pipeline.cpp, src/gfx/DepthEstimator.cpp, src/gfx/Shaders.cpp). The optical flow engine runs on a private native D3D11 device; frames and vectors cross to D3D12 through NT-handle shared textures ordered by a shared fence (src/gfx/NvOpticalFlow.cpp).

On a Radeon card the FSR host route (src/gfx/FsrHost.cpp) takes the place of the DLSS 5 feature: an FSR 3.1 upscaling context of the FidelityFX API runs at native size with the same colour, depth and motion inputs, and DLSS-NR-on-AMD, a separate program, attaches to that context from the outside and applies the neural pass to its output.

Two threads share the GPU: the processing thread owns the Spout receiver (or the file), the pipeline and a D3D12 queue of its own; the interface thread owns the window, ImGui and a high-priority present queue. Finished pictures are handed over through display buffers with cross-queue fence waits, so the preview always shows the newest completed frame and the window never waits for the neural pass (src/core/App.cpp, src/gfx/Device.cpp). A still image is decoded with WIC (EXIF orientation applied), uploaded once and run through the same pipeline with zero motion for a number of passes until the temporal network settles.

A video file is decoded by a Media Foundation source reader on its own thread (hardware decoder through a DXGI device manager, software fallback) into a short frame queue. The processing thread hands the pipeline one frame at a time and asks for a readback of that frame's result; readbacks are collected in frame order and passed to the writer, so no frame is skipped or duplicated even when the neural pass takes longer than the frame interval. The writer converts each frame to NV12 on a thread of its own and feeds a Media Foundation sink writer (hardware encoder where available) together with the decoded audio samples (src/core/VideoSource.cpp, src/core/VideoWriter.cpp).

License

MIT (see LICENSE). Third-party components and the NVIDIA notice are listed in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md. This project is not affiliated with VRChat Inc. or NVIDIA Corporation. The DLSS 5 runtime is unreleased software; it is used at the user's own risk and must never be redistributed with this application.