The 16+ year-old original Stalker games have Nvidia DLSS support now, which isn't as crazy as it sounds

A close-up of Strelok's face in Stalker.

(Image credit: GSC Game World)

On September 18, GSC Game World released a patch for its Legends of the Zone remaster of the original Stalker games that adds Nvidia DLSS support, a seemingly absurd addition to the ancient shooters that makes more sense when you dig into the specifics of the remaster.

Once Nvidia's magic "make it run better" juice, DLSS and its alternative AI upscalers have become worryingly mandatory to run many of the most graphically demanding games, so why add it to Legends of the Zone, a remaster pack whose oldest game, Shadow of Chornobyl, came out all the way back in 2007?

User Avdievs in the Steam discussion page for the patch points out that DLSS' texture filtering and antialiasing components can be desirable even in a game that should be easy to run⁠—and Legends of the Zone can be much more of a performance hog than the original releases.

"That DLSS is the perfect option for the ones wishing to play with their insanely taxing indirect lighting in 4k 60+ fps," wrote user Spleen, referring to a new graphical feature introduced with Legends of the Zone's enhanced global illumination. In another, Russian language comment (translated via Google), Spleen wrote that "My 5080 is fully loaded at 4K 120 fps and is dropping frames with their new indirect lighting. Questions? So I'm not against DLSS at all."

Perhaps the cutting edge Nvidia tech has a place in this old warhorse of a game engine after all. It looks like GSC Game World has been turning things around after a rocky launch for Legends of the Zone: Its recent Steam reviews are Mostly Positive, in contrast to an overall Mixed status. PCG news writer and resident Stalker sicko, Joshua Wolens, was already chuffed back in July when GSC fixed an infinite quicksave bug that was brutalizing his PC.

Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch. You can follow Ted on Bluesky.

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