Set up once. Open your blend. Start DLSS.

BEFORE YOU START

Choose your edition

Windows · Blender 5.2 · NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 or 50 series. Internet is needed to download missing dependencies during setup. Keep your NVIDIA driver up to date; the installer does not install graphics drivers.

Use the Bundled.zip for your edition. DLSS 5 Player is already included—you do not need to find a separate Player ZIP. Standard and Pro replace one another; install only one edition.

01

Install dependencies and restart

1. Open Edit → Preferences → Add-ons → Install from Disk. Select your downloaded Bundled.zip and enable DLSS 5 Linker or DLSS 5 Linker Standard.
2. Click Install Dependencies in addon preferences or the N-panel → DLSS 5 Linker tab.
3. Wait while setup detects your NVIDIA GPU, selects the appropriate model, checks Blender/Vulkan, installs files and runs a neural image test. Keep the internet connected.
4. Follow the checklist: gray means waiting, blue means working, green means passed and red means failed. Online downloads shows download progress or explains which verified files are being reused.
5. When setup completes, the desktop shortcut is created automatically. Click Save & Restart to save the current project and open the launcher. An unsaved project opens a save picker. Blender closes after the launcher is ready.
6. If you choose Close, Blender stays open and a message reminds you to restart through the launcher later.

02

Open any existing Blender project

1. Open the DLSS 5 Launcher desktop shortcut. At Select your blend file, choose a recent project, browse to a file or drag a .blend file into the launcher.
2. To find projects across a drive, choose Scan Drive / Folder. Select a location, wait for the scan and search the Library by filename or path. Scanning does not open or change your projects.
3. Select your project and launch it. Once this DLSS-enabled Blender session is running, you can use File → Open or Open Recent for other blends in the same window.
4. To return to the launcher from Blender, click Open DLSS 5 Launcher. Choose Save & Open Launcher, Don’t Save & Open Launcher, or Cancel. The first two close the old Blender session after the launcher is ready.

Shortcut missing? Use Create Desktop Shortcut in preferences or Add Desktop Shortcut in the N-panel. In Pro, launcher and shortcut buttons move into More Tools once DLSS is enabled. Standard 0.8.14 keeps them visible in the panel.

03

Preview and adjust the look

1. Move your pointer over the 3D Viewport and press N. Open the DLSS 5 Linker tab.
2. Switch the viewport to Rendered shading and click View in Viewport. The first model initialization can take tens of seconds.
3. Click + to open effects inside the N-panel. Adjust Passes and Enhanced Blend, then strength, detail, tone or skin controls as needed. Changes apply after slider movement settles.
4. Choose Low, Medium or High viewport resolution to suit your machine. Use Stop Preview to turn the effect off.

The effect processes the whole selected rendered view. Hide grids, gizmos and selection overlays for clean previews. Lower viewport resolution can help performance, but does not remove the memory cost of models, textures or scene geometry. Standard also has a Compare Original button; Pro uses preview on/off instead.

04

Render images and video

Render a video

1. Choose the scene camera and set your desired timeline start and end. Adjust the DLSS look in the N-panel before rendering.
2. Click Render Video…. In Standard, a longer timeline is automatically shortened to at most 10 seconds from its start frame. Shorter ranges stay unchanged. The start frame and keyframes are not moved or deleted.
3. Choose 720p / 1080p / 4K / Custom. Custom reveals width and height. Set Frame Rate, Name and Folder. Standard exports MP4. Pro also offers PNG 8-bit and PNG 16-bit sequences.
4. Pro lets you adjust Passes, Blend and additional DLSS settings in the video dialog. Standard takes the live look you set in the N-panel. Video neural quality is independent of the low/medium/high viewport preview setting.
5. Click Start Render. Watch progress in the N-panel; use Cancel Render if needed and Open Last Output when complete.

Render one image

Click Render Image…, choose the look, resolution and destination, then start the render. The 10-second limit does not apply to still images. Test a single frame before rendering a demanding sequence.

What happens during rendering?

Blender renders the source frames first. After the full source sequence is ready, the DLSS worker processes those frames. Source images are not the finished enhanced output. Each new job has startup overhead, but one neural worker handles the sequence rather than restarting for every frame.

Pro: a separate render view shows SOURCE — DLSS processing pending, then DLSS — Processed. Live DLSS pauses during addon rendering and resumes afterward if it was active. The current Standard build uses N-panel progress and output controls; stop its live preview manually before rendering if you need to reduce GPU load.

MP4 output has no scene audio or alpha. Pro PNG sequences use the chosen name plus frame numbers. The neural capture is 8-bit SDR; selecting 16-bit PNG storage does not create additional captured precision or HDR. Canceled jobs can offer Resume Render; older Standard snapshots longer than 10 seconds must be recreated with a shorter range.

PRO

Use the DLSS compositor node

1. In Pro, use Add Compositor Node in the Linker tools and open the Compositing workspace.
2. Connect the source image to the DLSS 5 Linker node and connect its output to your downstream nodes.
3. Choose the neural settings, then Bake Frame or Sequence. The node needs a processed cache before it can show the enhanced result.
4. Set Blend from 0 (original) to 1 (enhanced). A black Mask keeps the original; white allows enhancement. The effective amount is Blend × Mask.

Blend, Mask and downstream grading can reuse a valid cache. Changing the scene, upstream image or neural look requires rebaking. If you see Bake required, bake again. One active Linker node per scene is supported. Standard does not include this node.

MAINTENANCE

Repair, uninstall or update

Repair an existing installation

Open addon preferences and click Install Dependencies. It checks files, installs anything missing and reruns the neural test. Verified existing files may be reused; the Online downloads row explains this.

Test a completely fresh dependency install

1. In addon preferences, click Uninstall Dependencies…. Save your work and close Blender and any other Linker sessions so loaded files can be removed.
2. Wait for cleanup to finish. It removes Linker-owned dependencies, downloaded model archives and its owned shortcut. Your blend files, finished renders, saved looks and bundled addon ZIP are kept.
3. Open Blender normally, enable the addon if necessary, and click Install Dependencies again. Missing model files will download anew. Finish with Save & Restart.

Updating or switching editions: install the newer Bundled.zip, then close the old Linker session and reopen through the launcher. Recheck dependencies if prompted. You do not need a clean uninstall for every update.

HELP

Troubleshooting

For support, use Copy Diagnostics under Tools / More Tools or the error controls. Include your addon edition/version, GPU and the failed step. The report can contain local file paths, so review it before sharing.