Tuesday, March 1st 2022

NVIDIA DLSS Source Code Leaked

The mother of all cyberattacks hit NVIDIA over the weekend, putting out critical driver source-code, the ability to disable LHR for mining, and even insights into future NVIDIA hardware, such as the Blackwell architecture. An anonymous tipster sent us this screenshot showing a list of files they claim are the source-code of DLSS.

The list, which looks credible enough, includes C++ files, headers, and assets that make up DLSS. There is also a super-convenient "Programming Guide" document to help developers make sense of the code and build correctly. Our tipsters who sent this screenshot are examining the code to see the inner workings of DLSS, and whether there's any secret sauce. Do note that this is DLSS version 2.2, so a reasonably recent version including the latest DLSS 2.2 changes. This code leak could hold the key for the open-source Linux driver community to bring DLSS to the platform, or even AMD and Intel learning from its design. Stealing Intellectual Property is a big deal of course and NVIDIA's lawyers will probably be busy picking apart every new innovation from their competitors, but ultimately it'll be hard to prove in a court of law.
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83 Comments on NVIDIA DLSS Source Code Leaked

#2
Chrispy_
I don't really use Linux outside of servers, but if this puts an end to the closed-source drivers that Nvidia hinder the opensource community with, then that's a plus.
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#3
Verpal
It would be super ultra illegal if some programmer somewhere make a open source version of DLSS that runs on shader cores, imagine a DLSS that runs on AMD and <=Pascal GPU, probably be slow AF, but still pretty interesting.
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#4
henok.gk
Got'em xD

VBIOS and driver signer next? Is that too much to ask?
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#6
LiveOrDie
The Programming Guide is shipped with a compiled DLSS plugin its a user guide detailing how to setup the plugin, looks like itssource code for the UE plugin.
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#7
Ridge
FluffmeisterIs IP theft celebrated here?
If not it should be.
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#8
champsilva
RidgeIf not it should be.
Crime is a thing to be proud now huh?
Posted on Reply
#9
henok.gk
champsilvaCrime is a thing to be proud now huh?
Corporations especially ones like nvidia with monopoloistic as well as manuplative business practices deserve it!
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#10
Ferrum Master
Driver code should be open source in the first place, thus you can review it and compile for personal usage with the hardware you bought.

This is the only true way. Celebrate or not.
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#11
mb194dc
Bad for Nvidia but interesting for open source community and probably AMD engineers, at home anyway!

Can't really be celebrating IP theft.

Makes me wonder if this is just a teaser though. Maybe asking for a ransom or more damaging things will be released.
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#12
wolf
Better Than Native
FluffmeisterIs IP theft celebrated here?
I've said it before and I'll say it again.

Nvidia is the company people love to hate.
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#13
DeathtoGnomes
champsilvaCrime is a thing to be proud now huh?
Why not? Nvidia is proud of what they've done. Now ask if crime is selfish, another yes answer when it comes to Nvidia.
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#14
ratirt
Forbid people to use it freely, somebody will steal it and make it open. Give them freedom of usage, they will use as they please and the company will still get the profits from it anyway.
I wonder, what will people say from both camps if it turns out, you don't need any specific hardware to make it running as intended?
I have ideas :laugh:
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#15
noel_fs
wolfI've said it before and I'll say it again.

Nvidia is the company people love to hate.
surely they dont give reason to
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#16
bug
FluffmeisterIs IP theft celebrated here?
If it happens to Nvidia (or Intel), everything goes.
If it happened to AMD, people would be running for their pitchforks. Probably blaming Intel or Nvidia, for good measure.
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#17
ZekeSulastin
ratirtI wonder, what will people say from both camps if it turns out, you don't need any specific hardware to make it running as intended?
I have ideas :laugh:
Then AMD would have to answer as to why they came out with FSR instead of an actual DLSS competitor vOv

Y’all (including the author) realize that the leaked code is radioactive to the nouveau devs and the other companies, right? Or did you all forget how much of a pain in the neck the Windows XP source leak made things for Wine and ReactOS?
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#18
ratirt
ZekeSulastinThen AMD would have to answer as to why they came out with FSR instead of an actual DLSS competitor vOv

Y’all (including the author) realize that the leaked code is radioactive to the nouveau devs and the other companies, right? Or did you all forget how much of a pain in the neck the Windows XP source leak made things for Wine and ReactOS?
Answer to who and what about? AMD got their own tech and NV has kept DLSS a secret that's why the leak of source code and how it works. AMD does not know how it works and if it requires a specific hardware. NV said it did require specific hardware. Maybe now we will see if they were telling the truth.
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#19
W1zzard
ZekeSulastinY’all (including the author) realize that the leaked code is radioactive to the nouveau devs and the other companies, right? Or did you all forget how much of a pain in the neck the Windows XP source leak made things for Wine and ReactOS?
Yup, this can even be a good thing for NVIDIA
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#20
ratirt
W1zzardYup, this can even be a good thing for NVIDIA
I think that depends if this turns out to be good but i can't see it.
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#21
Aretak
champsilvaCrime is a thing to be proud now huh?
Non-violent crime committed against corporate interests is something to be celebrated, yes.
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#22
Sybaris_Caesar
What the hell is with these comments? Nvidia, AMD and Intel or any business for that matter isn't your neighbour whose pet got stolen.
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#23
Chrispy_
FluffmeisterIs IP theft celebrated here?
Nvidia have burned away most, if not all of their goodwill from their consumer customers that put them on the map.

In the last decade Nvidia have fragmented APIs to lockout the competition as much as possible, made proprietary shit and charged silly money for it instead of contributing to the sector as a whole (SLI, G-Sync, PhysX, RTX, CUDA, GameWorks to name just a few), contributed as little as absolutely necessary to the opensource community, obfuscated driver features as an anticompetitive measure, plied game developers with black-box, Nvidia-optimised tools instead of contributing to existing tools that were in use for cross-platform development, and all of this is just the headline stuff in the consumer market only.

If you want to know how they've micro-segmented the pro and enterprise market with arbitrary driver limitations for basic stuff like virtual machines, compute, AI, I could rant for days. It's all a massive attempt to cash-grab and monopolise.
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#24
Vayra86
VerpalIt would be super ultra illegal if some programmer somewhere make a open source version of DLSS that runs on shader cores, imagine a DLSS that runs on AMD and <=Pascal GPU, probably be slow AF, but still pretty interesting.
Im guessing it will run in similar relative perf as the RT content did in Pascal. About 1/8th of the perf
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#25
birdie
I've checked the sources and indeed DLSS uses Tensor Cores.

You can probably run this logic on shaders but shaders already do shaders, so any additional load will slow down your game, therefore moving this logic from free to use tensor cores to shaders could result not in a performance gain but a performance loss.

Drivers source code is also there. It's a treasure trove of highly confidential info. NVIDIA might as well make DLSS open source (not necessarily under licenses like GPL but something proprietary e.g. like Epic or Crytek do with their engines).

I've downloaded the entire archive and I'm now repacking it because it was not optimally compressed. I expect it to come off at less than 8GB vs 18GB leaked by the hackers.
Posted on Reply
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