Hmm well the depth buffer only has accurate depth for opaque objects (and even that's not really true). Things like hair wouldn't be in there. Its not ground truth depth.
replyI think it has more to do with what kind of data they have access to at runtime - IIRC DLSS upscaling has only required the previous frames and motion vectors, so requiring depth buffers would mean it was no longer a "drop-in" replacement
reply> I'd also be interested in how post-processing fits in with this.
I think screenspace effects like film grain and tonemapping are excluded in the same way UI elements are rendered separately from the game.
That doesn't make sense; every game has a depth buffer, but not every game has motion vectors.
replyBecause the depth buffer isn't always accurate or accessible.
replyWoW goes to lengths to hide its depth buffer.