DLSS5 Enabler

Transactional command-line installer for the DLSS5-Feeder rendering stack on Windows, Linux, Wine, Proton, and SteamOS.

DLSS5 Enabler automates the setup that would otherwise require manually downloading several projects, placing the correct 32-bit or 64-bit binaries, configuring ReShade, editing Wine overrides, and keeping enough state to undo everything later.

It combines:

• DLSS5-Feeder
• RenoDX
• ReShade with Addon support
• NVIDIA NGX DLSS binaries discovered through the RenoDX manifest
• LumeniteFX motion-vector shaders
• dgVoodoo2 for optional DirectX 9 translation

[!IMPORTANT] DLSS5 Enabler is an unofficial community tool. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by NVIDIA, ReShade, RenoDX, or the other upstream projects. “DLSS 5” is used because that is how users commonly search for this stack; the tool does not add native engine integration and compatibility varies by game.

Why this exists

The rendering stack spans multiple binaries, configuration files, graphics APIs, architectures, and operating systems. A failed manual installation can overwrite an existing hook DLL, leave a partial ReShade setup, or persist a Wine registry override after the files it points to are gone.

DLSS5 Enabler treats installation as a transaction. It validates the target first, records every managed mutation, and rolls changes back in reverse order if a later stage fails.

Reliability by design

The project is built to fail safely when downloads, permissions, extraction, or configuration do not behave as expected.

• Transactional installation: all 12 stages participate in rollback, including the stage that reports the failure.
• Recoverable refreshes: an existing managed installation is snapshotted before replacement and restored if the new installation fails.
• Safe uninstallation: original DLLs, INI values, and Wine registry values are restored before metadata is removed.
• Atomic writes: records, indexes, cache metadata, registry files, and INI files are written through a temporary file followed by replacement.
• Concurrent-operation locks: per-game operations and shared state use filesystem locks to prevent overlapping writes.
• Non-destructive backups: existing files receive unique backup names; an older backup is never silently overwritten.
• Validated downloads: HTTPS certificate verification remains enabled, incomplete downloads use isolated temporary files, and an existing valid destination survives a failed refresh.
• Validated fallback: incompatible latest artifacts produce a warning and fall back to a pinned revision with an exact SHA-256 check.
• Safe extraction: archive members are checked for absolute paths, parent traversal, and flattened-name collisions before extraction.
• Cache identity checks: cached components are tied to their source URL, version or revision, and SHA-256 digest.
• Preflight resolution: every required upstream is downloaded and validated before an existing installation is removed or a game file is changed.
• Strict verification: Ruff, Mypy strict, Pyright strict, and the complete test suite run through one command.

These protections reduce the chance of a broken game directory, but they cannot guarantee compatibility with every game, mod loader, anti-cheat system, or upstream release.

Supported targets

The target must be a Windows PE executable, either running directly on Windows or through Wine/Proton. Native Linux ELF binaries are inspected for diagnostics but are not installation targets.

Requirements

• Python 3.10 or newer
• uv (recommended) or pip
• An NVIDIA RTX GPU supported by the downloaded NGX runtime
• A game installation you can write to
• Internet access for the first component download

Install

Run the latest release without installing it:

uvx dlss5-enabler@latest --help
uvx dlss5-enabler@latest info "/path/to/game.exe"
uvx dlss5-enabler@latest install "/path/to/game.exe"

For frequent use, install the latest release persistently with uv:

uv tool install dlss5-enabler@latest
dlss5-enabler --help

Update a persistent uv installation with uv tool upgrade dlss5-enabler.

Install with pip

python -m pip install --upgrade dlss5-enabler
dlss5-enabler --help

Run from source

From a local checkout:

uv sync
uv run dlss5-enabler --help
uv run dlss5-enabler info "/path/to/game.exe"
uv run dlss5-enabler install "/path/to/game.exe"

On Windows, PowerShell and cmd.exe paths work normally:

dlss5-enabler install "C:\Games\Example\game.exe"

On SteamOS or Linux, point to the Windows executable inside the Steam library:

dlss5-enabler install "/home/deck/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Example/game.exe"

When the matching Proton prefix can be identified, the tool updates the required Wine DLL override and prints the corresponding Steam launch options.

Commands

Inspect a game

dlss5-enabler info "/path/to/game.exe"

Reports architecture, imported graphics APIs, write access, installed and current tool versions, saved options, component versions, and a detected Proton prefix.

Install

dlss5-enabler install [OPTIONS] "/path/to/game.exe"

Options:

--d3d9 and --opengl cannot be combined.

Update a managed game

dlss5-enabler update "/path/to/game.exe"

update reads the installation metadata beside the game, then transactionally reapplies the same LumeniteFX, D3D9, OpenGL, and Vulkan choices with the components managed by the current CLI. Use --reinstall to reapply an already-current installation or --force-download to bypass component caches. A game installed by a newer CLI is never downgraded.

Uninstall

dlss5-enabler uninstall "/path/to/game.exe"

The target may be the game executable or its directory. Only files and settings recorded by DLSS5 Enabler are reverted.

List managed games

dlss5-enabler list

The list compares each saved installation version with the running CLI locally; it does not make one network request per game.

Inspect or clear the download cache

dlss5-enabler cache
dlss5-enabler cache --clean

Show or check the CLI version

dlss5-enabler version
dlss5-enabler version --check

install, update, info, and list perform a non-blocking PyPI version check at most once every 24 hours per shared cache. The marker is empty and stores no version data. A newer release only produces an update recommendation; the CLI never updates itself. Use uv tool upgrade dlss5-enabler or python -m pip install --upgrade dlss5-enabler to update explicitly.

Installation pipeline

An installation runs these stages in order:

1. Validate the executable, architecture, graphics API hints, permissions, and requested mode.
2. Discover, download, and validate every required upstream component.
3. Snapshot and remove a previous managed installation when refreshing.
4. Install or extract the correct ReShade Addon DLL.
5. Configure dgVoodoo2 when DirectX 9 translation is requested.
6. Place the Feeder addon, shader, and ReShade headers.
7. Place RenoDX and the architecture-appropriate NGX binaries.
8. Place LumeniteFX and configure its motion-vector provider.
9. Install the Vulkan fallback when requested and available.
10. Mirror managed files into bin/ for layouts that require it.
11. Apply Wine or Proton DLL overrides while recording their prior values.
12. Atomically save dlss5-enabler.install.json and update the global index.

If a stage fails, recorded mutations are reversed and any previous managed installation snapshot is restored.

Upstream fallback policy

The wheel contains dlss5_enabler/upstreams.json, which pins a known-compatible fallback for every downloaded component. A normal installation still tries the newest upstream revision first. The candidate is downloaded to an isolated temporary file and checked for HTTPS provenance, size or digest when published, archive safety, required contents, supported layout, and architecture before entering the cache.

When the latest revision cannot be discovered, downloaded, or validated, the CLI emits an UPSTREAM_* warning and tries the pinned fallback. A fallback is accepted only when its exact SHA-256 and content policy match the embedded manifest. The successful installation summary lists every fallback used. If both candidates fail, the command stops without cleaning an existing installation or modifying the game.

The main warning codes distinguish discovery, missing or ambiguous assets, timeout, rejected HTTP responses, digest mismatch, unsafe archives, missing content, unsupported formats, fallback use, and fallback failure. The detailed log includes the component and revisions involved without exposing authenticated URLs.

Local state

The log file is named dlss5-enabler.log.

Architecture

dlss5_enabler/
├── core/          Binary inspection, exact-case INI handling, records, atomic I/O
├── network/       HTTPS downloads, release discovery, cache validation
├── operations/    Transactional install, update, and uninstall pipelines
├── platform/      Windows, Linux, Wine, Proton, and Steam discovery adapters
├── check.py       Unified quality runner
└── cli.py         Typer command-line interface

The Python import namespace uses an underscore (dlss5_enabler); the package and executable use a hyphen (dlss5-enabler).

GitHub is implemented behind the provider-neutral download-source contract in network/adapters.py. Release, repository-file, snapshot, and archive discovery stay in the adapter; component validation and fallback policy stay in the resolver. A future mirror should implement the same adapter contract and return the same neutral asset models instead of adding provider-specific branches to component code.

Development

Install all dependencies and run the complete verification suite:

uv sync
uv run dlss5-enabler check

uv run is reserved for commands executed from a project checkout. Installed users should use dlss5-enabler directly or uvx dlss5-enabler@latest for ephemeral execution.

The unified check requires all of the following to pass with no warnings:

• Ruff formatting
• Ruff linting
• Mypy strict type checking
• Pyright strict type checking
• Pytest

Maintainers can inspect a candidate pin without modifying the manifest:

uv run dlss5-enabler-update-upstream COMPONENT REVISION ASSET_NAME HTTPS_URL

The command downloads to a temporary directory, validates the component layout, and prints the resolved revision, size, SHA-256, and recognized format. Add --write --manifest dlss5_enabler/upstreams.json only after reviewing that output; the tool never chooses latest or rewrites the manifest implicitly.

Upstream projects

DLSS5 Enabler is inspired by and builds on the work of:

• FeedKit
• DLSS5-Feeder
• RenoDX / RHI
• ReShade
• LumeniteFX
• dgVoodoo2

Each downloaded component remains subject to its upstream license and terms.

License

DLSS5 Enabler itself is distributed under the MIT License.

Disclaimer

DLSS5 Enabler is an independent, unofficial community project. It is not an NVIDIA product, is not affiliated with NVIDIA Corporation, and is not sponsored, reviewed, approved, or endorsed by NVIDIA or any of the upstream projects named in this document. NVIDIA, DLSS, GeForce, and related names and marks belong to NVIDIA Corporation in the United States and other countries. Other names and marks belong to their respective owners.

The maintainer develops only the installer and orchestration code in this repository. The maintainer does not create, own, host, bundle, redistribute, audit, warrant, support, or maintain NVIDIA DLSS/NGX binaries or the third-party components installed by this tool. DLSS5 Enabler only discovers release information and directs downloads to the original upstream websites, repositories, manifests, or content servers at runtime. Availability, licensing, integrity, compatibility, behavior, and support for those downloads remain the responsibility of their respective providers.

Report problems with DLSS5 Enabler's installation, rollback, detection, or command-line behavior in this project's issue tracker. Report problems inside DLSS, DLSS5-Feeder, RenoDX, ReShade, LumeniteFX, dgVoodoo2, or another downloaded component to that component's own maintainer.

Use this tool at your own risk. Back up important game files and respect each game's modding, multiplayer, and anti-cheat policies. No guarantee is made that any particular game, driver, GPU, mod stack, or future upstream release will work.