Neural Dawn is an upcoming tech demo looking to demonstrate next-gen graphics with one caveat

• Neural Dawn is a new tech demo coming from developer Arm
• It looks to demonstrate the potential of using AI upscaling for mobile devices
• But is it anything different to other more invasive tech

We usually try to avoid covering news that's a bit too business-like on the site. Both because we have our own sibling site that covers it, and because it's usually quite dry and not all that interesting to you fine folks. But Neural Dawn, an upcoming proof-of-concept for mobile, did catch our eye for a very specific reason.

Neural Dawn is nothing to write home about gameplay-wise. At roughly two hours across four levels, it sees you playing a researcher delving deep into a mysterious cave system in order to save a dying civilisation. But it's the visuals that really make it stand out, and the whole reason for its existence in the first place.

ARTificial

Neural Dawn is being developed by Arm, a company that looks to use neural technology to offer usually hardware-prohibitively visual fidelity on mobile. Now, confusing terminology aside, that basically means they're offering their own version of AI upscaling that makes using tech such as Unreal Engine MegaLights feasible on mobile.

Artificial intelligence is a hot-button topic, to put it mildly. And something that many people are ready to reject outright. But improved resolution and graphics are something that's already been worked into tech such as Nvidia's RTX Super Resolution, and which people seem to be relatively forgiving towards as it's aimed purely at improving performance.

Of course, Nvidia also took things a bit too far when they debuted DLSS 5 earlier this year, which went as far as actively changing the aesthetic and style of games. With that in mind, I won't blame you if you have a bit of a knee-jerk reaction. Lord knows I certainly felt a bit cooler when all the AI details made themselves apparent here.

Even so, I wouldn't deny there'll be plenty of players who love the idea of having console-quality graphics without the hardware demands. But I'm not sure that it'll be more than a fancy-looking tech demo.

Still, there's plenty out there on mobile that doesn't need RTX, AI or ray tracing to look good. Check out our latest list of the five new mobile games to try this week for some of the most interesting picks from the last seven days!