Intel® XeSS Plugin for Unreal Engine

Introduction

Intel® XeSS Plugin for Unreal Engine integrates Intel® XeSS 3 technologies into Unreal Engine (UE). XeSS Super Resolution (XeSS-SR), XeSS Frame Generation (XeSS-FG) including Multi-Frame Generation and Xe Low Latency (XeLL) are parts of XeSS 3.

For more information, please visit: https://github.com/intel/xess

If you encounter any integration issues, feel free to use the Intel® XeSS Inspector. This tool is specifically designed to simplify the validation and debugging of XeSS integration within applications.

Downloads

Please open the Releases page to download compiled plugin packages.

Installing the plugin

1. If you use the source code version of UE, you need to build the plugin locally, otherwise skip this step.

• Open the terminal and go to <ue_root_dir>\Engine\Build\BatchFiles

• Run the command line:

RunUAT.bat BuildPlugin -Plugin="<path_to_downloaded_plugin>\XeSS.uplugin" -Package="<path_to_destination_plugin>" -TargetPlatforms=Win64 -VS2019

The last parameter is the version of Visual Studio used to build, required by UE 4 only.

2. Copy (pre-)built files to:

• For UE 4: <ue_root_dir>\Engine\Plugins\Runtime\Intel\XeSS

• For UE 5: <ue_root_dir>\Engine\Plugins\Marketplace\XeSS

  Notes: Please maintain this exact folder structure when installing the plugin. Deviating from this path may cause failures when packaging your game from the Editor. If folder Marketplace doesn't exist, please create it manually.

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Enabling the plugin in the Editor

To enable the XeSS plugin for a project, go to the plugin selection.

Use the search box to find the XeSS plugin and make sure it is enabled.

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Project settings

Once this plugin is enabled, its default behavior can be modified in the Project Settings menu.

It is possible to disable/enable it in the Editor viewports.

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Project packaging

No additional steps are needed for packaging.

Localization support

Localized text is supported via string table "XeSSStringTable", which can be referenced in widgets, Blueprint and C++ code.

Currently these cultures are supported:

Abbreviation | Name | ------------ | --------------------- | ar-SA | Arabic (Saudi Arabia) | da-DK | Danish (Denmark) | de-DE | German (Germany) | en | English | es-ES | Spanish (Spain) | fr-FR | French (France) | it-IT | Italian (Italy) | ja-JP | Japanese (Japan) | ko-KR | Korean (South Korea) | nl-NL | Dutch (Netherlands) | pl-PL | Polish (Poland) | pt-PT | Portuguese (Portugal) | ru-RU | Russian (Russia) | uk-UA | Ukrainian (Ukraine) | zh-Hans | Chinese (Simplified) | zh-Hant | Chinese (Traditional) |

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Accessing the plugin in a game project

This plugin offers different ways for developers to access the underlying XeSS functionality.

UE Console Commands

It is more convenient to use for testing during development, not recommended for shipping.

XeSS-SR

To enable it:

r.XeSS.Enabled 1

To change the Quality Mode:

r.XeSS.Quality <quality_mode>

Where <quality_mode> represents the scale factor:

<!-- QUALITY EDIT: -->

Value | Quality Mode | Scale factor | ----- | ------------------ | ------------ | 0 | Ultra Performance | 3 | 1 | Performance | 2.3 | 2 | Balanced (default) | 2 | 3 | Quality | 1.7 | 4 | Ultra Quality | 1.5 | 5 | Ultra Quality Plus | 1.3 | 6 | Anti-Aliasing | 1 |

Auto exposure, which is enabled by default.

r.XeSS.AutoExposure 1

For more details on exposure calculation, please check Intel® XeSS Developer Guide in the Documents folder.

XeSS-FG

To enable it:

r.XeFG.Enabled 1

To configure the maximum number of interpolated frames:

r.XeFG.MaxInterpolatedFrames <value>

Where <value> is the number of frames XeFG interpolates between consecutive original frames.

• Valid range: [1, r.XeFG.MaxInterpolatedFramesSupported]
• Default: 1

Examples:

• 1 = 2x frame rate (1 original + 1 interpolated frame)
• 2 = 3x frame rate (1 original + 2 interpolated frames)

To query the maximum number of interpolated frames supported:

r.XeFG.MaxInterpolatedFramesSupported

This is a read-only console variable that shows the maximum interpolated frames supported by XeFG on the current platform.

XeLL

To enable it:

r.XeLL.Enabled 1

Blueprint API

Blueprint offers the highest level of compatibility and is the recommended way for shipping.

XeSS-SR Blueprint API

This plugin provides support for querying and settings XeSS-SR quality modes with Blueprint. It is recommended to use these functions when creating settings menus.

• Is Intel(R) XeSS-SR Supported
• Get Supported Intel(R) XeSS-SR Quality Modes
• Get Current Intel(R) XeSS-SR Quality Mode
• Get Default Intel(R) XeSS-SR Quality Mode
• Set Intel(R) XeSS-SR Quality Mode

Notes:

1. It is recommend to use the Get Default Intel(R) XeSS Quality Mode Blueprint function to set the out-of-the-box XeSS Quality Mode in the game's UI. Based on the passed Screen Resolution the recommended Quality Mode will be returned - for resolutions with pixel counts corresponding to 1920x1080 and lower it will be Balanced, for higher resolutions it will be Performance.

2. For XeSS-SR, Blueprint API is recommended to use in Blueprint or C++, for plugin loses control to upscaling screen percentage directly since UE 5.1 and r.ScreenPercentage is set in Blueprint API to keep its backward compatibility.

XeSS-FG Blueprint API

• Is Intel(R) XeSS-FG Supported
• Get Supported Intel(R) XeSS-FG Modes
• Get Current Intel(R) XeSS-FG Mode
• Set Intel(R) XeSS-FG Mode
• If Relaunch is Required by XeSS-FG
• Get Current Intel(R) XeSS-FG UI Composition State
• Set Intel(R) XeSS-FG UI Composition State

XeLL Blueprint API

• Is Intel(R) XeLL Supported
• Get Supported Intel(R) XeLL Modes
• Set Intel(R) XeLL Mode
• Get Current Intel(R) XeLL Mode
• Get Flash Indicator Enabled
• Get Game to Render Latency
• Get Game Latency
• Get Render Latency
• Get Simulation Latency
• Get Render Submit Latency
• Get Present Latency
• Get Input Latency
• Get Latency Mark Enabled

C++ API

XeSS-FG C++ API

Similar to GAverageFPS, GXeFGAverageFPS is offered to display FPS counter in-game, sample code fragment as follows:

#include "XeFGRHI.h"

// Draw the FPS counter.
Canvas->DrawShadowedString(
    X,
    Y,
    *FString::Printf(TEXT("%5.2f FPS"), GXeFGAverageFPS),
    Font,
    FPSColor
);

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Debugging

Plugin log file

The XeSS plugin creates a separate log file xess.log in the same directory as Unreal Engine log files (typically <project>/Saved/Logs/). This log file is available in all build configurations including Shipping, and contains:

• Plugin version information
• SDK version information for XeSS-SR, XeSS-FG, and XeLL
• Additional diagnostic information

The log file is rewritten each time the application starts.

Querying SDK version

Feature | Console Command | ------- | ---------------- | XeSS-SR | r.XeSS.Version | XeSS-FG | r.XeFG.Version | XeLL | r.XeLL.Version |

Querying feature support on current platform

Feature | Console Command | ------- | ------------------ | XeSS-SR | r.XeSS.Supported | XeSS-FG | r.XeFG.Supported | XeLL | r.XeLL.Supported |

The support status depends on OS, RHI and Unreal Engine version. Please check FAQ for more detailed information.

Verifying if a feature is enabled in a running game

The easiest way to confirm that XeSS-SR or XeSS-FG are enabled is via:

stat GPU

This will bring up real-time per-frame stats. XeSS or XeFG should be visible as one of the rendering passes.

For XeSS-SR, a dedicated stat console command is offered:

stat XeSS

You can use it to check:

• The number of XeSS contexts being used (especially useful in split screen mode)
• GPU memory usage for temporary buffer storage
• GPU memory usage for temporary texture storage

For XeSS-FG, a dedicated stat console command is offered:

stat XeFG

You can use it to check average FPS and frame count presented with XeSS-FG.

Creating frame dumps

Frame dump console variables have been deprecated, please use Intel® XeSS Inspector instead.

Using the High Resolution Screenshot tool

UE provides a console command that allows to take high resolution screen captures:

HighResShot <screen_resolution>

When using this tool while XeSS-SR is engaged please make sure to set screen_resolution to the currently set output resolution (can be set with r.SetRes <screen_resolution>). Otherwise, the capture tool will change the target resolution, which will re-initialize