Leon and Cloud Face a Serious Hair Rendering Problem on Nintendo Switch 2

By now, it is common knowledge that Leon Kennedy has never looked better than he does in Resident Evil Requiem. However, if you intend to experience Capcom’s latest survival horror masterpiece on the Nintendo Switch 2, you should prepare yourself for a slightly more disheveled version of the elite agent. On Nintendo’s latest hardware, Leon’s iconic locks are suffering from some notably “crunchy” rendering issues.

Typically, Resident Evil Requiem protagonists Leon and Claire Redfield maintain a salon-quality aesthetic despite the biological nightmares surrounding them, with hair that flows naturally and showcases intricate detail. Yet, the Switch 2 port occasionally falters, transforming their crowning glory into something resembling a frizzy, synthetic wig found in the bargain bin of an online marketplace.

To be fair, many players have found the Switch 2 version of Requiem to be a technical marvel in terms of portability and performance. Still, it is hard not to chuckle when comparing these grainy handheld captures to the crisp, 4K screenshots dominating social media feeds.

This graphical quirk isn’t unique to Resident Evil. Earlier this year, during the lead-up to the Switch 2 launch of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, it was noted that Cloud Strife’s signature blonde spikes took on a distracting, frizzy appearance in handheld mode. While the character’s hair looked perfectly normal when docked, the portable experience rendered his coif as a blurry mass of blonde static rather than the sharp, defined style fans expect.

While this is a minor grievance in an otherwise stellar port, the phenomenon caught the attention of several technical analysts. The root of the problem lies in the Switch 2’s reliance on DLSS—Nvidia’s sophisticated AI upscaling technology. DLSS uses machine learning to reconstruct lower-resolution images into high-definition visuals in real-time. In a deep dive with the gaming outlet Automaton, director Naoki Hamaguchi explained why hair specifically presents such a challenge:

“On Nintendo Switch 2, the core logic is to reduce the internal resolution to stabilize the frame rate, then use DLSS to compensate. DLSS is incredibly efficient at predicting how an image should look, often surpassing TAA in clarity. However, our hair rendering involves toggling individual pixels on and off across frames to simulate transparency. This specific method clashes with the DLSS reconstruction algorithm, occasionally resulting in those jagged, pixelated edges.”

Hamaguchi noted that this rendering hurdle is a common obstacle for many third-party developers porting high-fidelity games to the platform. When the hardware’s AI attempts to sharpen low-resolution assets, the microscopic details of photorealistic hair strands often get “lost in translation,” resulting in an unpolished, frizzy appearance.

Fortunately, there is light at the end of the tunnel. The Switch 2 is still in its infancy, and as developers become more intimately acquainted with its hardware nuances, they will likely find creative workarounds for these visual inconsistencies. It is highly probable that future patches for Resident Evil Requiem and FF7 Remake will smooth out these “bad hair days.” Additionally, as Nvidia continues to refine its DLSS firmware, these issues may simply vanish over time. Until then, most players agree that a little frizz is a small price to pay for the ability to fight zombies on the go.

Source: Polygon