Nvidia is accused of code theft to Ansel

When Nvidia showed off the Pascal architecture earlier this year, new features were also included. One of these is the game photography tool Ansel, which among other things allows the user to take high-resolution screenshots and offers the opportunity to edit afterwards.

Funny thing about Nvidia Ansel, its postprocess shaders contain code from MasterEffect. Its custom.fx contains almost 1:1 the colormod pass with my original descriptions. Same for the other files, where many variable names, code, comments and defines match MasterEffect code, also my 1D gausian blur solution, 1:1, just DX11 ported. There may be even more Framework code in it, I just recognized my own code, there might be SweetFX/other code in it as well.

It now appears that some of the finishing techniques used in Ansel may have been taken from one of the modder Marty McFly’s projects. In a post on Facebook, the author explains that the code is remarkably similar to the one for his own creation Mastereffect.

More specifically, these include functions for adjusting colors, as well as for applying blur via Gaussian blur. The modder means to recognize both the code itself and associated comments.

While it’s an honour to be apprechiated by such a big company, they could at least drop some credits like we do. Like another ReShade Framework contributor said, “if we would do the same their legal army would crush down on us immediately”.

Marty McFly explains that he feels honored that a large company wants to use the work, but that he would like some form of recognition for his work with the technology. In conclusion, the modder comments that if the roles were reversed, an army of lawyers would have stood and knocked on the door.