A hot potato: The omission of Nvidia's DLSS upscaling technology was one of the most controversial topics surrounding Starfield's launch. However, the PC version's lack of other basic features also baffled many users. In a small update, Bethesda has revealed a vague roadmap describing its plans to fix some of the game's biggest issues.
A minor Starfield hotfix from this week comes with a promise from Bethesda to eventually add DLSS, a FOV slider, an HDR calibration menu, 32:9 ultrawide monitor support, and more. Although mods started proliferating for Starfield hours after its launch, the developer also mentioned that it would add mod support early next year.
Starfield currently only offers native FSR2 upscaling, which supports Xbox and recent graphics cards from all vendors. Although DLSS only works on the last few years of Nvidia GPUs, it will be a welcomed addition for owners with compatible cards, as it offers higher image quality than FRS2, especially in motion and at lower resolutions. Bethesda didn't mention plans for adding Intel's XeSS solution.
The game's initial support for FSR2 makes adding the other upscaling technologies a relatively simple task, evidenced by the third-party mods enabling them. Bethesda hasn't said whether its official DLSS implementation includes DLSS3 frame generation (only compatible with RTX 4000 cards), but a mod for this feature also recently became free. The mod's original creator, PureDark, initially locked it behind DRM to Patreon subscriptions.
Other mods add functions like HDR customization, FOV adjustment, and ultrawide resolutions. Many PC users would consider these features standard requirements for modern big-budget releases and their absence from Starfield to be a colossal blunder. In particular, HDR doesn't work correctly in the PC game even though it is functional on Xbox.
Unsurprisingly, official mod support in Starfield will work similarly to Skyrim and Fallout 4. Early next year, Bethesda will add Starfield to its Creation Club, where Xbox and PC users can find a curated selection of mods. Meanwhile, modders can continue using Nexus Mods, where a Starfield script extender is already laying essential foundations for future work.
This week's hotfix should result in fewer crashes and increased framerates. Bethesda says it continually works with Nvidia, AMD, and Intel to improve Starfield's performance on all graphics cards--a remark likely made to dispel suspicions that its partnership with AMD led it to favor that company's hardware.
Starfield currently runs around 20 percent worse on Nvidia GPUs than on equivalent AMD cards, and initial analyses found that hyperthreading on Intel CPUs didn't perform correctly. Nvidia has since released a minor over-the-air update that should slightly improve performance for users with Resizable BAR enabled (navigate to Help > System Information in the Nvidia Control Panel to check).
Another accessibility feature Bethesda wants to introduce is a map for cities. Difficulty navigating settlements like New Atlantis has been one of the most frequent complaints from Starfield players. Last but perhaps not least, Bethesda promises to add a function allowing players to immediately eat food they see lying around instead of picking it up and eating it from the inventory.
