Starfield will get DLSS but it won’t be added by Bethesda

A renowned modder, PureDark, has said they’ll work to add Nvidia’s DLSS 3 and 2 into Starfield as Bethesda partners with AMD on PC.

This week Bethesda and AMD announced that they’d be joining up for Starfield on PC. This sent shockwaves through eager fans, who realized that this meant Nvidia’s DLSS won’t be coming to the game.

AMD partnerships typically mean that the game will be reliant on FSR, Team Red’s supersampling software. As pointed out in our original report, FSR is not as good as DLSS in several PC ports we’ve reviewed. AMD-sponsored PC ports seldom have had features like XeSS and DLSS added to them, so it falls to the community to add features.

Elden Ring and Elder Scrolls modder, PureDark, appears to have already taken on the challenge. In a blog post, PureDark said that they’d work on the mod through the early access period, five days before the game officially launches.

PureDark plans DLSS mod for Starfield as soon as possible

In a translated version of the blog, PureDark said:

“But don’t you worry, you’ve got me. I’ll manage to get at least DLSS 3 support in the [five days of] Early Access, then slowly [add] in an independent DLSS 2 implementation depending on the situation.”

PureDark’s work has gained them an avid following, including an estimated 4200 Patreon subscribers. Their prices start at $5 a month for quicker access to their work.

The most recent is adding in DLSS to Bethesda’s Fallout 4, which has seen a huge uplift in performance since launch. Prior to this, PureDark managed to squeeze even more performance out of Elden Ring and Skyrim.

Starfield has already been hit with criticism for Bethesda’s choice to go with a solid 30FPS on Xbox, rather than an unlocked framerate or trying to hit 60FPS.

Microsoft plans to release Starfield on Game Pass, Xbox, and PC on September 6, 2023, after a series of delays.