Day One Mod to Add Nvidia’s DLSS to Starfield on PC

In June, Bethesda confirmed that AMD is going to be its exclusive partner on PC for Starfield. And the game will support AMD’s FSR (more specifically FSR 2.0) upscaling technology on launch, with no mention of Nvidia’s DLSS or Intel’s XeSS.

In the wake of this partnership, AMD also unveiled exclusive Starfield-themed hardware, including Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPU and Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU earlier this month. There’s still no confirmation of DLSS or XeSS inclusion/exclusion from Starfield at launch by Bethesda.

However, a Twitter user recently leaked datamined Starfield files and confirmed that Starfield will not support DLSS or XeSS at launch. This is actually a bummer for the PC gaming community considering the superiority of Nvidia’s DLSS technology over AMD’s FSR. This, as expected, started a debate about why Bethesda would lock out the players from a better upscaling tech in the name of a partnership with AMD.

But, as with most Bethesda games, modders are here to rescue the day—or in this case, only one modder, Pure Dark. He’s well-known for adding DLSS technology to unsupported titles via modding. And he’s going to do the same with Starfield.

No, A Modder Hasn’t Received a Review Copy of Starfield

Pure Dark hasn’t received a Starfield review code. He has cleared the confusion, as there were false claims that he acquired a review copy of Starfield. This led to speculation that this would speed up the process of adding DLSS to Starfield via mods. 

Pure Dark pointed out the obvious in a Reddit comment, questioning why a modder would receive a review copy of a game. However, he has assured everyone that he will keep his promise of releasing a DLSS mod on day one of the early access for Starfield on September 1st, 2023, to add DLSS 2 and DLSS 3 to the game. 

Although Pure Dark hasn’t received a Starfield review copy to assist in the process, he’s confident in his ability to develop the mod, drawing from his experience with adding DLSS to large-scale games like RDR 2. According to him, his streamlined mod development process will enable him to release a DLSS mod for Starfield on September 1st.

This mod will be a significant addition for PC gamers who felt left out after datamining confirmed that Starfield would not support NVIDIA’s DLSS at launch. The mod will enhance immersion in Starfield by utilizing DLSS’s advanced upscaling capabilities. 

Gamers do, however, have concerns about upscaling technologies in Starfield. They hope that Bethesda does not completely rely on these technologies to cover up unoptimized aspects of the game. Heavy reliance on FSR or DLSS for poor game optimization has been observed frequently in 2023.

Hopes are high that Starfield will be well optimized for FSR, as Bethesda and AMD have exclusively partnered to add FSR. Players naturally expect this optimization to be impeccable, as they won’t have to work on other technologies like DLSS and XeSS.

Starfield is undoubtedly one of the most hyped games of 2023. And it might be the most anticipated upcoming Xbox and PC game this year. The scale of the game is huge, judging from the information revealed about it so far.  Besides official information, recent leaks, rumors, and spoilers have only added to the hype surrounding Starfield. 

Starfield has already gone gold and the release is just a few weeks away: September 1st for those who pre-ordered the game and September 6th, 2023, for the global launch on Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Xbox Game Pass. 

The game is available for preloading on PC and Xbox days before the early access release. Considering the massive size of over 120 GB on both platforms, preloading it will be convenient for gamers to start playing immediately after the embargo lifts on September 1st.

What are your thoughts about this news? Are you looking forward to this DLSS mod for Starfield by Pure Dark? Let us know in the comments section below.