Starfield has dominated the news cycle since its general public release and the overall sentiment has been overwhelmingly positive. However, from a technical standpoint, PC gamers have expressed disappointment due to the absence of DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling). While the official explanation for this omission remains unclear, it is undeniably disheartening that such a major release does not incorporate the most popular image upscaling technology.
Fortunately, Nvidia’s DLSS possesses a unique capability that allows the upscaling technology to function with games lacking official support. Bethesda, for reasons known only to them, chose to exclude DLSS and XeSS in favour of FSR 2 exclusively. Nevertheless, a mod creator named LukeFZ has ingeniously devised a method to introduce DLSS into Starfield, and initial impressions are quite promising. This mod not only replaces the game’s native TAA/FSR solution but also integrates DLSS’s frame generation technology for GeForce RTX 4000 series cards.
Users and review sites are reporting performance enhancements of approximately 25% with the mod. While this figure falls somewhat below DLSS’s typical performance gains in other games, enabling frame generation further augments this increase, reaching up to 29% depending on the GPU in use. However, it is essential to note that frame generation ideally requires a frame rate of 60fps or as close to it as possible. If used in situations where the frame rate dips into the 30s, it may introduce input lag, potentially compromising the gaming experience.
Installing the mod is a relatively straightforward process, with LukeFZ providing detailed instructions on his official Nexus Mods page. Unlike an official developer implementation, you won’t have the option to select typical scaling ratios like Ultra Quality, Quality, Balanced, or Performance modes. Instead, you’ll need to utilise the game’s built-in render scaling options, adjusting from 100% down to 50%, which corresponds to the performance mode.
While DLSS improves upon the built-in TAA implementation, it does exhibit some rendering issues that can be distracting depending on your other settings and resolution. One can only hope that an official DLSS patch will be released in the future. In the meantime, if you’re using an NVIDIA GPU, I highly recommend checking out the mod for yourself.