Starfield’s upscaling controversy on PC continues. The particular person chargeable for the open-world sci-fi RPG’s most fashionable mod providing DLSS2 help has now created one for DLSS3 as effectively. It’s locked behind a Patreon paywall although, angering some within the mod neighborhood and main a couple of to avoid the challenge’s DRM and pirate it free of charge as a substitute.
If all that feels like a complicated mess, that’s as a result of it’s. To briefly recap: Bethesda Sport Studios and AMD introduced an unique partnership for Starfield. This meant it might solely help AMD’s upscaling know-how for higher decision and framerate efficiency, FSR2, moderately than competing instruments like Nvidia’s DLSS2 and Intel’s XeSS. AMD claimed nothing was stopping Bethesda from supporting the rival upscaling applied sciences. Nonetheless, Starfield launched with out choices to show them on within the settings menu.
Enter modder PureDark and “Starfield Upscaler,” which is at the moment the most well-liked mod for Starfield on NexusMods and replaces FSR2 help with DLSS and XeSS. It’s free and has been downloaded by over 150,000 gamers up to now, bettering their expertise with the sport due to PureDark’s easy workarounds. “Yep, DLSS2 was too straightforward, Bethesda exported all of the FSR2 features,” they wrote. “It’s like I can simply reuse 95% of the code from Elden Ring or Jedi Survivor.”
That will have been the top of the story, besides that PureDark proceeded to launch a take a look at construct of a second mod on September 2 that helps DLSS3, the newest model of the software for improved framerates launched by Nvidia in September 2022 (through The Verge). As an alternative of being free, that mod was locked behind PureDark’s paywall, reigniting an age-old debate in regards to the ethics of profiting off mods vs. giving them away. The kicker was that PureDark even added DRM to the mod within the type of an authenticator to forestall gamers from accessing the software and not using a one-time, energetic $5 Patreon subscription.
Maybe unsurprisingly, some within the PC gaming neighborhood responded by “cracking” the mod identical to they might a brand new launch in an effort to pirate it. “STARFIELD DLSS 3 FG Mod by PureDark Has Been CRACKED Already,” tweeted the account PC_Focus on September 3 (through IGN). “Paid mods get what deserved [sic] for having DRM applied.”
Others within the modding neighborhood, in the meantime, have tried to launch free mods that help DLSS3. Certainly one of them is by LukeFZ564. Uploaded to NexusMods, customers initially reported a variety of bugs and crashes with it, however a few of these appear to be resolved. The most recent feedback are all thanking LukeFZ564 for the free various to paid mods.
