As the interstellar universe of Bethesda’s Starfield begins to unravel, a plethora of questions came out. Not only about the potentially neverending and expansive cosmos, but also about the technology that powered it. It doesn’t seem that there’s much support for Nvidia’s deep learning supersampling (DLSS) and Intel’s XeSS upscalers.

It has been never confirmed in a decade that AMD would require sponsored games to use the company’s technology only.

Despite the initial announcement, Starfield have been having a high-resolution look at these racial offerings. Yet it’s a lost time now that Bethesda’s exclusive partnership with Advanced Micro Devices has impacted this. They lied through all the time. When it was revealed that Bethesda’s starry venture would orbit around AMD, particularly with AMD engineers trying to get into the game’s Creation Engine 2 for FSR2 (FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0), it eroded the platform’s inclusion.

To be honest, why does everything matter? For gamers, upgrading systems like DLSS, XeSS, and FSR have become crucial. These technologies allow games to render at a lower resolution, then upscale, in order to improve the graphic settings and the framerate of the display. Nvidia’s DLSS, particularly, has been recognized for its AI-driven approach, which provides an excellent end-product performance. The FSR, on the other hand, is hardware agnostic, so it can work across different GPU vendors, hence more inclusive.

After checking Starfield preload files on my PC, I don’t see anything of that support DLSS/XeSS. If true I think this could cause a lot of backlash for Bethesda and AMD (owing to their refusal to confirm whether they block rival GPU developers in their sponsored games). pic.twitter.com/U67On3x6Kt/eltt/.

Sebastian Castellanos (18,2023) on August 18, 2023.

But what does starfield’s preload data reveal? Eager fans have jumped in the game’s files and attempted to find out more about this game. The facts of the findings from sources like Sebastian Castellanos give a clearer picture. It looks like FSR 2.0 is the only supersampling technology in play. This, of course, isn’t a complete surprise, considering AMD’s proclamation of being “exclusive PC partner” for Starfield.

DLSS, a native technology, uses Tensor cores present in Nvidia’s RTX GPUs to achieve the upscaling effect. The result is as unreliable as it sounds. Since the lack of support for this revered technology is very rare, especially for those who have the latest Nvidia graphics cards.

It’s tempting to blame Bethesda’s AMD partnership. In fact, the history indicates that this isn’t an isolated case. AMD-sponsored games have historically sidestepped DLSS, squeezing speculation about partnership terms that could be restricting competing upscaling features. When asked about that, AMD and Bethesda both remain envious, with no vague response or sheer silence.

Considering how long a game with Bethesda is usually supported, Starfield will eventually get DLSS support via paid or free mods sooner than later.

Worry not, because hope is awakening in the budding community. The Renowned modder, PureDark, has expressed plans to introduce DLSS 3 support into Starfield, as well as in games like Star Wars: Jedi Survivor. I suspect this is something that has caveats. Mods aren’t as flawless as built-in implementations by developers. Moreover, while some modders were open to sharing freely their innovations, others such as PureDark have opted for a paid route via Patreon subscriptions. This has raised ethical and legal questions about making money from a certain source.

The frequency of Starfield patches post-launch can also disrupt mods, thus making it redundant, and possibly even pay for updated mods. This distracts you from the gaming experience.

Even though the FSR 2.0 will offer a decent upscaling experience for Starfield, the lack of DLSS isn’t enough to remain a concern for many.

Starfield continues to dominate the headlines, both for the worse and for the better.

If it’s consolation, Starfield doesn’t look like it’ll suffer from it. The old leaks tell a tale of the beautiful world of a game that could be the most successful of the Xbox Series X. Bethesda is annoyed by the leaks, and seems happy to know that everyone talks positive things about Starfield. This is a far cry from last a few months ago when everyone couldn’t help but criticize the game for its FPS lock, its exclusivity to a platform, and so much more.