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Starfieldis one of the biggest game releases of this year, but its performance on PC leaves a lot to be desired. Fortunately, modders have already addedNVIDIA’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS)support to the game through alternative means. Check out our step-by-step guide on how to add DLSS 3 support toStarfieldthrough mods.
What AreStarfieldDLSS Mods, and Why Use Them?
Starfieldis a new game from Bethesda, the studio is known for popular action role-playing games like Fallout and the Elder Scrolls series. It’s not only a new title, but the first game to feature a brand-new game universe from Bethesda in over twenty years.
The game was highly anticipated by the gaming community, but just before launch it was announced thatStarfieldwould only support AMD’s upscaling technologyFidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR). It was a highly controversial decision because it locked NVIDIA GPU owners from using DLSS to improve the performance of the game.
However, Modder LukeFZ has successfully added DLSS support toStarfield, just days after its launch. Compared to AMD’s FSR technology, DLSS provides a significant improvement in performance, especially when usingray-tracing. The DLSS mod also improves the average FPS of the game even in demanding areas like New Atlantis. Some users might not experience immediate FPS gains, but will certainly notice a better image quality when compared to AMD’s FSR2.
Fortunately, the mod works on both older and newer NVIDIA graphic cards. However, the frame generation feature included inDLSS 3is limited to the RTX 4000 series GPUs. If you have a RTX 4000 series graphic card you can enable DLSS 3 forStarfieldby using this mod. However, older NVIDIA graphic cards will run on DLSS 2.
There’s also an alternative DLSS mod forStarfieldmade by user PureDark, who has also added DLSS to games like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. However, the DLSS 3 support for PureDark’s mod is locked behind a paywall. Unlike PureDark’s mod, LukeFZ has made hisStarfieldDLSS 3 mod completely free and can be downloaded fromNexus Mods.
Other than that, the only difference between the two mods is that there’s no separate menu for LukeFZ’s DLSS mod. Due to this, you won’t be able to make any real-time changes to the game, but you’re able to configure various settings for the mod by editing theconfig.jsonfile in the game directory.
How to Find theStarfieldGame Directory
The first step in most game modding is locating the game directory and game files, and moddingStarfieldis no different. Fortunately it’s easy to find the game files forStarfield.
On your PC, you can find the root folder for Steam and Xbox apps by following the steps given below. Select the method based on whether you purchasedStarfieldthrough Steam or through the Microsoft Store. Whether you bought the game through Microsoft or you’re playing for free with Xbox Game Pass for PC, use the Xbox PC app instructions.
Locating theStarfieldGame Directory on the Xbox PC App
Right-click on the game in your library > Click on ‘Manage’ > Click on ‘Files’ > Click on ‘Browse’. Then go into the ‘Starfield’ folder, then ‘Content’ - you should now see ‘Starfield.exe’.
Locating theStarfieldGame Directory with the Steam Client
Right-click on the game in your library > ‘Manage’ > Click on ‘Browse local files’. It should open the root folder containing ‘Starfield.exe’.
How to Add DLSS toStarfield
Go toNexus Mods websiteand download the files corresponding to your game version (SteamorXbox/Microsoft Store).You will need to create a Nexus Mods account to download the files.
Once downloaded, extract the files into the game directory. (FSR2Streamline.asi along with the other files/folders from the ZIP should be next to Starfield.exe)
Download both the latest DLSS and DLSS-G DLLs and place them in the ‘streamline’folder in the game directory. Download links to both DLLs are provided here,DLSSandDLSS-G, courtesy of TechPowerUp, the makes of GPU-Z and other popular utilities.
Once you’ve placed them in the ‘streamline’ fold, launch the game and go to Settings > Display > set Upscaling to FSR2. Even though it says FSR2 in reality it is using NVIDIA’s DLSS mod. You can also adjust ‘Sharpening’ and ‘Render Resolution Scale’ to adjust the performance of the game. If you are confused by the Render Resolution Scale percentage, use the information given below.
How to Enable DLSS 3 forStarfield
You can tweak various settings by editing theconfig.jsonfile by using any text editor. Open the file and enable DLSS 3 by changing"enableFrameGeneration": falseto"enableFrameGeneration": true.
Unfortunately, just likePureDark’s DLSS mod, this mod also experiences crashes when loading or switching to a menu. According to the developer, limiting the frame rate should decrease the chances of experiencing a crash. You can limit the FPS of the game by editingconfig.jsonfile and changing"reflexFpsCap": 0(0 means no frame cap).
ThisStarfieldDLSS mod should significantly improve the performance of the PC version of the game. you’re able to also try out the PureDark DLSS mod if you prefer to see real-time adjustments to the game. If you download the mod and enjoy it, please consider making a donation to the mod creator or signing up toLukeFZ’s Patreonto show your support.
