Nvidia DLSS support for Starfield teased alongside stability-improving update

By Tomas Franzese September 13, 2023

Bethesda Game Studios just released the first update for its sci-fi issue Starfield. It’s a smaller hotfix-level patch mainly focused on improving the game’s stability and fixing some quest-blocking bugs. A message from the developer also confirmed that a lot of major features that are in the works for future patches, including Nvidia DLSS support on PC.

Sarah Morgan in the lodge looking at the player. — Bethesda

The list of patch notes for Starfield update version 1.7.29 explains that it made “various stability and performance improvements to reduce crashes and improve frame rate,” including one related to installations on Xbox Series X/S. Also, quest-blocking issues in All The Money Can Buy, Into the Unknown, and Shadows of Neon are now all fixed. While that list isn’t long, a blog post and tweet from Bethesda explains that it’s just the start of “a regular interval of updates that have top community-requested features.”

The features players should expect more imminently in updates are brightness and contrast controls, an HDR calibration menu, an FOV slider, Nvidia DLSS support on PC, 32:9 ultrawide monitor support on PC, and an eat button for food. Looking at the longer term, Bethesda Game Studios says it’s “working closely with Nvidia, AMD, and Intel on driver support,” and that it would love to add city maps to the game in the future.

For now, though, Bethesda Game Studios says its main priorityies are “making sure any top blocker bugs or stability issues are addressed, and adding quality-of-life features that many players are asking for.” Starfield is available now for PC and Xbox Series X/S.

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Tomas Franzese is a Staff Writer at Digital Trends, where he reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…

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Starfield ends 2023 as a commercial success and a marketing hype disaster

Key art for Starfield

Starfield fans are “gaming’s smartest fans" -- or so Bethesda’s Todd Howard said in the spacefaring RPG’s bustling subreddit. It's a bit of warm flattery fused with careful marketing hype, all wrapped in a feel-good message. Still, I appreciated it nonetheless as one of the first few eager Starfield players bursting through the doors of the game’s iconic Frontier starship in late August. But like many others, I only needed to dig slightly past the veneer of new-Bethesda-game excitement to realize Starfield’s release was underwhelmingly normal in a year of unexpected top-tier releases like Cocoon, Humanity, and yes, Baldur’s Gate 3.

Don’t get me wrong. Starfield ends 2023 as a massive commercial success, topping the Steam charts in September and pushing Xbox back onto the map after a relatively disastrous year. It did exactly what Microsoft needed it to do, and yet, between the mind-numbing repetitiveness of its rather empty universe and Bethesda’s recent trend of clapping back against negative Steam reviews, I’m starting to feel a little less “smart" the older it gets.
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An astronaut explores a planet's surface in Starfield.

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A field-of-view slider headlines Starfield’s latest update

An astronaut explores a planet's surface in Starfield.

Bethesda just released Update 1.7.36 for Starfield, and it officially added a highly requested feature: field-of-view (FOV) sliders.
Even though Starfield is a game that can be entirely played from a first-person perspective, it did not have this feature at release. Fans had to previously resort to mods to add this functionality to the game. Bethesda did promise it'd add FOV sliders to the game shortly after it launched, though, and now this feature has finally arrived. By going into the Accessibility tab of the Settings menu, players can adjust the FOV of both the first and third-person cameras on both console and PC.

This update does bring some other improvements as well, like fixing a progression-blocking issue in the Echoes of the Past quest and improving stability and performance. In particular, Bethesda claimed stability with Intel Arc GPUs will now be better for PC players. For most players, though, the FOV slider is the most important new feature included in this update.
Starfield isn't the only Bethesda game to get a notable update this month. Last week, Redfall finally received a patch that overhauled the game's encounters, tweaked its stealth system, and added a 60 fps Performance Mode. While this Starfield update isn't as large or monumental as that one, it does show Bethesda's commitment to improving Starfield and adding heavily requested features. Hopefully, updates that add things like Nvidia DLSS support, an HDR calibration menu, ultrawide monitor support, and an eat button for food aren't too far off.
Starfield is available now for PC and Xbox Series X/S.