New Starfield update brings DLSS support and various fixes – Activision Blizzard

Version 1.8.86 comes with DLSS support, which gives users with modern NVIDIA graphics cards access to features like DLSS Supersolution, Deep Learning Anti-aliasing (DLAA), Reflex Low Latency, and DLSS frame generation. The new update will finally reassure users who were complaining or using the controversial DLSS modification to enjoy the benefits of the technology.

Besides DLSS, the update also includes various performance improvements related to high-end graphics cards while resolving various memory-related issues (memory leaks) or other related technical issues.

The company has also fixed some renderer threading issues and made a number of other stability and performance improvements. On the graphics side, it added brightness and contrast controls to the menu while addressing issues with ambient occlusion, shader pooling, HDR brightness (on Xbox and Windows 11) while addressing issues with eyes of characters that were in crowds, with lighting, terrain, vegetation etc.

Bethesda has made corrections and changes to the gameplay itself, with users now able to “eat food in the environment” using the “Consume” button without having to add it to inventory. Stealth has also been improved to be more “forgiving”, and an issue with Andreja’s head remaining “hidden”, another issue with naked NPCs appearing or another issue preventing players from making use of certain arms has been fixed.

The company tested the above changes on a beta basis earlier this month on Steam before making them widely available. In September, Bethesda announced that it was “working closely” with NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel on their graphics card drivers, perhaps in response to a Digital Foundry technical article that talked about “disproportionately poor performance with NVIDIA and Intel graphics cards.”

Starfield is one of the best-selling games of 2023 (partly due to the fact that it’s available for free on Game Pass). The company announced that it had 10 million players by the end of September.