Bethesda Game Studios RPGs and mods go hand-in-hand, especially when looking at the developer's history in the PC gaming space - Morrowing, Oblivion, Skyrim, and most recently, Fallout 4. Some of the most moddable and modded games of all time, from simple texture updates to visual overhauls, redesigned UI, and even brand-new games.
Starfield will follow suit, thanks to the epic space RPG being built with the next iteration of the Creation Engine. Ahead of the launch of official mod kits and tools, as we saw with Fallout 4, based on the modding community's familiarity with the Creation Engine, we're already starting to see several Starfield mods over on Nexus Mods.
As of writing, the top mods are all about performance, with the number one mod for Starfield at launch being the 'Starfield Upscaler,' which replaces AMD FSR 2 with DLSS or XeSS. It's a straightforward installation that requires FSR 2 to be enabled and then brings up a menu in-game to override AMD's tech with either NVIDIA's or Intel's.
And if you're wondering what's the difference, well, DLSS 3.5 in Starfield looks noticeably better than AMD's FSR 2.2 implementation - and even cleans up the image compared to native rendering. The video above showcases some differences, where objects in the background are more stable and don't shimmer or glitch with DLSS.
In motion, it's a smoother and cleaner presentation, so here's hoping Bethesda adds native DLSS support into the game; otherwise, Starfield Upscaler will remain one of the most popular mods for the game going forward. Other popular Starfield mods at launch include general performance optimization mods and another essential mod for PC gamers - Starfield FOV, which allows you to change the FOV in-game.