If you’ve already been wishlisting mods for Bethesda’s highly-anticipated RPG, Starfield, the community has some crucial advice, especially for those looking to invest in the DLSS mod.
With Bethesda announcing its partnership with AMD for Starfield on June 27, fans began speculating that the game may not launch with support for NVIDIA’s DLSS—a technology designed to enhance performance and graphics on the RTX range of cards. This has caused many concerned NVIDIA users to flock to popular modder PureDark’s Patreon page after they promised to bring unofficial DLSS support to the game on day one.
On Aug. 22, a Starfield fan’s warning Reddit post featuring a snippet of a dissatisfied user caught the attention of thousands in the community. “For anyone considering buying PureDark’s DLSS mod at release, this is pretty important information,” the post read.
The snippet featured a comment from a Reddit user u/jackyflc, who warned users of recurring charges imposed by PureDark’s system. “I paid $5 once for his Jedi Survivor mod, and every time a game update releases, the mod breaks, and you’ll have to pay another $5 to resub and download the updated mod,” they said, indicating that one has to pay much more than $5 for the mod in the long run.
PureDark has always been popular for their DLSS mods, which have saved users from having to use AMD’s FSR technology—the same purpose as NVIDIA’s DLSS, but gamers don’t believe it to be as good. That said, if game updates ‘break’ such mods, as alleged, it’s truly an issue for those who want to invest just once and not commit to a stealthy subscription.
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In response, PureDark assured fans that their mods won’t stop working with in-game updates from Starfield onwards.
“Attracting people with new mods is always better than mod breaking and people having to resub. So, starting from Starfield, it will not break upon game updates. I’ll implement something like the address library or use memory signatures to make sure of that,” PureDark said in a post. “And I’ll gradually update my other mods to be version independent (it takes time).”
It’s worth noting that you can access any of PureDark’s mods without having to pay for them individually if you become a patron for $5 a month. But not everyone is willing to invest in unofficial software periodically, especially if it’s not intended in the first place. Whether PureDark lives by their claims is something to be seen after Starfield’s release on Sept. 6.
