Today Bethesda released update 1.8.86 for its latest RPG Starfield, after it has been in beta on Steam for a little while, bringing its improvements to all players.
The biggest addition is exclusively for players on PC, and it's the official implementation of Nvidia DLSS. before the update, players were either stuck with AMD's inferior FSR implementation or had to use an unofficial mod.
On top of that, a button has been added to eat food as soon as you find it instead of having to store it in your inventory and then eat it from there, which wasn't exactly the snappiest of procedures.
The update also comes with hardware optimizations for further gains both on the GPU and on the CPU sides. On top of that, we get plenty of tweaks and bug fixes to top everything off.
You can read the full patch notes below.
PERFORMANCE AND STABILITY
- Addressed a number of memory related issues and leaks.
- Added some GPU performance optimizations, which will be more impactful on higher end cards.
- Improved renderer threading model, improving CPU usage most notably on higher end systems.
- Various stability and performance improvements.
GAMEPLAY
- Added the ability to eat the food placed in the world.
- Adjusted stealth to be a bit more forgiving.
- Fixed an issue where Andreja’s head would stay permanently cloaked.
- Fixed an issue that could prevent players from firing their weapons.
- Fixed issues where some NPC could be seen not wearing clothes (Note: This issue may resolve itself over time).
- Fixed an issue where already in-progress skill challenges could stop progressing after reaching the Unity and starting a new game.
- Fixed an issue that could temporarily prevent opening the inventory or saving after entering the Unity.
- PC: Fixed an issue where mouse movement could be choppy.
- Fixed a rare issue that could cause the home ship to be lost.
- Fixed an issue where the ship services technician might be missing.
- Fixed an issue where occasionally the camera could shake incorrectly during Traveling, Grav Jumping, Docking, or Landing transitions.
GRAPHICS
- Addressed an issue with how ambient occlusion appeared in ultrawide resolutions.
- Optimized initial shader compilation that occurs on start-up.
- Added the ability to adjust Brightness and Contrast in the Display Settings menu.
- Added the ability to adjust HDR Brightness provided that the system supports it. (Xbox & Windows 11 only).
- Addressed a number of materials that could sometimes present an unintended pattern under certain conditions.
- Fixed various visual issues related to the new FOV slider options.
- Improved the appearance of the eyes on crowd characters.
- Addressed a number of minor visual issues related to lighting, shadows, terrain, and vegetation.
- PC: Addressed additional visual issues related to DLSS.
QUESTS
- All That Money Can Buy: Fixed a rare issue where players couldn’t sit during the negotiation with Musgrove.
- Blast Zone: Fixed an issue where the hard rocks that need to be cleared out by players will not appear on Ngodup Tate’s land.
- Echoes of the Past: Fixed an issue where the Grylloba Queen could sometimes not be reachable during the objective “Secure the Shuttle Bay”.
- Eye of the Storm: Fixed an issue where players' quest progression could potentially be blocked due to a missing docking prompt.
- Grunt Work: Addressed an issue where progress could appear blocked if “Supra et Ultra” was completed while returning to the Lodge during “High Price to Pay”.
- No Sudden Moves: Fixed an issue that could prevent the entrance door to the Scow ship from being opened again.
- Operation Starseed: Fixed an issue where the key that is needed to exit the facility could sometimes not be present.
- Sabotage: Fixed an issue where David Barron could potentially not be found by players.
- Short Sighted: Fixed an issue where players could rarely become control-locked while speaking with Vladimir.
- The Heart of Mars: Fixed an issue where players might not be able to mine the “The Heart of Mars”.
Speaking of eating, if you'd rather have more complex survival mechanics, the community has created a dedicated mod that adds a layer of complexity to that aspect of the game.
Starfield is currently available for PC and Xbox Series X|S, and it's obviously also included in the Game Pass subscription service. If you haven't played it yet, you can grab a copy for Xbox Series X|S on Amazon.
Recently, we learned directly from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella that Starfield has achieved 11 million players, while it was at the top of Circana's (formerly NPD's) sales charts for the month of September.
If you'd like to find out why the game is so popular, you can read our review, which awarded Bethesda's game with an 8 out of 10.
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