DLSS 3 mod for Starfield has a controversial DRM paywall

Starfield isn’t even officially out of early access yet, but one of its mods has already generated controversy within the community. The mod in question adds support for Nvidia’s DLSS 3 upscaling technology, which Bethesda omitted to include in Starfield in favor of AMD’s rival FSR 2. But users have been critical of modder PureDark’s decision to lock DLSS 3’s more advanced frame-generation features behind a subscription to their Patreon. The free version of the mod only supports DLSS 2, which offers upscaling but not frame generation.

Particularly controversial has been PureDark’s decision to add DRM to the DLSS 3 Starfield mod in an attempt to prevent non-Patreon subscribers from getting access, though RockPaperShotgun reports that this copy-protection appears to have already been cracked. DLSS 3 is notable for offering frame-generation on newer 40-series Nvidia GPUs, adding additional frames in addition to upscaling the game to a higher resolution.

For what it’s worth, the non-paid DLSS 2 mod reportedly works well. RockPaperShotgun’s benchmarks show it matching or even slightly beating the performance of the game’s official AMD FSR 2 support, with slightly better image quality to boot. As of this writing, PureDarks’ “Starfield Upscaler” DLSS mod is the most popular release on NexusMods for Starfield.