Starfield Update Adds DLSS Support, Fixes Naked NPCs, And Finally Lets You Eat Food Without Picking It Up

Bethesda has rolled out a new patch for its sci-fi RPG Starfield, and it has some notable additions. The update introduces Nvidia DLSS support for PC players and the ability to eat and drink food found in the environment without picking it up.

This patch, which was previously available to testers on Steam, is available now across PC and Xbox. For the Nvidia DLSS support, players with compatible Nvidia graphics cards can now use things like DLSS super resolution, deep learning anti-aliasing, Nvidia Reflex, and frame generation. Among other things, these things will allow for smoother and higher frame rates without having to meaningfully sacrifice image quality.

As for the food improvement, Bethesda said it is delivering this change that fans had been asking for. "By popular request, we have added the ability to ingest food and drink items upon finding them in the environment. You can enjoy those Chunks immediately or save them for later. The choice is yours," Bethesda said in a blog post.

Beyond these changes, the November 20 patch makes stealth "a bit more forgiving" and fixes bugs like how Andreja's head would remain cloaked and how players' weapons might not fire. The patch also fixes a problem where certain NPCs would appear naked.

There are also various mission-specific fixes, For the All That Money Can Buy quest, the update delivers a fix for a rare issue where players were blocked from sitting down. For the Operation Starseed mission, a key needed to exit a room was not showing up sometimes, but it should now.

You can see the full Starfield patch notes below. If you're still in the market for a copy of Starfield, the game is marked down nicely for Black Friday.

Starfield November 20 patch notes

FIXES AND IMPROVEMENTS

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”.