Starfield settings
Whether it’s cranking up the graphical settings or tweaking the controls, here’s a guide to all the Starfield settings and configurations.
With Bethesda’s latest universe delivering a graphical masterpiece, tweaking the Starfield settings is crucial to getting the most out of your gaming rig. Whether you’re using a controller or mouse and keyboard, there are a few graphical settings you may want to turn off entirely, or adjust to improve your FPS rate.
So long as you meet the recommended Starfield system requirements, running Starfield at maximum settings shouldn’t put too much strain on your computer. However, if you’re an NVIDIA owner, you might want to first consider downloading the Starfield DLSS support mod as your first Starfield mod for better performance.
Starfield graphics settings
The first thing you’ll probably encounter with Starfield settings on launch is the Starfield shader download. This is Starfield adjusting itself for your graphics card, and isn’t something you need to worry about.
Once you’ve got to the main menu, you’ll find the Starfield settings listed as the fourth option, and can then find “Display” to alter your Starfield graphics settings.
Arguably, the most important settings for your performance will be the “VSync”, “Upscaling”, and “Enable VRS” options. If you are having performance issues, turn these off. If you’re an NVIDIA gamer and you’ve downloaded the Starfield DLSS mod, you’ll need the Upscaling turned to “FSR2”, as the mod switches the FSR2 setting over to DLSS in the background.
Among the many graphical options you may want to adjust early on is the “Film Grain Intensity.” By default, Starfield has a 100% film grain applied to it, which can make the game appear pixelated to some gamers. Simply adjust this down to 0 to remove the effect.
Starfield gameplay settings
Starfield has a difficulty slider to make enemies more difficult, but Starfield does not have a ‘Survival’ mode.
Starfield controls
If you’re playing on a mouse and keyboard, you might want to rebind various keys to suit your playstyle. For example, if the inventory is bound to the ‘I’ key by default, you might find it more accessible bound to the ‘Q’ key if you’re using ‘WASD’ for movement. This will enable you to pull up your inventory just a bit quicker to administer healing or swap your weapons.
If you’re on a controller, you might still find some utility in the controls menu, but you are a bit more limited. With fewer buttons to map, you might just want to tweak a few options if you find a particular combination of button presses to be more common than others. For example, in Fallout, to sneak you had to click the left joystick, and press ‘B’ to open the Pip-Boy on an Xbox controller. If you’re going for a stealth build, you might find it convenient to switch them around.
Starfield audio settings
With the Starfield music set to be epic, you might sometimes find yourself unable to hear various sound effects or dialogue over other background noises. Thus, you can use the Starfield audio settings tab to balance individual sources such as voices, effects, or music. Generally, you’ll want the voices to be higher than other settings, just so you don’t miss anything.
In general, Bethesda’s history of settings has remained largely unchanged from title to title, but we’re hopeful to see more Starfield settings and options in the upcoming Starfield showcase ahead of the official release.