Developer Explains Why Starfield NPCs Look Like They’re Dead Inside

Playing Starfield and wondering why the NPCs look like they’re dead inside? One developer reckons they’ve worked out why.

[MrDead]

The game is f**k ugly, not just the faces, flat blurry textures everywhere.
Here are some random pics of what it looks like on PC, I'm running it at 4k high settings with DLSS mod.
https://postimg.cc/mtVkVtFt
https://postimg.cc/fkNYrSkK
https://postimg.cc/67Vp2qwW
https://postimg.cc/5HWt2vhK

[Julion0715]

Give it a rest man

[MrDead]

Why? I paid £80 for a game in 2023, I expect a game that is optimised and doesn't look like a blurry ugly mess.

[InUrFoxHole]

No. Let that man do him. It's adorable

[343_Guilty_Spark]

All they know is hate.

Game doesn’t have character models look as detailed and rich as say Horizon but to call the game ugly is wild.

[fr0sty]

Game doesn’t have character models look as detailed and rich as say Horizon (on PS4) but to call the game ugly is wild. - Fixed

[ChiefofLoliPolice]

Sorry but he is right. That Creation Engine is REALLY showing its age. Plus the fact that you got 60 disagrees should be enough to tell you something...

[MrDead]

@InUrFoxHole

Not as adorable as seeing the attempt of fanboys trying to belittle any criticism of the game, you guys are all in a fluster.

[bloop]

MrDead, maybe you just need to upgrade your rig like Todd said. Stop being poor and go out and buy 4 4090's immediately.

[neomahi]

InUrFoxHole - You're a dude, right?

[Eonjay]

Well since you are playing on PC and already using mods, check out the new texture mod.

[andy85]

Shouldn't have to use a mod to fix a brand new game. It's 2023, games shouldn't release with Xbox 360 textures

[dumahim]

textures won't fix a bad model or animation. I think the hair is actually worse.

[andy85]

What is with those textures?

[jeromeface]

you do know dlss makes things blurry, right?

[MrDead]

It looks blurry because they didn't set the negative mipmap bias which is required to avoid blurry textures... which has been fixed by this mod https://www.nexusmods.com/s...

[badz149]

do you even know what DLSS is?

[Stuart5756]

Those trees, ffs. Laughable

[wolf581]

Wow i saw your pictures and it looks worse on my xbox series x on my oled 4k tv...i mean worse resolution, blurrier textures,30 fps...thankfully i play it on gamepass...the worse for me is that the game havectoo many loading screens, 30 fps and many times i see npcs with the exact same faces....BUT if you can see past these classic bethesda parameters there is a very good scifi game with very good shooting system that you can enjoy for unlimited hours....

[anast]

I agree. I would feel like someone hustled me too. It's not a good feeling.

Anyone defending Starfield at this point are sucking up to the boss. It's like two old toothless ladies fighting over whose King is better. Yeah, it's that sad.

[Nineball2112]

You guys are really strange. It’s a fantastic game.

[anast]

"You guys are really strange. "

You just proved my point.

[GotGame818]

The faces don't look bad in motion. Ever pause your TV and look at actors faces? They can look horrible. Also the game doesn't look blurry on my TV at all. I have a 65inch 4K 240hz, TV with HDR plus. I've only played a couple hours, but so far like it.

[MrChow666]

damn...those npcs are hideous, the way things are going today I wouldnt be surprised if people looked like that in the future lol

[Asplundh]

Wait... So after all that complaining about how greedy MS is and how their trying to eliminate competition... You still bought the game?

[MrDead]

Why wouldn't I buy the game? Support the industry, not punish those who have no choice who they are sold to... It's not like I've been on here telling people to support the game on PC, oh hang on, I have been saying that! Why would that be do you think?

Stop listing in fanboy then your hearing might get better.

[Asplundh]

Why wouldn't you? Idk maybe because you've going on and on about how bad these acquisitions are for gaming.

"We must not stand for this consolidation guys!"

*Proceeds to give money to the company that's doing it..*

And if you're "listening" and "hearing" these comments, you might want to go see a psychiatrist.

[MrDead]

So I'm not allowed to support Bethesda because MS has banned them from releasing games on it's most profitable console platform!?!?!?!

Do you know what happens to divisions that don't perform, especially in corps like MS? Bethesda has lost it's independence as a publisher and a major source of income thanks to MS lets hope it doesn't lose anything else.

Go fanboy in someone else's ear. I can see why they refer to you guys toxic.

[Asplundh]

What ever you say to feel better about it. You bow down to those you speak out against, it's just weak.

[MrDead]

"What ever you say to feel better about it. You bow down to those you speak out against, it's just weak."

Is this meant to be a troll or are you really like this, because damn kid you have issues. "Bow down to those you speak out against" Supporting the people that make the game in spite of the publishers owner is a negative to you!?!? Who do you think would come off worse if people boycotted a game because they don't like the owners, MS or Bethesda?

[Terry_B]

Your fault if you bought a pc game for 80 pounds without waiting for reviews and performance tests of the pc version from a developer like bethesda.

[MrDead]

Yes I guess I should have read the reviews...Unfortunately thanks to MS's very selective reviews we had titles like this: "Microsoft exec says Starfield has 'the fewest bugs any Bethesda game ever shipped with", "STARFIELD IS BETHESDA’S LEAST BUGGIEST GAME TO DATE, SAY SOURCES", "Starfield is Bethesda's least buggy game at release" and then sites failing to list all the bugs or even mention them.

Unfortunately I was reading the wrong reviews and should have waited for the right ones to come out.

[Nineball2112]

It is not. Good grief.

[Northpoint]

Not just the faces, the clothing and hair style choices of majority of the NPCs look fugly. I don't want to be immersed in that kind of virtual world.

[Terry_B]

Learn from it, better wait at least a week before buying a new game. In these times its sadly just better..at least for the AAA games ..and especially those developed /published by companies like Bethesda.

[Viljong]

The textures are incredible. Maybe its your "mod" one of the best looking games around.

[Viljong]

Yea resolotion scale at 50%. And there is no setting for textures they are always very detailed and high quality. Also the PQ is very clean no jaggies, shadows very high quality etc.

[Elda]

The guy in the pic on the right is from Tim & Eric's Awesome Show.

[BillyCrystals]

Great job!

[Elda]

LMAO!! I live!!

[Sonic1881]

😂😂😂

[anast]

I think he is "the internet historian".

[Phoenix76]

Internet historian uses "hide the pain Harold" image. The real Harold I believe is Norwegian/Swedish (could be wrong) and was asked to help a friend out who was selling office furniture by posing for catalogue pictures.
Like anything that gets put on the net, he soon found fame, even if he didn't expect it lol
Historians vids on NMS, Fallout 76 and Cost of Concordia are some of my all time fav vids

[anast]

I didn't know that. Thanks for the info. I discovered him through the 76 video. I enjoy most of the stuff on that channel.

[Kaii]

Gameplay aside, Creation Engine doesn't need tweaking, It REQUIRES overhaul (which was said multiple times when FO4 shadow dropped).

I don't want the next Elder Scrolls running on this obsolete engine, peace out. :p

[Aussiesummer]

Oh you know it will.

[zeuanimals]

Yup. Can't wait to be told about an amazing, bustling city in TES:VI just to find it's a few buildings and a wall cause they're still lugging around an engine that can't handle anymore than that. Meanwhile, I just replayed The Witcher 3 and Novigrad is literally big enough to get lost in for weeks, just doing stuff. I forgot there was a whole open world outside those walls.

[TheColbertinator]

Skellige was full of surprises in particular

[KillBill]

"Is Creation Engine 2 new?
Bethesda's first new IP in a decade, Starfield, is groundbreaking because it debuts the all-new Starfield Creation Engine 2 at its core. As the successor to the original Creation Engine, the Creation Engine 2 is an overhaul that is a significant leap in technological advancement for the gaming industry."

This isn't using the old Creation Engine. It actually is using an OVERHAULED new Engine. Know what you are talking about before arguing your point.

And yes it is MILES ahead of what the old Engine was. As well is Starfield.

[lucian229]

Miles ahead? Lmao in what regard? Having a less seamless experience than any other game Bethesda has ever made? Loading simulator is not a way forward lmao. All they did was try to update the engine but it needs to be destroyed and a new engine made completely.

[PapaBop]

You copy and pasted that straight from Bethesda's marketing team.. I couldn't care if it's overhauled/new/old/stolen from the future, the game engine feels last gen and that's the problem.

[purple101]

Surely new would mean it doesn't need to be overhauled..

You overhaul something old. Like an old car getting a resto-mod.

Hardly anyone's buying a 2023 Ford mustang and thinking "ohh yeh this thing would be great after a massive overhaul"

[Phoenix76]

If you dress a turd in a tuxedo, it's still just turd. Just in a tuxedo

[babadivad]

Already been confirmed that it will be. I remember back when Starfield was first announced and was said to be running on Creation Engine. I said this was a bad sign because of how ancient the engine already was.

This was WELL before it's exclusivity. Everyone on here told me I didn't know what I was talking about. It was Creation Engine 2. Something completely different. It's completely overhauled.

When they showed their first trailer(still well before exclusivity) I mentioned that it looked like the same Gambryo jank that's backed into its core. Again I was shouted down as if I had no knowledge of what I was talking about.

I do like Bethesda games. I like them for their jankiness. At some point, you need a modern game engine for modern games. That engine is too long in the tooth. You can only stretch it but so far.

It's reached end of the line. Hopefully after Elder Scrolls 6, they will change things up.

[Viljong]

Its creation engine 2

[Stanjara]

The game is heavily outscored which is evident in a 45 minute end credit role.

There are about 27 companies that are mostly situated in Ukraine, Vietnam and India.

I would be surprised if Bethesda did more than a concept art for this game.

It just works.

[Grilla]

Don’t most AAA studios outsource heavily?

[purple101]

27 studios deep?

[Stanjara]

Sure, but goddamn.

[babadivad]

Yes

[Aussiesummer]

Man what an ugly mess of a game, zero hope for the next elder scrolls.

[KillBill]

Zero hope because it won't be available on your system of choice maybe? lol

[Stuart5756]

new systems are easily bought, if the games on that system are good

[kayoss]

You act like he cant just go buy an xbox if wanted to play the game that bad.

[Crows90]

One developer? Really? We already know why. They didn't put the effort in actually improving upon fallout 4

What a mess of a game. So freaking happy I didn't spend a dime here. Unlike with diablo 4...the trauma with that one

[gold_drake]

they're badly done, thats why.

[anast]

HA!

[Vengeance1138]

The Matrix City tech demo even blows Starfield out of the water in visuals and NPC models.

In 2023 Starfield is just not acceptable.

[Agent75]

The amount of time it's taken to develop the game, it was always going to look dated in areas. Human faces always look plastic in games like Barbie dolls. You can say the same for racing games, trees always look like cardboard.

[neomahi]

They've spent a long time defending their game rather than just letting it go. Own up to it and just let it do what you designed it to do. There's a reason mo-cap has become as big as it has. Microsoft has all this money and wanted to dump all of this into this game and came out looking as it did. This is Xbox with unlimited funds, that's bought Activision for an absurd $70 billion just because they could, not because it's actually worth that much. Quantic Dream often times got similar feedback that their characters seemed robotic, and they just went about their day and let the game speak for themself, but Bethesda are looking desperate and maybe not necessarily happy with their acquisition by Xbox. PlayStation devs really do seem happier

[mastershredder]

They all have the expression range of a model who's afraid to wrinkle her face. Limits, oh well.

[Viljong]

The playstation community fanboys are more sour each day. Must be really hard for you.

[LastAvenger]

If they can models the eyes especially on NPCs so that they open their eyelids more they wouldn’t have this bored tired look.

[Aaroncls7]

To each their own, I guess. I dig the aesthetic design of the game, the faces of most npcs that you can fully-interact-with as well. For sure these guys are not a gorgeous bunch like BG3's stunning cast, but its a different style, and I personally enjoy it.
My biggest gripe with the game is the deadass companion npc AI in-combat, how they love to jump right in front of your shots 99% of the time.
I just dont understand how they keep dragging this issue since Fallout 3 ...

[kirankiran]

Ugly game