DF Weekly: does the AMD Starfield deal block rival DLSS and XeSS upscaling?

This week’s DF Direct Weekly kicks off with an extensive discussion surrounding AMD’s exclusive partnership with Bethesda Game Studios for Starfield. On the face of it, it’s the kind of arrangement that’s no different to others arranged by its competitors. In this case, AMD is BGS’s exclusive tech partner and FSR2 upscaling is being integrated into Starfield in both PC and console iterations. However, there are concerns that this integration might come with a catch: qualitatively superior upscaling solutions from Nvidia and Intel – DLSS and XeSS – may be blocked from appearing in the game as part of the deal.

It’s an uncomfortable possibility. Is AMD paying to ensure that Nvidia and Intel GPU owners can’t use rival technologies that can look better than Radeon features? Instead of developing their own more competitive technologies, the suggestion is that AMD is using an exclusive partnership to ensure that all GPU owners only get image quality as good as that provided by an AMD graphics card. Crucially, AMD itself is not denying that it’s blocking Bethesda from integrating competing upscalers into Starfield.

Let’s put all of this into context. It started with an article posted on June 20th by WCCFTech, which pointed out that a great many AMD-sponsored titles are shipping with FSR2 upscaling, while the DLSS and XeSS alternatives are absent. In the case of games like Dead Island 2, The Callisto Protocol and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, for example, the fact that they’re based on Unreal Engine 4 means that DLSS and XeSS plug-ins are readily available as part of the underlying tech, but for some reason, those plug-ins are not being used.

00:00:00 Introduction00:01:04 News 01: Starfield to skip out on DLSS, XeSS?00:22:28 News 02: FTC vs Microsoft court fight continues00:46:02 News 03: Red Dead Redemption remaster incoming?00:52:08 News 04: Assassin’s Creed Unity gets huge performance boost on Intel Arc GPUs00:57:42 News 05: New Space World 2000 footage unearthed!01:08:55 Supporter Q1: If I run a 60fps game on an 85Hz CRT, will there be judder?01:10:19 Supporter Q2: With the next-gen Switch rumoured to have PS4-level power, what specs would it have?01:15:19 Supporter Q3: Is there something special about the Steam Deck’s refresh rate changing capabilities, or could a new Switch offer it as well?01:18:31 Supporter Q4: Could a temporal upsampling system integrate high resolution keyframes to improve image quality?01:21:09 Supporter Q5: Would there be space in the gaming market for a high-end $1000 PS5 Pro?01:26:22 Supporter Q6: Which gaming executives would you like to see duke it out in a cage match?

Beyond UE4, AMD’s FSR2 technology uses the same fundamental inputs as both DLSS and XeSS, making integration a lot simpler. That’s why we’ve seen a range of FSR2 mods for DLSS-only games and vice-versa. We’ve even seen DLSS 3 frame generation modded into Star Wars Jedi: Survivor – a game that really benefits from this owing to its tremendous CPU limitations. With all of this being the case, new titles that support only one upscaler (whether it’s FSR2 or DLSS) are viewed with some degree of suspicion if a sponsorship element is involved. Why is only one technology favoured? Why not provide the best quality experience for all PC owners?