Starfield DLSS Modder Has Mods Behind Paywall, Briefly Threatens To Booby Trap ‘Pirated’ Mods

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the on-second-thought dept

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about how Bethesda’s latest opus, Starfield, was shipping without support for Nvidia’s DLSS technology, but did have a deal to support AMD’s version of that upscaling technology. And after plenty of commenters pointed out that I was coming at that post from the wrong angle, I jumped into the comments thanking them and admitting so, particularly when it comes to how FSR is open source and works on all graphics cards, as well as several other particulars I wasn’t informed enough to recognize. Whoops! My fault!

Now that that’s out of the way, I also mentioned in that post that an enterprising modder, PureDark, had uploaded their own mod to add in DLSS support for the game to Nexusmods.com. And that’s true, though I hadn’t noticed at the time that there were versions of the mod free to download and one that sits behind PureDark’s Patreon paywall. And that created some controversy, both with the public and with PureDark themselves.

“Starfield Upscaler” is the second-most popular mod for Bethesda’s open-world RPG, but its creator sparked controversy earlier this month because the best version of it was locked behind a $5 Patreon subscription paywall. In a new interview with IGN he defends the practice, and threatens users who try to pirate his work with “hidden mines” that will break the mod.

He released a free version that supported DLSS 2, but access to DLSS 3 support, the newest version, was exclusive to his personal Patreon. Drama ensued and pirates who normally focus on “cracking” the DRM protecting games like Starfield instead took a moment to “crack” the “Starfield Upscaler” mod itself.

Those hidden mine threats? Essentially think of it as some of the more creative forms of DRM we’ve seen publishers put in their games. The idea is to make the game completely unpredictable if you’re using a cracked version of the mod. PureDark essentially said if you used a cracked version, the game would sometimes work, sometimes wouldn’t, would randomly crash, and in other ways would essentially just mess with the player’s experience.

And that’s kind of shitty. The reaction to PureDark’s comments was fairly negative as well. After all, are “pirated” versions of a mod really worth all the extra trouble that is essentially laying these traps?

As it turns out, the answer to that is no. A conclusion reached by PureDark themselves, it seems.

“The interview with IGN was conducted more than a week ago, and it was what I said back when I was angry at haters and those who cracked my Starfield mod,” he now says. “I did think about doing that at some point, but then I stopped doing it. It’s been a long time, and I’ve calmed my mind.”

He added that actually booby-trapping the mod would be a lot of work and not worth the effort. “It’s really not worth it to waste my time fighting or getting back to those people,” PureDark said. “I might as well focus on making new mods and updates.”

Glad they got there. It would also be nice if all the game studios that spend their time and money on things like DRM and anti-piracy enforcement could reach the same conclusion.

Filed Under: dlss, mods, piracy, puredark, starfield