Starfield can be a rather gorgeous game at times. Peer too closely, however, and you’ll start to notice the cracks in the facade. Many of the game’s textures and effects don’t hold up to close inspection, while a lot of the faces have a rather plastic look to them – something you’ll likely become very aware of, given how close in proximity Bethesda NPCs like to stand while you’re chatting to them. Fortunately, legendary Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 mod creator ‘Halk Hogan’ is here to instantly improve your Starfield graphics.
The Starfield HD reworked project mod comes from Hogan, who has become well-known in recent years for their incredible overhauls of the textures in CD Projekt Red’s best RPG games. Now, they’ve turned their talent and wizardry over to the Bethesda space adventure, massively improving the look of everything from faces and buildings to rocks and fire in what might already be one of the most essential Starfield mods.
I could describe in detail just how effective replacing the blurred sheen of ground rubble with more realistic-looking, actually textured surfaces is. The way that character faces turn from last-gen plastic masks into something that resembles real human skin. Or the stunning transformation of a yellowy-orange blur into an actual, roaring fire pit. But perhaps better is to see it for your own eyes, with the release preview trailer below.
Impressive, isn’t it? This is just the first round of changes for Starfield HD Reworked Project 1.0, with Halk Hogan saying they want to ensure “that each reworked texture is of the highest quality.” As such, the focus here is on the most immediate issues, with the initial feature list including the following:
- Reworked to high-resolution many environment textures in cities and beyond (some rocks, walls, floors, terrain, and more).
- Reworked the entire crowd – faces now look much more detailed and realistic.
- Reworked some fire effects – you can now see realistic flames instead of blurry pixels.
Halk Hogan notes that “the mod practically does not affect the game’s performance, it only requires a little more video memory.” As long as you’re matching up to the Starfield system requirements, you should be fine then – they note that “Generally, if your graphics card has at least 6GB of memory, you can install the mode without fear of an FPS hit.”
You can get your hands on the Starfield HD Reworked Project right here, including all the instructions you need, with three different installation methods available to suit your needs best.
If you’re looking to solve more of the common issues with the Bethesda game, how about the addition of Starfield seamless space travel? We’ve also got the lowdown on how to build the best Starfield outpost to collect as many resources as possible.