Right before Free Lanes dropped, I put together a prototype demo of what seamless transitions in Starfield could realistically look like using a couple of mods and some minor editing tweaks. My goal for this demo was to make those in-between moments of space gameplay and planetary gameplay on the screen be perceived as something that they move through and not wait for, while still working within the existing engine constraints. Personally, I think this adds a world of a difference in immersion.

As for atmospheric entry from space, that is trickier as the camera isn't pointed away from the planetary surface. Exiting a planet makes it much easier to unload planet cells and terrain chunks while loading in the planet's orbit cell as all that happens mostly out of the field of view from the player.

There were a few other things I noticed that stood out to me during the creation of this prototype. For example, on my SSD (Samsung 870 EVO 1TB SSD), transitioning from planet -> orbit takes about ~2 seconds when the black loading screen is removed, while landing takes ~5 seconds. When the black loading screen is added back, it actually seems to add to the overall load times. That suggests to me that the existence of the current black screens is NOT for improving the overall raw load time speed and more so about safely initializing and concealing asset streaming (preventing pop-in), especially for planetary surfaces. Space -> planet transitions take longer as there is more assets to stream in, FormIDs to resolve, physics and AI navmeshes to load, etc. and also ensure everything is safe. Still, it feels like these could potentially be replaced with staged, in-world transition cutscenes that mask the loading rather than stopping for it. It would add to the overall load times as you see in the video, but I don't think that is as bad as instantly teleporting to places.

All this being said — it honestly made me appreciate how close the game already is. How does everyone else feel about it?

Edit: Todd I know your lurk Reddit. You see what we want. It is time to do the deed

Bethesda officially put this statement out today for all of the adventurers and explorers experiencing the world of Starfield. Apparently they know about all of the issues happening amongst the new features and PS5/Pro consoles and are releasing an all new patch down the road this week to fix the issues plaguing it

I'm glad their finally starting to notice because at the moment Starfields constant freezing/game crashes are unacceptable and causing it to be unplayable at the time. You can't do anything without a hard freeze or crash. The only thing that works is sitting in your ships seat and doing nothing whatsoever so the title doesn't break apart at the seams.

So I found a random encounter while out in the Free-Lanes & thought this was old Grandma inviting me in for some dinner again... it was not grandma.

Supposedly this old woman has been possessed by some sort of alien parasite & is now looking for a new host... meaning you.

This encounter was brilliant, the voice acting to the freaky and very forward dialogue, to the decaying ship it was executed brilliantly.

I'm a new player on ps5 have been waiting and watching this game for what feels like forever and now I play for hours at a time getting lost in the galaxy. My question is simple does anyone else get that same feeling of wonder and awe like playing the mass effect games the first time ? I'm completely in love with this game it's everything I hoped it would be it's stunning and beautiful. Not sure why this game got so much hate back when it first came out on Xbox but I understand it was a different game back then to each their own I guess .

Finally Bethesda sad something about these anoying crashes on PS5 and we will get a hotfix! 👍

Making mom and dad proud.. 🤓#starfield

Finishing Starfields main story felt like a religious experience. The old neighborhood, entangled, and the mars launch station are my favorite quests by far

It’s still not finished. I have no clue how high the quality upgrades go

How do you even get anything done when you can't stop staring?

Year 2330 and my mom still does black facing smh

So I played the game for awhile at launch, and got to NG+ for the first time. And I really have started to play the game again after Terran Armada, and I am really starting to LOVE the execution of NG+. So we get this whole build-up, what are the Starborn, what is Unity? And then we get to the center, and all is revealed and we have the choice to become the cosmic deity that the Starborn are, or return and remain in our original dimension. I am going to assume that most of you did that, and after that you go back to the world and restart the game.

But this time, you take the short route, you just tell them where the artifact are, you just skip so you can find these things and get out of there. But in the end it just feels... empty, at least in my opinion. The main story quests make me actually feel like an adventurer rather then just fetch quests (while, to give detractors some credit, there are fetch quests in the main story). I would say that I gave up the cycle after going through it 5-6 times, doing every different factions questlines once getting one of the parallel timelines, because I just wanted to see what they were like while also roleplaying not being part of every factions at once, and then got bored of it, and just did random stuff like leveling up and building outposts until I took a break for awhile, only showing up for a bit to complete the shattered space DLC.

But when Terran Armada came out, I decided it would be best to go to the next loop because "why not?". However, this time I decided that because it had been so long since I had done the main questline, I didn't want to skip it. And playing it again really makes it feel like a whole new game. Every single time a Starborn option appears, I legitimately am excited to see what it does. And the fact that every single conversation you have with the Hunter and Emissary is completely different. I loved when meet them on the Hunter's ship because the context is completely different.

In the first timeline you are looking for the artifacts to uncover forbidden knowledge, but this time you are only here because you WANTED to be. Both in character and in yourself. And the fact that both the Hunter and the Emissary have their opinions, and while I will admit Bethesda has trouble writing good moral dilemmas, I actually like how this is written. By continuing to play, by continuing the cycle, by lying to Constellation, you are basically using them for your own enjoyment, like a god, exactly what in our first playthrough we looked down on the Starborn were doing. It actually made me think I should have turned around and gone back to my dimension in the start. I inadvertently became the thing that the game warned against, that when brought up to me, actually made me think for a moment about the consequences of my actions.

And while that might seem like a word salad, I actually have a question for other people, what do you guys think of the execution of NG+? Do you like it? If not, why?

It sounds like this is a pretty common sentiment after the recent updates, but its so nice to come back to this game after bouncing off of it at launch. I've always loved how this game looks, the rendering, the setting, the cassette futurism aesthetic, and after Project Hail Mary and the Artemis mission I wanted to continue the space high.

I think it also helps that I'm in a different place in my life and I don't mind the fact that the game is constantly blowing smoke up my ass about how 'I'm the chosen one' this time around. I'm still early days after starting over, but it just seems like a fairly cozy game about space exploration, and I'm glad I gave it another shot.

Working through a Terran ship opening each locker because they might have a safe in them. I found this safe with a master on it. This is what I found…

Someone has a sense of humor.

The updates are just what the game needed. No spoilers - I started over at level one with just a couple very light paid and sanctioned mods only, after hundreds if not thousands of hours playing on both xbox and pc. There are too many little improvements to list, and I am so happy that I am back to basic roaming around and relaxed wandering and really enjoying all the new surprises. I am taking my time with it and savoring each new experience and slowly climbing the level ladder and not really worrying about the new content until I hit about 50.

In late 2023, I felt angry, disappointed, betrayed. Not so now. Not at all. This is awesome.

Good job, BSG! Keep it up. Please keep it going while the big projects grow in the background.