Starfield's "biggest update yet" rolled out last week, adding many stability improvements and graphical enhancements, including some pretty dazzling changes to the RPG's lighting effects.
Over on the Starfield subreddit, user DinDisco shared a series of images that showcase different environments before and after the update. Previously, the stark ambient lighting gave places a very clinical feel. Now, that's been toned down in favor of individual lights dotted around interiors, resulting in a much more natural look.
Lighting Changes from the Beta Update (1.9.47.0) from r/Starfield
Admittedly, the changes are far less apparent in some areas, such as in the Nova Galactic Staryard, though they still bring a heightened sense of realism to your surroundings.
"Holy crap, this isn't just minor adjustments and some light position tweaks," says p13t3rm in the comments. "This affects the entire mood and feel of some of these areas."
An equally impressed Greathorn says," They really did go in and manually move light sources around, that's pretty nice. Sauvage's doesn't feel like a hospital anymore."
Swordbreaker925 describes the changes as "massive," adding that the game now looks almost unrecognizable. "They make it look like a different game almost," they write. "I actually enjoyed the lighting before, minus the ugly green filter the game has. But this looks so much better."
Still, some argue the previous lightning effects suited certain areas more. "Back-office areas are supposed to feel a bit sterile, over-exposed, over-lit," says thelittleking. "Making the office spaces dingy and yellow-lit is just as bad as making the club atmospheres too bright (as they previously were). We're exchanging problems for (lesser) problems, imo, so it's overall an improvement but still not perfect."
Following the arrival of the latest update, Bethesda has received a ton of additional requests from players, and with the studio committed to releasing new updates "roughly every six weeks, there's a good chance many of them will be granted. A "major update" is set to arrive in February, and Shattered Space, the RPG's first story expansion, is expected to launch later this year.
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