If you’re among the tech-savvy gamers using an ultrawide monitor, you might wonder how to optimize your Starfield experience since the game doesn’t support it properly as standard. Here we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about enabling ultrawide monitor support in Starfield.
Ultrawide Support in Starfield
In Starfield, players can explore the cosmos with their unique character and spaceship. Annoyingly, though, as in other games like Dave the Diver, not at all of the widest display settings.
Starfield provides native support for certain ultrawide monitors. The maximum aspect ratio supported by Starfield is 21:9. Super ultrawide players with a 32:9 aspect ratio display may face some limitations. The game doesn’t fully support this aspect ratio, which may lead to large black bars appearing on the sides of the screen.
However, if you have a 21:9 display, you’re in luck. Starfield seamlessly supports this aspect ratio. During gameplay, you can enjoy the entire 21:9 view. During certain points in the game—such as menus, cutscenes, or loading screens—ultrawide support may temporarily disappear. During these instances, the display switches to a 16:9 aspect ratio, resulting in the appearance of large black bars on the sides of the screen.
How to Get 32:9 Support in Starfield
For the time being, to get 32:9 support you’ll need a workaround fix. To adjust the game for a 32:9 monitor, some modifications are required. Follow these steps:
- Acquire a Hex editor: Download HxD or imhex, but ensure Starfield is not active during this process.
- Launch Starfield in the Hex editor: Simply drag and drop the game’s .exe file into the Hex editor.
- Modify Hex values: Utilize the search feature to locate the 8E E3 18 40 hex value. Change it to 39 8E 63 40.
- Finalize changes: Save your modifications and close the Hex editor.
You can alternatively try a mod that doesn’t require hex editing and can be downloaded here.
Starfield Updates: Enhancing the Gaming Experience
The developers at Bethesda have been continuously working to enhance the Starfield gaming experience. The team has released several updates addressing major issues and introducing new features requested by the gaming community.
On September 13th, 2023, Bethesda released a hotfix targeting a few top issues. According to the gaming website We Game Daily, Bethesda has planned several updates for the game, including brightness and contrast controls, an FOV slider, 32:9 ultrawide monitor support. The developer has said also working closely with Nvidia, AMD, and Intel on driver support. Each update will include new stability and performance improvements.
The development team plan to add Nvidia’s DLSS upscaling technique to Starfield. Modders have demonstrated how easy it is to add DLSS 2 and DLSS 3 frame generation to Starfield, but official support will offer more granular controls over the DLSS quality levels. Unfortunately, months later it appears that full ultrawide monitor support still has not been added.
Starfield is an engaging and immersive game that’s continuously improving through updates and collaborations with tech giants. For ultrawide monitor users, Starfield offers some support but with certain limitations. We’ll keep you posted on future improvements as and when they arrive.