Most of the SE2 team is working on VS2, focusing on planets and survival mechanics. Here’s some of what they showcased:
- Procedural World Generator: This now spawns asteroid fields and rings with a realistic distribution.
- Clouds: Already in-game and visible in many screenshots (though they’re still programmer-art clouds; artists will refine them later).
- Planet Flora Generator: We now have grass and trees on planets! Currently, it’s just one type of tree everywhere, but artists are working on a flora library that includes dozens of trees, bushes, fynbos, plants, and even underwater flora.
- Backpack Building and Welding: This feature is nearly complete, which is exciting because we’ll soon be able to playtest the full survival game loop and start iterating on improvements.
Water Team
The water team gave what might be their best presentation yet. They showcased several impressive improvements:
- Enhanced performance.
- New marching cubes for the water surface.
- New particle effects for dynamic water (think waterfalls and splashes from your ship).
- Improved resolution of the water simulation, plus many other upgrades.
Art and Visuals
The artists made another pass on improving voxel materials for the planets, and the results are stunning—screenshots are starting to look photorealistic. On top of that, our planets are fully volumetric and destructible, allowing players to dig tunnels and add materials.
The new particle effects on the Hydrogen Thrusters look fierce, and new character models are in development, which are shaping up to be very cool.
It’s been an exciting week, and I’m looking forward to seeing how these features evolve in the coming sprints!
Full blog post: https://blog.marekrosa.org/