That's actually the reason they started selling it on Steam. It used to be freeware I think about 8 years ago. The dev (it's one guy) had some pretty big ambitions, some of which are in the game now. Most haven't made it, probably never will.
They should leave it to modders. That way you could buy the game and have different options for playing it as a game. I think the quality would also be better that way.
@@jhoover8734 The modding is about as limited as No Man's Sky, to build a game you'd need the entire devkit used to make the engine in the first place.
@@jhoover8734 Modders can't add features to the base engine. It isn't happening. He talked about his struggles to even get new members of the team to stick around, they join, get a paycheck or two, and leave. Procedural generation is a huge learning curve and it isn't something you learn at 'game design class'. Modders add new ships, and find creative ways of taking fancy screenshots (trees/water/ext) but if Space Engine doesn't have gameplay, modders can't do anything to add any. I've followed this game for a decade, it is sadly always just going to remain 1 mans passion project.
Space Engine is probably the closest thing to actually exploring interstellar space that we have right now. Using it in VR is amazing. One of my most awe inspiring moments was decreasing the scale of the simulation so that individual galaxies were like tiny specs of light surrounding me in an endless sea. There were just so many. Just for a moment I felt the true immensity of the universe. It was unforgettable.
Well said. There's something that clicks if only momentarily when you scale down to where the galaxy you were just surrounded by is now the size of a coin, and then the light adjusts and you see the practically infinite number of galaxies appear around you.. definitely one of the most raw and startling experiences I've ever had with any media.
I kinda laughed at this comment but after staying up late last night playing it, I realized that It really does take all your problems and shink them down. It’s a very calming game in that sense
The two things I really miss in Space Engine are interactive cockpits and ship interiors. Be able to discover the universe in my ship/home. No combat, no commerce, no 4x. Only my ship and the universe.
Imagine traversing space in a fully explorable wraith cruiser while the stargate atlantis theme song blasts on the speakers. Or a make-your-own-story type Battlestar Galactica mode, having to guide many ships across a single galaxy in search of safety. Or the one I like the most, Stargate Universing our way through the universe in search of the structure the ancients created the Destiny to find.
I work in product design for entertainment. I this industry, you will often come across an official ‘why people buy our product’ list, or something similar in every company. In entertainment and product design, that might range anywhere from ‘nostalgia’ to ‘status with peers’ or to simply ‘an adrenaline rush upon owning a collectible,’ or something similar. Three of the strongest motivators I have come across in the online gaming sub-industry are: (1) ‘exploration’, (2) ‘in-game -progress’ and (3) ‘owning or securing a piece’. I find that these three combine VERY well in the space exploration genre respectively because of (1) the vastness of in-game potential, (2) in the necessity establishing incremental progress in that vastness and (3) a ‘home-away-from home’ feel for gamers. Let’ face it, most of us play to escape reality, and we escape, often to find our own little make-believe nook where the sky is quite literally the limit. Many of us who play to explore fancy the idea of finding that remote moon and plunking down a moisture vaporator in order to eek out an existence and set out to explore.
My favorite aspect is the ability to turn on and off procedural stuff to see the limit of what we know. Plus, it is stunning in VR. You can make yourself any size and hold, turn, and view a planet, solar system, galaxy or the whole Universe in your hands...
There is the Gaia catalogue on the steam workshop (or like a percent of it) and you get like 10M stars with that. It's all stars that we have found irl.
It's amazing that you released this today! This morning I responded on Twitter to Elite (I don't usually engage with them) and they responded *back* to me saying they hope to see me start playing again, and I explained how/why SpaceEngine replaced Elite for me, and it was going to be difficult to get me back. I'm glad I'm not the only one that feels this way in terms of exploration.
Also I REALLY miss your SpaceEngine exploration videos/streams, those were always such a fun and laid back time, I don't know if you still do those these days?
I agree in regards to brachistochrone trajectories. Heck, I created a spreadsheet that calculates the burn duration based on acceleration... it isn't perfect, of course, as my ship will often burn for either too long or not long enough, and I've never been able to get it spot on.
@@justinhulet2848 And that's one of the problems with this game. The flight sim part of it has NOT BEEN TOUCHED IN YEARS. Still no casted shadows yet either, which makes external shots of bigger ships look odd.
The thing I have started doing in Space Engine is just landing on random planets and watching the local sun/star rise and fall like sunrise and sunset. Imagining watch it would be like to spend the day there, you know? The in-game music is very relaxing as well ;)
Ah the soundtrack is just fascinating. It suits so perfectly :0 and the landscapes are absolutely fabulous. This game dropped my jaw the first time I played it. Hats off to the Dev!!
It's a really great simulator that I have been using since early 2018 (over a year before it was released on Steam), when I was 17. It truly blew my mind and made me realize how small we are compared to the universe; starting at the Earth and just gradually increasing speed and zooming out until I was watching as entire galaxies flew by on the screen like white dots for minutes. Really drove in the fact that since the universe is too big to care about us, it's up to us to define ourselves and our value instead.
One time years ago I found a cluster of 25 blackholes all orbitting around eachother SUPER fast. It was so fasinating and I still remember flying around them now a few years later. Such a cool program. Im honestly shocked one guy made the entire thing.
The truly amazing experience of SE is when you take it into VR. There's a way to alter scale within the sim so that you can reduce a galaxy down to the size of a trash can lid and hold it in your hands and rotate it this way or that. One would think it would be a throwaway experience like meh so what. But if you then lean foward and stick your head into it, you get rewarded with a cloud of tiny, tiny stars all around your head like glittering dust. That's just one mind blowing experience of so many that VR can give you in SE. I spent over half an hour in my first VR session just flying over the surface of Earth's moon, then I toured the solar system, then I went to Proxima Centauri and promptly got lost and had to use the search system to find my way back home to Sol. Just four light years away and got lost in the Milky Way that easily, nevermind how utterly lost you feel if you leave the galaxy entirely. It's a big, crazy universe out there. SE is a work of art. ♥
@@cirrus393 that's not what he said... not defending his opinion btw, I know nothing of Elite Dangerous, but you are just putting words in his mouth, and that is clear as glass to me.
@@KevinS47 Well let's break it down if you're unable to understand the simple logic I used to come to that... "ED is just a shitshow now" means ED is very bad now. "Imagine if ED paired up with Space Engine" means imagine if the positives of ED were brought together with the positives of Space Engine. Obviously they don't mean the negatives of both to be brought together. "God I hope not" means one of two things: 1. He hopes that SE will not be downgraded, in his view, by bringing ED into the mix 2. He hopes that ED will not be improved by bringing in positives of SE The first case only makes sense if the proposal means that SE would stop existing as it's own entity, which is not implied at all. It wouldn't make sense if this is what he meant. That leaves only the second case. Which is why I questioned why you wouldn't want a game that you believe was once good, turned bad, to be improved... Get it?
@@hariszark7396 a simple google search would say... "the action of traveling in or through an unfamiliar area in order to learn about it." I don't get what you're trying to do here.
@@austin6406 Exploration of EMPTY areas with NOTHING to EXPLORE and LEARN about is NOT qualify as "exploration". That's common sense. I don’t know what you try to do here.
@@hariszark7396 Dude, I think you're just salty on the internet. You can just go back to watching UA-cam videos without beefing with people in the comments. I just wanted to let you know that your definition of exploration needs to be corrected. I've made my point, and Oxford's definition is right there. Enjoy UA-cam.
@@austin6406 Dude, you came to throw on me a "definition" of a word because I made a comment you didn’t like on a UA-cam channel. Obviously you have missed the point of my comment. You wanted to act as a smartass and with your last sentence you went "salty" on me. I gave you the proper reply in the same mood like yours and now you return to play the offended smartass because of my reply. My only reaction would have been this: *LOL* ... But then I thought you would never understand, so I decided to spend a few minutes to answer. Also, you never had a proper argument to my starting comment. So, stop acting like a smartass snowflake and start having proper discussions with people. Or keep going from comment section to comment section playing the smartass on UA-cam because you aren't able to do anything better. Cheers.
Hey there OA, I love all of your videos, I have never seen one that I did not watch the whole thing. I had toyed with the idea of Space Engine before, and this video led me to get it. I have gone through the first 3-4 tutorials and am taking a break before doing the tutorial on changing time in SE. Thank you, I will make some spectacular videos in the future, but not as great as yours. Take care and enjoy the new location.
Thank you for the comment. It's so nice to hear you like the videos! :) Space Engine is definitely something very special. I look forward to seeing you videos on it!
@@MrRocksW I already hooked up a joystick and learned to hide all info to just free fly all over exploring, I cannot wait to make some videos, I already have some footage.
Been a supporter for SE for like 10 years. This is amazing how far things get now. Also amazing to know that it is now more then one developer in team, which was kind a meme for years
I have over 130 hours in Space Engine, and will put many more in the future. I find it as fun as pointing at something and looking at it. I saw a negative review for the game saying “all you do is look at stuff”. And while I can see why this would be considered boring, this game is just hyper astronomy, which is just looking at stuff in simple terms.
I remember finding this game randomly on UA-cam it was one of those top 10 space games, and Space Engine was listed. At the time it was free to download off their websites, I miss that game (it was on my old PC before it died out)
One thing that might not be obvious as a use of Space Engine is the creation of ambient videos. Travelling around the galaxy seamlessly (no editing) to the background of either space sounds (if space has a sound) or ambient or new age music. Imagine a video of many hours just drifting over the moon or of Mars, just watching the planet roll underneath you. Definitely something new that someone has yet to create.
Space engin is so cool the first time i tried it i was stunned all of the options you have an the details of the planets and more. its just the best space game my opinion
Found the game in a video 1 hour ago . As a huge space fan I wonder why I never heard about it before. Definitely will give it a try after work today. Seems like this will get me through the winter 🥶
I'd love to see a more detailed look at how you explore and find new things. Let's say you want to explore a random system and try and find something new without coordinates. Or maybe how you plot a path, almost like exploring in elite, where you jump from system to system and possibly map your journey. I feel like there's tons of potential to roleplay a game right into space engine, but I always find myself searching in a search bar and clicking in a menu rather than truly feeling like I'm exploring.
You are right, so far SE is still focusing on the visuals of stuff and a more accurate and realistic procedural generation for systems. But eventually, in some years (since the development of this game takes a lot of time because it's 1 person doing most of it), they will start focusing and developing more gameplay related stuff, for sure, that's literally planed. But I can assure you 100% it's gonna take years from now to see the sim to become something like an actual game.
@@DeMooniC I don't doubt that, it's amazing what the dev has accomplished so far. I'm actually genuinely interested in ideas as to how to roleplay space exploration. Ideas on how to create goals or go about finding interesting star systems without just looking them up. I would definitely watch a longer video about how obsidian ant does his exploration, to get ideas to try myself. I don't expect systems to be implemented in the software any time soon, but I'm curious about fun and interesting ways to use what we have, because from the looks of it, there's so much fun to be had, but as players we kinda have to create our own structure to make it into a game. I guess it would be comparable to playing solo d&d but with less rules and more visual stimuli
I would love to see a tutorial about how to find and import the ships into Space Engine, and how to set it up for flying those ships. I’d love to see Strange New Worlds in the Enterprise.
Well...there's already mods for that in which you can easily find on Steam workshop. I've personally made the Malevolance from SW, Slave 1, people have made even better mods. Go explore.
The fact that SE don't have loading screens when you jump from one star system to another is crazy ! ED and NMS have this loading screen as if you went into a wormhole or something xD
I love SpaceEngine and I'm constantly driven to 'evangelize' on its behalf. I realise that not everyone has a layperson's fascination for astronomy and the cosmos like I do, but I find it a singularly relaxing, zen and fascinating experience to just load up SpaceEngine, just zoom around, pick a location and just choose some wonderful vantage points.
I think it is Ironic that Fdev huff and puffs about their stellar forge engine...yet this project is orders of magnitude more impressive and was done on a shoestring budget. Fdev should just license this tech and focus on putting dinosaurs on the planets. They are good at that at least.
I agree, I don't think elite looks bad by any means, in fact I much prefer the next planet tech, this Space engine though is exactly what I wish elite exploration looked like, if one guy can do this, why can't elite, I really hope they manage to bring life back into the game, I still play and will continue to do so, but damn I miss the community!
You know, it always feels like if you could just.. bolt a decent space game onto Space Engine, you'd have something that at very least never had to worry about the planetary visuals of the game. Pity it'd never be that easy.
What the developers should do is sprinkle a few hundred (or thousand) inhabited planets around for people to try finding. With lights on at night time. Of course, they probably wouldn't ever be found, but at least it would give people some more purpose to the exploration.
...Why doesn't Frontier just use THIS engine, and not spend years making another custom engine that's still broken and only partially supported after over a year of updates? Just a thought.
I've been using this game since back in 9.5, some where around when he added volcanoes. I miss the old forums on the website, had some really awesome people on there with their own telescopes and amazing images
If they can add a “casual” gameplay around it (mining, trading, refining etc.) that doesn’t force the player to grind it for any purpose that directly impacts the exploration bit, that’ll be awesome.
I enjoy looking at its rendering of real world objects like globular clusters and nebulae and known black holes. Some well known objects aren't there such as SN1987A and HIP 93449. I suppose they'll get added eventually.
I also would like to point out that astrophysics, geological accuracy, chemistry and other staff to be as scientific as possible was always the number one priority. To the point where some features was not developed due to lack of tech or solid science behind. Tho the hyperdrive function is one of those rare things which are persist for game purpose here
I'd considered getting this for research purposes, but now that I know you can "fly a ship" in space engine, I plan on downloading asap. Now if they introduce space, orbital, flight, and landing mechanics, I'll be happy as hell. Rover and on-foot mechanics would set this over the top. Sorry... I get sidetracked by "it'll be cool if..." supposition.
Wait... This have a VR mode? o.O. Instant wishlist. My PC is probably too weak to handle it in VR but maybe in future. VR functionality is why I played a lot of ED.
god why do you feel the need to overcomplicate everything you dont have to sell it THe description does a perfect job Virtual Planetarium Like that britanica virtual tour of the coloseum that i either remember or had a fever dream about
What upsets me is that I also pointed out few issues of Elite to community like re-used nebulae. Long story short: There's like 15-20 unique nebulae models in Elite. The rest is like 6 different models that are re-used all over the galaxy. When I pointed that out to a community they simply answered with "game has bigger issues" or some smartasses tried to justify it for example with things like "Hubble can see at more wavelenghts!" etc. when they obviously just didn't bother making new models or make them randomly generated. Hubble being able to see different wavelenghts has absolutely nothing to do with it.
It still has some work to do on the terrain textures and being inside the ship would be nice but it sure as hell beats listening to “frameshift drive charging..3..2..1..whoosh” 2000 times. On a more positive note I learned to fall asleep in under 30 seconds thanks to ED and the frameshift drive. I would wake up in horror at having crashed into a star again and everything shouldering. The blue supergiants were somehow the worst. Sadly, alas we don’t always get what we wish for right? At least Space Engine takes me one step closer to that dream… without the horror. :)
Is there an option to create your own system and place objects? That would be amazing for visual aids for tabletop RPGs like Traveller (there's even one for Elite Dangerous, but I never got into it).
Id like to see a game where you start off with same basic space infrastructure around earth and you can then use realistic(ish) science and physics to expand your space presence in the solar system by building more space stations around the other planets, sending astronauts and building bases and then do basic interstellar missions until you' expand your capability to do longer range missions, discover newer technologies and eventually make contact with another civilization at the end game. Basically like a kerbal space program kinda game but one where by the late game you can explore the galaxy a bit more freely in terms of interstellar travel by the late game and of course, you dont have the silly kerbal graphics which is not my cup of tea.
Possible to just import all ED ship assets and flying mechanics into space engine? Then get some modders to do ship interiors, first person and viola, dream exploration game.
Play it in VR! Adjust the parallax scale and you feel like a god. You can walk around in a galaxy, or on the surface of another world, stand over an alien mountain, or even hold a world in your hands...
if this was implemented into a game with a story and missions like no mans sky and having no loading screens and being about to build on any planet and have multiplayer with millions of people playing but obviously they wouldnt show up to a certain distance away so it wouldnt boggle the frame rate kind of like the space game X4 that has so many ships from small ones to massive capital ships like elite dangerous and empyrion and imagine being able to terraform or even destroy planets with how games are and the graphics cards getting more powerful that is possible i wonder if the 5090 when it comes out would be able to handle something like that or the 4090 might
It can, just with far less variety, and you need to grind for hours for a decent enough exploration ship to then spend hours just jumping to anywhere interesting in the first place
Anyone tried Free version(s) of Space Engine, available on their official web site? There's payed version for 20,99€ atm too, of course. Is there much missing in freebie one?
@@anakinjovanus1135 I think volumetric planetary rings were one of the big latest additions in the Steam version, so I doubt it's available in the free version
Not only 3d rings. Raymarched nebulas as well as the photo exposure mode are only available in the Steam version. Plus a few minor things and the fact that it is 64bit vs 32bit free version which helps loading huge catalogs like the new gaia star catalog that contains millions of stars. It is practically impossible to add such huge catalogs on 32bit SE - it runs out of addressable memory no matter how much available hardware RAM you've got. And then it CTDs.
I play this game so much, but I have to play in an eariler version since the game is just so high quality the latest update doesn't work on my computer QυQ
I just... Really want an offline single player elite dangerous I can play on my steam deck. Basically doing what I'm doing in space engine but with more structure and stakes, without the online connectivity and customization limitations of elite due to it being a "live service".
While I appreciate the heavy simulation aspect of the ships in Space Engine, I think it would still greatly benefit from more arcade-ish flying mechanics found in Elite and Star Citizen. The learning curve for flying ships in Space Engine is so steep that it's at a point where it's on the verge a being actually annoying, especially with the rattached documentation being quite hard to digest. Space Engine may not be a game strictly speaking, but it would benefit both the players and the developer to have some degree of gameplay that drives a bit more interest into staying hooked on this software for more than a few hours. I can imagine loads of people coming from Elite or SC having a real thrill for just casual exploration but can't find much to do in their respective games. EDIT : Just to be clear, I'm not asking for any gameplay loop or anything like that. As OA said, it's all about sightseeing. However, one part that makes sightseeing so great is the sense of scale. In the real world people love seeing big things from their own perspective, simply because the scale difference is awe inspiring in itself. By "playing" as a floating camera that can fly in every direction at immense speed, I find that it is a hard time to really feel immersed in your exploration experience, and having a point of reference, being your ship (or even better : a character), for roaming the stars would probably add a huge improvement to that whole feel and would push more than a space game enthusiast to buy a copy on Steam (which would undoubtedly add a lot of value compared to the free-to-play legacy version of Space Engine).
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They really need to get in touch with a game studio, inject Space Engine into a game, and add a game around it. Best space game ever.
I would gladly see space game looking good!
That's actually the reason they started selling it on Steam. It used to be freeware I think about 8 years ago. The dev (it's one guy) had some pretty big ambitions, some of which are in the game now. Most haven't made it, probably never will.
They should leave it to modders. That way you could buy the game and have different options for playing it as a game. I think the quality would also be better that way.
@@jhoover8734 The modding is about as limited as No Man's Sky, to build a game you'd need the entire devkit used to make the engine in the first place.
@@jhoover8734 Modders can't add features to the base engine. It isn't happening.
He talked about his struggles to even get new members of the team to stick around, they join, get a paycheck or two, and leave.
Procedural generation is a huge learning curve and it isn't something you learn at 'game design class'. Modders add new ships, and find creative ways of taking fancy screenshots (trees/water/ext) but if Space Engine doesn't have gameplay, modders can't do anything to add any.
I've followed this game for a decade, it is sadly always just going to remain 1 mans passion project.
Space Engine is probably the closest thing to actually exploring interstellar space that we have right now. Using it in VR is amazing. One of my most awe inspiring moments was decreasing the scale of the simulation so that individual galaxies were like tiny specs of light surrounding me in an endless sea. There were just so many. Just for a moment I felt the true immensity of the universe. It was unforgettable.
Well said. There's something that clicks if only momentarily when you scale down to where the galaxy you were just surrounded by is now the size of a coin, and then the light adjusts and you see the practically infinite number of galaxies appear around you.. definitely one of the most raw and startling experiences I've ever had with any media.
agreed. the first time i zoomed out of a galaxy in vr was amazing
Hi, what do you mean by decreasing scale of the simulation? Is there some particular setting? I am new to this, thanks
I like to play this game when I'm stressed because it makes me realize how insignificant my problems are.
I kinda laughed at this comment but after staying up late last night playing it, I realized that It really does take all your problems and shink them down. It’s a very calming game in that sense
if they took space engine and duct taped elite dangerous gameplay pre-oddysee on to it, I would never play anything else......period
Imagine if No Mans Sky, Space Engine, and Star Citizen, collaberated to make the Ultimate Procedural Generated Space Game!!!!! Now that would be epic.
space engine, space engineers, universe sandbox
The two things I really miss in Space Engine are interactive cockpits and ship interiors. Be able to discover the universe in my ship/home. No combat, no commerce, no 4x. Only my ship and the universe.
You should look at Starship Simulator :)
Imagine traversing space in a fully explorable wraith cruiser while the stargate atlantis theme song blasts on the speakers.
Or a make-your-own-story type Battlestar Galactica mode, having to guide many ships across a single galaxy in search of safety.
Or the one I like the most, Stargate Universing our way through the universe in search of the structure the ancients created the Destiny to find.
Imagine if you could walk inside your ship and spend days!
They could add some more simple game play elements to this, to make exploration worth time spent, in addition to just observing the celestial bodies.
I think there is game doing what you just said.
It's named Elite Dangerous.
........
That nebula transparency was absolutely stunning. Wow.
I work in product design for entertainment. I this industry, you will often come across an official ‘why people buy our product’ list, or something similar in every company. In entertainment and product design, that might range anywhere from ‘nostalgia’ to ‘status with peers’ or to simply ‘an adrenaline rush upon owning a collectible,’ or something similar. Three of the strongest motivators I have come across in the online gaming sub-industry are: (1) ‘exploration’, (2) ‘in-game -progress’ and (3) ‘owning or securing a piece’. I find that these three combine VERY well in the space exploration genre respectively because of (1) the vastness of in-game potential, (2) in the necessity establishing incremental progress in that vastness and (3) a ‘home-away-from home’ feel for gamers. Let’ face it, most of us play to escape reality, and we escape, often to find our own little make-believe nook where the sky is quite literally the limit.
Many of us who play to explore fancy the idea of finding that remote moon and plunking down a moisture vaporator in order to eek out an existence and set out to explore.
My favorite aspect is the ability to turn on and off procedural stuff to see the limit of what we know. Plus, it is stunning in VR. You can make yourself any size and hold, turn, and view a planet, solar system, galaxy or the whole Universe in your hands...
I don't think the calague has even like 10% of what we know.
There is the Gaia catalogue on the steam workshop (or like a percent of it) and you get like 10M stars with that. It's all stars that we have found irl.
It's amazing that you released this today! This morning I responded on Twitter to Elite (I don't usually engage with them) and they responded *back* to me saying they hope to see me start playing again, and I explained how/why SpaceEngine replaced Elite for me, and it was going to be difficult to get me back. I'm glad I'm not the only one that feels this way in terms of exploration.
Also I REALLY miss your SpaceEngine exploration videos/streams, those were always such a fun and laid back time, I don't know if you still do those these days?
You want people to beg you to come back to a game?
@@blizzardwuffy I really enjoyed OA's "Best Damn Places in the Galaxy" series.
That is a stunning fursona design imo.
@@Drakey_Fenix bless
Oh gosh I thought I was weird for passing so many hours just flying ships around in this awesome game. Plotting brachistochrone trajectories is fun.
I agree in regards to brachistochrone trajectories. Heck, I created a spreadsheet that calculates the burn duration based on acceleration... it isn't perfect, of course, as my ship will often burn for either too long or not long enough, and I've never been able to get it spot on.
@@justinhulet2848 And that's one of the problems with this game. The flight sim part of it has NOT BEEN TOUCHED IN YEARS. Still no casted shadows yet either, which makes external shots of bigger ships look odd.
Free floating through space in VR is a wonderful experience. Until you reach the end of the observable universe and hit the void...
@@dragon8623 dude!!!!
@@aitoluxd 😂😂😂😂
@@dragon8623 Space Engine, you dunderhead.
I've had nightmares about that void
@@margotpreston dunderhead😂 That’s a new one
Space engine has given me so many ideas for world concepts for videogames
if only elite and space engine could join forces.....
Add creativity aspect and collaboration to it and you have a great candidate for the title of perfect space sim game.
The thing I have started doing in Space Engine is just landing on random planets and watching the local sun/star rise and fall like sunrise and sunset. Imagining watch it would be like to spend the day there, you know? The in-game music is very relaxing as well ;)
Ah the soundtrack is just fascinating. It suits so perfectly :0 and the landscapes are absolutely fabulous. This game dropped my jaw the first time I played it. Hats off to the Dev!!
It's a really great simulator that I have been using since early 2018 (over a year before it was released on Steam), when I was 17. It truly blew my mind and made me realize how small we are compared to the universe; starting at the Earth and just gradually increasing speed and zooming out until I was watching as entire galaxies flew by on the screen like white dots for minutes. Really drove in the fact that since the universe is too big to care about us, it's up to us to define ourselves and our value instead.
One time years ago I found a cluster of 25 blackholes all orbitting around eachother SUPER fast.
It was so fasinating and I still remember flying around them now a few years later.
Such a cool program. Im honestly shocked one guy made the entire thing.
You gotta post it somewhere bro, I want to see that!
thats insane
The flight models of Elite Dangerous, and the galaxy mapped by these lovely folks, sounds like a perfect buyout for frontier
The truly amazing experience of SE is when you take it into VR. There's a way to alter scale within the sim so that you can reduce a galaxy down to the size of a trash can lid and hold it in your hands and rotate it this way or that. One would think it would be a throwaway experience like meh so what. But if you then lean foward and stick your head into it, you get rewarded with a cloud of tiny, tiny stars all around your head like glittering dust. That's just one mind blowing experience of so many that VR can give you in SE. I spent over half an hour in my first VR session just flying over the surface of Earth's moon, then I toured the solar system, then I went to Proxima Centauri and promptly got lost and had to use the search system to find my way back home to Sol. Just four light years away and got lost in the Milky Way that easily, nevermind how utterly lost you feel if you leave the galaxy entirely. It's a big, crazy universe out there.
SE is a work of art. ♥
Great video on an underrated software!
Love the game. Great to chill out with. Imagine if ED paired up with Space Engine!
God i hope not, ED is just a shitshow now
@@vincentcabezas7147 You'd hope ED wasn't improved? Weird
@@cirrus393 that's not what he said... not defending his opinion btw, I know nothing of Elite Dangerous, but you are just putting words in his mouth, and that is clear as glass to me.
@@KevinS47 Well let's break it down if you're unable to understand the simple logic I used to come to that...
"ED is just a shitshow now" means ED is very bad now.
"Imagine if ED paired up with Space Engine" means imagine if the positives of ED were brought together with the positives of Space Engine. Obviously they don't mean the negatives of both to be brought together.
"God I hope not" means one of two things:
1. He hopes that SE will not be downgraded, in his view, by bringing ED into the mix
2. He hopes that ED will not be improved by bringing in positives of SE
The first case only makes sense if the proposal means that SE would stop existing as it's own entity, which is not implied at all. It wouldn't make sense if this is what he meant.
That leaves only the second case. Which is why I questioned why you wouldn't want a game that you believe was once good, turned bad, to be improved...
Get it?
What others call boring I call it the zen of exploration. :-)
How is this called "exploration" exactly?
@@hariszark7396 a simple google search would say... "the action of traveling in or through an unfamiliar area in order to learn about it."
I don't get what you're trying to do here.
@@austin6406 Exploration of EMPTY areas with NOTHING to EXPLORE and LEARN about is NOT qualify as "exploration".
That's common sense.
I don’t know what you try to do here.
@@hariszark7396 Dude, I think you're just salty on the internet. You can just go back to watching UA-cam videos without beefing with people in the comments. I just wanted to let you know that your definition of exploration needs to be corrected. I've made my point, and Oxford's definition is right there. Enjoy UA-cam.
@@austin6406 Dude, you came to throw on me a "definition" of a word because I made a comment you didn’t like on a UA-cam channel.
Obviously you have missed the point of my comment.
You wanted to act as a smartass and with your last sentence you went "salty" on me.
I gave you the proper reply in the same mood like yours and now you return to play the offended smartass because of my reply.
My only reaction would have been this: *LOL* ...
But then I thought you would never understand, so I decided to spend a few minutes to answer.
Also, you never had a proper argument to my starting comment.
So, stop acting like a smartass snowflake and start having proper discussions with people.
Or keep going from comment section to comment section playing the smartass on UA-cam because you aren't able to do anything better.
Cheers.
Hey there OA, I love all of your videos, I have never seen one that I did not watch the whole thing. I had toyed with the idea of Space Engine before, and this video led me to get it. I have gone through the first 3-4 tutorials and am taking a break before doing the tutorial on changing time in SE. Thank you, I will make some spectacular videos in the future, but not as great as yours. Take care and enjoy the new location.
Thank you for the comment. It's so nice to hear you like the videos! :)
Space Engine is definitely something very special. I look forward to seeing you videos on it!
You won't regret it, it's one of the most amazing pieces of software ever made imo
@@MrRocksW I already hooked up a joystick and learned to hide all info to just free fly all over exploring, I cannot wait to make some videos, I already have some footage.
Been a supporter for SE for like 10 years. This is amazing how far things get now. Also amazing to know that it is now more then one developer in team, which was kind a meme for years
Thank you for this! Space Engine deserves all the attention!
I have over 130 hours in Space Engine, and will put many more in the future. I find it as fun as pointing at something and looking at it. I saw a negative review for the game saying “all you do is look at stuff”. And while I can see why this would be considered boring, this game is just hyper astronomy, which is just looking at stuff in simple terms.
I remember finding this game randomly on UA-cam it was one of those top 10 space games, and Space Engine was listed. At the time it was free to download off their websites, I miss that game (it was on my old PC before it died out)
You can still download it free.
One thing that might not be obvious as a use of Space Engine is the creation of ambient videos. Travelling around the galaxy seamlessly (no editing) to the background of either space sounds (if space has a sound) or ambient or new age music. Imagine a video of many hours just drifting over the moon or of Mars, just watching the planet roll underneath you. Definitely something new that someone has yet to create.
Space engin is so cool the first time i tried it i was stunned all of the options you have an the details of the planets and more. its just the best space game my opinion
Found the game in a video 1 hour ago . As a huge space fan I wonder why I never heard about it before. Definitely will give it a try after work today. Seems like this will get me through the winter 🥶
I’m just amazed at the fact that the entire universe is only 4 GB big
This one is on my Steam wishlist and is now in the number one position.
I'd love to see a more detailed look at how you explore and find new things. Let's say you want to explore a random system and try and find something new without coordinates. Or maybe how you plot a path, almost like exploring in elite, where you jump from system to system and possibly map your journey. I feel like there's tons of potential to roleplay a game right into space engine, but I always find myself searching in a search bar and clicking in a menu rather than truly feeling like I'm exploring.
You are right, so far SE is still focusing on the visuals of stuff and a more accurate and realistic procedural generation for systems. But eventually, in some years (since the development of this game takes a lot of time because it's 1 person doing most of it), they will start focusing and developing more gameplay related stuff, for sure, that's literally planed. But I can assure you 100% it's gonna take years from now to see the sim to become something like an actual game.
@@DeMooniC I don't doubt that, it's amazing what the dev has accomplished so far. I'm actually genuinely interested in ideas as to how to roleplay space exploration. Ideas on how to create goals or go about finding interesting star systems without just looking them up. I would definitely watch a longer video about how obsidian ant does his exploration, to get ideas to try myself. I don't expect systems to be implemented in the software any time soon, but I'm curious about fun and interesting ways to use what we have, because from the looks of it, there's so much fun to be had, but as players we kinda have to create our own structure to make it into a game. I guess it would be comparable to playing solo d&d but with less rules and more visual stimuli
I would love to see a tutorial about how to find and import the ships into Space Engine, and how to set it up for flying those ships. I’d love to see Strange New Worlds in the Enterprise.
Well...there's already mods for that in which you can easily find on Steam workshop.
I've personally made the Malevolance from SW, Slave 1, people have made even better mods. Go explore.
Wow, was just reading the news posts while wishlisting on steam.. those developers seem qualified to be in the business. Amazing.
The fact that SE don't have loading screens when you jump from one star system to another is crazy ! ED and NMS have this loading screen as if you went into a wormhole or something xD
Dream game: Spaceships and space stations by Elite, solar systems generated by Space Engine, planetary surfaces by No Man's Sky.
No Man’s Dangerous Engine. I love it.
I love SpaceEngine and I'm constantly driven to 'evangelize' on its behalf. I realise that not everyone has a layperson's fascination for astronomy and the cosmos like I do, but I find it a singularly relaxing, zen and fascinating experience to just load up SpaceEngine, just zoom around, pick a location and just choose some wonderful vantage points.
Big big fan of Space Engine. Thanks, ObsidianAnt!
I think it is Ironic that Fdev huff and puffs about their stellar forge engine...yet this project is orders of magnitude more impressive and was done on a shoestring budget. Fdev should just license this tech and focus on putting dinosaurs on the planets. They are good at that at least.
I agree, I don't think elite looks bad by any means, in fact I much prefer the next planet tech, this Space engine though is exactly what I wish elite exploration looked like, if one guy can do this, why can't elite, I really hope they manage to bring life back into the game, I still play and will continue to do so, but damn I miss the community!
You know, it always feels like if you could just.. bolt a decent space game onto Space Engine, you'd have something that at very least never had to worry about the planetary visuals of the game. Pity it'd never be that easy.
What the developers should do is sprinkle a few hundred (or thousand) inhabited planets around for people to try finding. With lights on at night time. Of course, they probably wouldn't ever be found, but at least it would give people some more purpose to the exploration.
I love this idea!!
...Why doesn't Frontier just use THIS engine, and not spend years making another custom engine that's still broken and only partially supported after over a year of updates?
Just a thought.
It's called having their head up their bum
I've been using this game since back in 9.5, some where around when he added volcanoes. I miss the old forums on the website, had some really awesome people on there with their own telescopes and amazing images
If they can add a “casual” gameplay around it (mining, trading, refining etc.) that doesn’t force the player to grind it for any purpose that directly impacts the exploration bit, that’ll be awesome.
3:22 Just look at that. That is what I wanted to see in Elite Dangerous.
I love space engine, i have hundreds of hours on it, i always pick a ship and randomly explore the galaxy
Oh God, even in non Star Wars related media, I can't escape the Nebulon B. "Rogue Leader, we're under attack!"
i wish space engine would be available on the next gen consoles
I've sailed across the ocean before. I thought that was big. I can't fathom just how big space is..
Amazing software. VR compatible as well.
I enjoy looking at its rendering of real world objects like globular clusters and nebulae and known black holes. Some well known objects aren't there such as SN1987A and HIP 93449. I suppose they'll get added eventually.
I also would like to point out that astrophysics, geological accuracy, chemistry and other staff to be as scientific as possible was always the number one priority. To the point where some features was not developed due to lack of tech or solid science behind. Tho the hyperdrive function is one of those rare things which are persist for game purpose here
I'd considered getting this for research purposes, but now that I know you can "fly a ship" in space engine, I plan on downloading asap.
Now if they introduce space, orbital, flight, and landing mechanics, I'll be happy as hell. Rover and on-foot mechanics would set this over the top.
Sorry... I get sidetracked by "it'll be cool if..." supposition.
I want something like _this_ with Kerbal Space Program. That would be mindblowing.
"billions of planets" is an understatement. it's nearly infinite. you couldn't explore all of the universe in space engine in 1000 years.
Are you using some sort of visual mod? I'd love to make my space engine look more cinematic, for video purposes.
Wait... This have a VR mode? o.O. Instant wishlist. My PC is probably too weak to handle it in VR but maybe in future. VR functionality is why I played a lot of ED.
god why do you feel the need to overcomplicate everything
you dont have to sell it
THe description does a perfect job
Virtual Planetarium
Like that britanica virtual tour of the coloseum that i either remember or had a fever dream about
Why can't Elite Dangerous look this good...
What upsets me is that I also pointed out few issues of Elite to community like re-used nebulae.
Long story short: There's like 15-20 unique nebulae models in Elite. The rest is like 6 different models that are re-used all over the galaxy. When I pointed that out to a community they simply answered with "game has bigger issues" or some smartasses tried to justify it for example with things like "Hubble can see at more wavelenghts!" etc. when they obviously just didn't bother making new models or make them randomly generated. Hubble being able to see different wavelenghts has absolutely nothing to do with it.
@@starly1974 Yep, procedurally generated galaxy, billions of planets.. and they handcraft the content that fills the galaxy. So frustrating.
It still has some work to do on the terrain textures and being inside the ship would be nice but it sure as hell beats listening to “frameshift drive charging..3..2..1..whoosh” 2000 times. On a more positive note I learned to fall asleep in under 30 seconds thanks to ED and the frameshift drive. I would wake up in horror at having crashed into a star again and everything shouldering. The blue supergiants were somehow the worst. Sadly, alas we don’t always get what we wish for right? At least Space Engine takes me one step closer to that dream… without the horror. :)
Is there an option to create your own system and place objects? That would be amazing for visual aids for tabletop RPGs like Traveller (there's even one for Elite Dangerous, but I never got into it).
yep, editing systems is very easy and has a built in tool.
adding new systems takes some basic coding knowledge.
Id like to see a game where you start off with same basic space infrastructure around earth and you can then use realistic(ish) science and physics to expand your space presence in the solar system by building more space stations around the other planets, sending astronauts and building bases and then do basic interstellar missions until you' expand your capability to do longer range missions, discover newer technologies and eventually make contact with another civilization at the end game. Basically like a kerbal space program kinda game but one where by the late game you can explore the galaxy a bit more freely in terms of interstellar travel by the late game and of course, you dont have the silly kerbal graphics which is not my cup of tea.
The game looks that good in solar system because it uses the actual NASA images
Just image an E:D featuring Space Engine engine for terrains and space generation.
What a wet dream, don't wake me up.
Possible to just import all ED ship assets and flying mechanics into space engine? Then get some modders to do ship interiors, first person and viola, dream exploration game.
Play it in VR! Adjust the parallax scale and you feel like a god. You can walk around in a galaxy, or on the surface of another world, stand over an alien mountain, or even hold a world in your hands...
and be bored in 2 minutes because there is nothing to do
Aaaah PC owners you lucky bastards... The wonders you experience!
Bastards are makers of closed console systems
Join us.. the waters warm!
Wait....WAIT.
WHY AM I JUST FINDING THIS OUT
(Twists ankle scrambling to computer to log on to Steam...)
Dang, I imagined space engine+star citizen. That's scary lmao
Regarding ships I assume it all 3rd party vs piloting your own ship like ED
The simulation needs a flight assist and a controllable character so you can truly run around on planets.
Ive been sayin it. Space Engine mixed with Grand Theft Auto. Best space game ever. I love Space Engine.
space engine is terrifying
One question. How many convection cells does Betelgeuse have at 1g in engine?
i just cannot wrap my head around the fact that we live in this crazy universe, its weird
And Stanley went to the moon, no he went to the moon. Well it looks like Stanley decided to go to mars
Is there a reason why the planets on my space engine don't look nearly as good as yours? @obsidianant?
what are your settings in this game, it looks amazing!
if this was implemented into a game with a story and missions like no mans sky and having no loading screens and being about to build on any planet and have multiplayer with millions of people playing but obviously they wouldnt show up to a certain distance away so it wouldnt boggle the frame rate kind of like the space game X4 that has so many ships from small ones to massive capital ships like elite dangerous and empyrion and imagine being able to terraform or even destroy planets with how games are and the graphics cards getting more powerful that is possible i wonder if the 5090 when it comes out would be able to handle something like that or the 4090 might
question, do i need a really hood cpu to run this? i assume since it’s the whole universe it’ll require a insane cpu and possibly gpu?
Actually, it works fine on the average pc.
If space engine can show such stunning space vista's - why do you think Elite Dangerous can't do the same?
It can, just with far less variety, and you need to grind for hours for a decent enough exploration ship to then spend hours just jumping to anywhere interesting in the first place
@@Remixersoloman it doesn’t look as spectacular. And I have a 70ly anaconda
Anyone tried Free version(s) of Space Engine, available on their official web site? There's payed version for 20,99€ atm too, of course.
Is there much missing in freebie one?
Not much missing tbh. Everything in the paid one is in the free one as far as I'm aware. I think the planetary textures are slightly different tho
@@anakinjovanus1135 I think volumetric planetary rings were one of the big latest additions in the Steam version, so I doubt it's available in the free version
@@tejalone6855 oh yea forgot abt that, it's cool that they added that in. I swear flora and civilisations were in the roadmap
Not only 3d rings. Raymarched nebulas as well as the photo exposure mode are only available in the Steam version. Plus a few minor things and the fact that it is 64bit vs 32bit free version which helps loading huge catalogs like the new gaia star catalog that contains millions of stars. It is practically impossible to add such huge catalogs on 32bit SE - it runs out of addressable memory no matter how much available hardware RAM you've got. And then it CTDs.
Bam !
I have barely touched Space Engine as it just spins in circles and I can't figure out why. I think I'm going to go home and work it out now.
I play this game so much, but I have to play in an eariler version since the game is just so high quality the latest update doesn't work on my computer QυQ
Is it just me, or does this feel like the space exploration program, Celestia?
0:46 Is that the Axiom?
I just... Really want an offline single player elite dangerous I can play on my steam deck. Basically doing what I'm doing in space engine but with more structure and stakes, without the online connectivity and customization limitations of elite due to it being a "live service".
I just bought this game because of this video. Does anyone know if there are surface vehicle mods?
While I appreciate the heavy simulation aspect of the ships in Space Engine, I think it would still greatly benefit from more arcade-ish flying mechanics found in Elite and Star Citizen. The learning curve for flying ships in Space Engine is so steep that it's at a point where it's on the verge a being actually annoying, especially with the rattached documentation being quite hard to digest.
Space Engine may not be a game strictly speaking, but it would benefit both the players and the developer to have some degree of gameplay that drives a bit more interest into staying hooked on this software for more than a few hours. I can imagine loads of people coming from Elite or SC having a real thrill for just casual exploration but can't find much to do in their respective games.
EDIT : Just to be clear, I'm not asking for any gameplay loop or anything like that. As OA said, it's all about sightseeing. However, one part that makes sightseeing so great is the sense of scale. In the real world people love seeing big things from their own perspective, simply because the scale difference is awe inspiring in itself. By "playing" as a floating camera that can fly in every direction at immense speed, I find that it is a hard time to really feel immersed in your exploration experience, and having a point of reference, being your ship (or even better : a character), for roaming the stars would probably add a huge improvement to that whole feel and would push more than a space game enthusiast to buy a copy on Steam (which would undoubtedly add a lot of value compared to the free-to-play legacy version of Space Engine).
The amount of stress I went through learning how to fly was immense 😫
Only wish elite was this detailed
i wish this game was free
What is the best VR device to experience Space Engine in?
What's that red nebula at 5:45?
If Elite used space engine's terrain generation, the game would be so much better.
Have you played odyssey recently? The planets tech has improved ten fold since Odyssey launch.
Could this work with the TTRPG Traveller v2 or GURPS 4e?
Does it have the Liberator from Blakes 7?
they also have the older versions on there website 100 PERCENT FREE....