No Man’s Sky developer Whats up Video games has unveiled the Worlds Half 2 replace, which it says “permits us to push the boundaries of our engine with new know-how.”
Chief developer Sean Murray stated the replace provides billions of recent photo voltaic programs and trillions of recent planets to the procedurally generated area sport, in addition to new biomes and terrains.
“I’ve been engaged on a brand new terrain system for a short while now,” Murray stated. “Terrain is extra detailed and way more diverse with large mountains and these huge options. I’m genuinely at my happiest engaged on these items.”
The replace additionally brings with it fuel giants, that are 10 occasions larger than No Man’s Sky’s current largest planet. “It’s actually end-game stuff to discover them with large storms that rage throughout the floor,” Murray stated.
He continued: “New tech permits oceans that may be a number of kilometers deep. A brand new lighting system makes them look so completely different. New caustics, mild shafts and the deeper that you simply discover the darker it will get. I’ve had these moments the place you’re exploring and abruptly some large creature comes into view and it’s simply unimaginable.
“Each ingredient of our lighting has been rewritten. Shadows present extra particulars, mild sparkles by the leaves, caves are darkish and immersive. Oceans now replicate the clouds and stars to create these stunning sunsets and night time skies.
“Water reacts bodily to the world round it. Creatures wade by it. There’s little dimples within the rain, and there are massive waves as ships fly overhead. Generally there’s these moments the place a ship simply flies previous the nonetheless ocean and the water ripples beneath and it’s simply so peaceable to observe.
“Within the depths of the ocean and on land there’s these new creatures to find. I feel we’ve gone in all probability weirder than ever earlier than. While you land on a planet all of the tech combines to create an emotion, that feeling of realizing that nobody has ever been on this world earlier than. I feel it’s what makes this sport actually particular.
“There’s tons of recent gameplay too. There’s this large quest that ties collectively some strands that we’ve been constructing for years. We’ve acquired an expedition that takes you on a tour of all the brand new worlds that we’re constructing and it’s acquired some unimaginable rewards.
“That is our ninth 12 months since launch. I feel we’re doing issues that the neighborhood in all probability by no means thought would occur. I actually can’t look ahead to folks to play.”
In November, Whats up Video games hailed No Man’s Sky hitting a ‘very optimistic’ Steam person evaluation person ranking for the primary time, eight years after the sport’s controversial launch was slammed by gamers.
No Man’s Sky launched in August 2016 on PS4 and PC to tens of 1000’s of damaging evaluations on Steam, with gamers complaining about damaged guarantees and an absence of significant content material, significantly on the multiplayer aspect. The sport shortly settled on the dreaded ‘overwhelmingly damaging’ Steam person evaluation ranking, a transparent signal to anybody who visited its Steam web page that one thing was very improper.
However Guildford, England-based Whats up Video games has continued to replace No Man’s Sky over time, bettering participant sentiment to the purpose the place it’s now thought-about very good. It took two years to hit ‘combined,’ then one other three to hit ‘principally optimistic.’ On the time, 5 years after launch, Tim Woodley, Head of Publishing at Whats up Video games, defined how laborious it was to claw again Steam person evaluations from such a low base.
As Whats up Video games continues to work on No Man’s Sky, it’s creating its subsequent sport, Mild No Fireplace. It is about journey, constructing, survival and exploration collectively, set on a fantasy planet the scale of Earth.
Wesley is the UK Information Editor for IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You’ll be able to attain Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].