0.991.49.2090
- Improved procedural planetary generation, fixing giant-terra-giant-terra meander sequence and increasing diversity of procedural systems
- Improved diversity of properties of procedural rings and accretion disks
- Improved generation of dwarf planets; previously, they were far too rare
- Calibrated mass-radius distribution of terrestrial planets
- Calibrated iron core mass distribution in terrestrial planets
- Updated effective temperature calculations for M5-M8 (main sequence), L, T, and Y spectral types
- Updated radii calculations for L, T, and Y spectral types
- Updated star system seed generation
- Improved temperature generation for star granules (convection cells)
- Improved temperature generation for sunspots
- Improved shading of underwater surfaces to mimic absorption of sunlight by water; your view now darkens and fades as depth increases
- Improved generation of globular cluster luminosities
- Increased the number of globular clusters generated in galaxies
- Increased the maximum number of clusters per galaxy
- Added ability to specify the number of globular clusters in a catalog galaxy (galaxy catalog keyword: GlobClusters)
- Updated galaxy type generation probabilities
- Increased suppression of procedurally generated galaxies near the Milky Way (Procedural content can be toggled in the Filter Objects settings)
- Improved radius-luminosity relationship for elliptical galaxies
- Added new Featured Locations procured by the SE team to partially replace many that were lost when the universe reset (more to come on this in the new year~)
- Improved brightness of blurred interface background relative to main scene
- Added "deselect" console/script command to deselect objects (in addition to "unselect")
- Fixed a bug where binary planet orbits were often oriented on-edge, “cartwheeling” around their host stars.
- Fixed a bug where comets, asteroids, and moons could be assigned incorrect temperature classes. Classes for all planets/moons/comets/asteroids are now based on their time-averaged distance from their host star(s).
- Fixed a bug causing incorrect procedural metallicity of stars
- Fixed a bug with generation of double Wolf-Rayet systems, where the secondary star had hundreds of times larger luminosity than the whole system
- Fixed a bug where every solo star (not in a multiple-star system) had the same axial tilt of 100.28 degrees.
- Fixed multiple bugs causing cases where a star's age could be greater than its lifetime
- Fixed a potential bug where the star generator thread can overrun its working array, corrupting data in the other worker thread's working array
- Fixed a bug in calculation of stellar magnitudes
- Fixed a bug with star corona coloration
- Fixed C-Hd stars generating with too low mass, appearing identically small
- Fixed a bug in the Climate Model where planets in systems with a binary star could have a huge temperature spike
- Fixed a bug where catalog stars with no physical info aside from apparent magnitude would default to spectral type M2V
- Fixed a bug where changing the oblateness in the Planet Editor was not reflected in the Wiki.
- Fixed a bug causing lava to appear ~10% hotter than it should
- Added several of the brightest and largest known galaxies (see Catalog Additions below)
- Added LMC globular cluster NGC 1978
- Added LMC open cluster NGC 2164
- Updated distances and magnitudes for numerous galaxies, especially in the Local Group
- Tweaked brightness of a few Local Group elliptical galaxy models
- Removed unsupported/refuted black holes
- Changed “Central Black Hole” affix to an asterisk (*) to match astronomical naming conventions
- Updated distance to Centaurus A*
- Updated distance and size of the Owl Nebula
- Updated atmospheric composition for K2-18 b
- Updated 2M1510 to be a triple system with the correct orbits
- Updated physical parameters of the PSR J2222-0137 pulsar+WD system
- Updated distance to SPECULOOS-3
- Updated WOH G64 Star
- Added star UDF 2457 (most distant Milky Way star visible in Hubble Ultra Deep Field)
- Reclassified Quaoar as a dwarf planet and its moon as a dwarf moon
- Updated distance and location for PZ Cassiopeiae
- Fixed locations of some extragalactic stellar mass black holes to match their host galaxies
- Updated the exoplanet catalogs with 78 new host stars and 105 new planets (plus 1 planemo)
0.990.48.2065 (2025-05-12)
- Climate Model updates:
- Improved the relationship between temperature and windspeed and updated the equator-to-pole temperature calculations
- Improved the equator-to-pole temperature range when Tmin/Tmax are set in catalogs/editor
- Fixed a bug in the calculation of mean temperature, which was previously too low for planets with high windspeeds, and also incorrectly changed with windspeed
- Fixed a bug where Solar System Browser temperatures were not updating unless the planet was selected
- Fixed a bug where temperatures were scaled inversely with distance to their parent star in binary systems with a catalog/editor temperature override
- Enabled camera velocity vector marker for Flight Simulator mode
- Added a seizure warning screen when the program is starting
- Added additional basic descriptions to the Info tab of the Wiki for asteroids
- Added 'IC 1101 Central Black Hole', making the galaxy a blackhole host
- Added an option to the configuration files to show/disable the seizure warning called ShowSeizureWarning
- Added basic descriptions to the Info tab of the Wiki for 409 asteroids
- Added LMC globular cluster NGC 1755
- Improved distances and sizes of some open clusters, disabled some phantom clusters
- Improved size and orientation of M 101, added proper name (Pinwheel)
- Improved size of M 81
- Improved orientation of IC 1296
- Improved size and orientation of NGC 1211
- Assorted corrections to catalog inaccuracies
- Updated the exoplanet and host star catalog
- Updated asteroid catalog
- Updated the exoplanet and host star catalog, naming convention of Gliese objects
- Updated the catalogs with 30 new exoplanets and 19 new host stars
- Updated small moons catalog with 128 new Saturn moons
- Updated binary asteroids catalog
- Updated distance to IC 2163
- Updated the exoplanet catalogs with 17 new host stars and 28 new planets
- Updated the exoplanet catalogs with 9 new host stars and 13 new planets
- Fixed a planet surface temperature discontinuity in regions experiencing polar night. This also fixed a related bug for planets with axial tilts greater than 45 degrees
- Fixed a bug that incorrectly calculated the minimum or maximum temperature when both were set in the Planet Editor or through the catalogs
- Fixed a bug in the Star Browser where binary planets and binary moons were not correctly identified in a temperature-based search
- Fixed acceleration for units mph, kn, and c being displayed as mph2, kn2, and c2 instead of <unit>/sec
- Fixed bug with the star browser filter: “moon/exotic life biome: any” was not applied
- Fixed an assortment of one-off errors in object properties in the catalogs
0.990.48.2034 (2024-08-05)
Build 0.990.48.2034
- Increased precision for physical and rotational parameters in exported exoplanet and star scripts
- Fixed bug with loading/saving workshop addons list when an addon had a quote mark in its name
- Fixed crash in the Event Finder when choosing "Eclipse" mode if no star or planet is selected
- Updated the exoplanet and host star catalog (new planets and hosts)
- Updated locations
0.990.47.2020 (2024-04-18)
Build 0.990.47.2015
- Added AgX tonemapping mode
- Added Gaia BH2 and BH3 black hole systems
- Updated rotation models for moons in our solar system to be more precise (DE436 model for Earth's moon, and IAU rotation for other moons in the Solar system)
- Known issue: rotation begins to drift at the distant past or future (around the 20,000 year mark from the present)
- Date/time field on the Navigation toolbar now accepts input in Julian date format
- Added a new stellar limb darkening function (WIP)
- Updated spectral types for 60,000+ catalog stars
- Updated distances for 100,000+ catalog stars, as well as some black holes and their hosts (mostly minor, only a few thousand are more significant)
- Added 810 new brown dwarfs
- Added a few dozen new exoplanets/host stars
- Added some missing 'B' components of exoplanet-hosting binaries
- Updated naming conventions for some stars and nebulae
- Added an accretion disk to T CrB B (aka, The Blaze Star)
- Updated Uranus and Neptune's new moons, and tweaked their atmosphere colors to be more accurate
- Improved the appearance of Eris, Dysnomia, and Sedna
- Updated greenhouse gas concentrations in Earth's atmosphere
- Adjusted shadow and totality mask of the recent eclipse
- Tweaked atmosphere visuals for Galilean satellites
- Fixed Europa's classification/composition (it's a terra, not an aquaria)
- Updated albedo of Dione
- More climate model bug fixes, largely related to wind speeds
- Fixed eclipse shadow sizes being larger than they should
- Fixed carbon star spectral types for catalog planets always presenting as C-R
- Updated the asteroid (16) Psyche
- Fixed visibility distance of star cluster particles
- Removed flags from the language selection list
- Pruned duplicate catalog entries
- Removed auto-patching sprite nebula model configs with model stats
- Galaxy and nebula sprite model configs are renamed from .cfg to .pst
0.990.46.2000 (2023-12-04)
- Fixed minor bugs in the climate model
- Updated exoplanets catalog
- Updated asteroids catalog
- Updated moons of Saturn
0.990.46.1995 (2023-11-09)
Update 0.990.46.1995 (01/11/2023)
- Initial implementation of the climate model for planets: the Wiki has a new "Climate" tab; an object's on-screen info panel now has new temperature readings
- Added support of TIFF textures inside pak files
- Added Indonesian localization, updated other localizations
- The search by name tool allows selection of clusters and nebulae with the same name (example: NGC 6711, NGC 7380)
- Fixed the change of appearance bug for some Earth-like planets in the previous build (was a silent patch)
- Fixed the bug that causes an incorrect window size for SE on displays with DPI scaling > 100%
- Fixed glare effect in VR (it now appear monoscopic and correctly scales with rendering resolution)
- Fixed the background exposure bug in black hole/warp rendering in fish eye and cylindrical projection modes
- Fixed the bug that didn’t allow the location preview texture to update after the location was updated
- Fixed the export of textures bug in all formats
- Fixed the crashing issue that was caused when exporting very large dds skyboxes
- Fixed problems with starting SpaceEngine on a secondary monitor
0.990.46.1975a (2023-07-11)
- Fixed crash at startup on Intel HD
- Fixed color inversion bug in VR on AMD Radeon
- Fixed bright artifacts in the bloom effect at 4k+ resolutions on AMD Radeon
- Updated localizations
0.990.46.1965 (2023-06-01)
- Updated catalogs
- Added fake directional lighting to dark systems (planemo and inactive black holes) in the Chart mode
- Fixed crash at startup on Intel Iris Xe
- Fixed flickering of star surfaces (hopefully)
- Fixed stars being visible during the day from the surface of a planet in HDR mode when planet shine is disabled
- Fixed bug with ambient lighting on planemo with rings
- Fixed bug with lighting of planemo in Chart mode
- Fixed shaking of second column of object info text in VR
- Fixed register of digital exponent in object info text in VR
- Fixed rendering of camera spline path
0.990.46.1960 (2023-04-28)
- Fixed few errors in catalogs
- Fixed visible transition of underwater fog to the shore
0.990.46.1955 (2023-04-26)
General improvements
- Added "power save mode": framerate is limited if SE's window loses focus (PowerSaveMaxFPS variable in the config)
- Added button on left toolbar to toggle the HUD text (same effect as using Ctrl-` shortcut)
- Better appearance of frozen terra worlds (large snow coverage)
- Changed environment maps from 16-bit to 32-bit (worse performance, but fixes fluctuating brightness issues when changing camera exposure)
- Added LMC globular cluster NGX 1783 and dwarf galaxies Boötes II and Boötes III
- Shuttle aero control surfaces now reset to neutral position (0 deflection angle) when not accepting input (i.e. below 10 kPa dynamic pressure)
- Faster initial creation of sprite galaxy and nebula models
- Updated palettes of brown dwarfs
- Changed catalog loading logic
- CSV files will always be considered "older than" SC files (CSV always loads first)
- If catalog files have the same modification date, the merging order is determined by file name comparison (e.g. ExoPlanets2.sc will be applied as a patch to ExoPlanets.sc)
- Updated localizations
Water-related fixes and improvements
- Improved color and density of water absorption/fog effect
- Better shoreline, rivers and lakes on Earth
- 3D water lighting matches terrain lighting, transition to 3D water is almost perfect
- Fixed atmospheric attenuation calculated for underwater terrain (the Mariana trench was visible from space)
- Fixed lighting of terrain detail textures (soil) under water
- Fixed lighting on underwater terrain if water layer is switched off
- Fixed artifacts near shorelines
Bug fixes
- Fixed crash when changing graphics quality preset
- Fixed bug with cut-off text on tutorial dialogs if GUI scale is larger than 100%
- Fixed flashing of planet lighting in auto and manual exposure modes
- Fixed the "transparent mountains" bug (artifact of atmospheric scattering rendering)
- Fixed issue with blurry milky way after changing from potato or low quality to custom
- Fixed ship model disappearing in a planet's shadow
- Fixed illumination of brown dwarfs by stars
- Fixed illumination of planets by brown dwarfs
- Fixed artifacts in stereoscopic modes on Nvidia
- Fixed main menu layout for 720p displays
- Fixed cutting of outer edge of rings around small bodies (asteroids)
- Fixed bug with clouds disappearing at altitude of 10 km on oceanic planets
- Fixed some bugs with planet re-classification after evolution of life and atmosphere
- Fixed bug with the rings winter effect (it had made clouds black instead of transparent)
- Fixed many catalog errors, including sizes of galaxies TON 618 and IC 1101
- Fixed bug with background star magnitude in the Chart mode when opening it with narrow camera FOV
- Fixed planet lighting in Chart mode when opening and manipulating Wiki or Solar System Browser
- Fixed atmospheric scattering artifact near shoreline and discontinuity at horizon
- Fixed rendering of labels for static ships and asteroids with custom models
- Fixed main menu sound effects always being set to 100% after startup
- Fixed DPI scaling of non-client area of SE window (header)
- Fixed blurriness of planet image in the Wiki
0.990.45.1940 (2022-12-20)
Build 0.990.43.1890 (public hotfix) [2022/05/18]
- Fixed loading locations in star clusters and nebulae
- Locations dialog shows object's name and parent if holding mouse over the cell
- Diffraction spikes on accretion disk are generated on the most hot spot instead of its center
- Added shadow to the FPS counter
Build 0.990.44.1910 (beta) [2022/09/20]
- Realistic General Relativity effects:
-- Kerr-Newman ("rotating") black holes
-- Ellis wormholes (traversable for camera and ships)
-- Alcubierre warp bubble
-- Volumetric accretion disks
- Updated localizations
- Added Armenian localization
- Faster program startup (multi-threaded loading of shaders and some data)
- Improved precision of axial rotation for quickly spinning objects like neutron stars
- Faster AMD CAS implementation for volumetrics upscale
- Added lanczos filter for volumetrics upscale
- Added frame-time graph to debug mode
- Engine performance improvements (fixed various kinds of periodic lag spikes):
-- Scanning for nearest galaxies and planetary system was moved to worker threads
-- Faster updating of planet/moon lighting color, which allows to improve frequency of color update in the "Planet shine = high" mode
-- Faster updating of previews in the Solar system browser
- Tweaked all graphics quality presets, added a "potato" preset at the extreme low end PC
- Added warning messages during "cold startups" if the operating system, RAM, VRAM, and/or GPU vendor do not meet SE’s system requirements
- Updated exoplanets catalog (September 02, 2022)
- Better default acceleration/deceleration curve for "Go to" automatic camera flights
- Camera "Go to" timing values are SE variables now
- Ability to edit RA/Dec/Dist of a catalog star
- Fixed barycenter billboard rendering
- Fixed black stars artifact caused by too big absorption by nebula
- Fixed velocity value display in spacecraft and aircraft camera mode
- Fixed bug with spacecraft lighting in interstellar space
- Fixed some bugs in the Wiki text editor
- Fixed Venus texture orientation
- Fixed visibility of labels of asteroids/comets with a custom 3D models
- Fixed console rendering then its buffer is overflown
- Fixed 2D main menu background
- Fixed image corruption in stereoscopic 3D modes (hopefully)
- Fixed reflections on non-PBR ships in autoexposure mode
- Fixed spline path remaining time display
Build 0.990.45.1935 (public) [2022/12/16]
- Fixed memory leak on generating procedural galaxies
- Fixed stars illumination bug in supermassive black hole systems
- Updated localizations
- Updated exoplanet catalog (November 11, 2022)
- Updated catalog of brown dwarfs
- Updated catalog of white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes
- Fixed issue with galaxy numbering shift if new galaxies were added to the catalog:
-- Locations in catalog galaxies are loaded despite on ID change, using coordinates
-- Loaded locations are automatically updated with a new galaxy ID and saved on the disk
- Fixed bug with slow drifting of a fixed clouds layer over large periods of time
- Fixed issue with change of flight direction if VR controller tracking was lost
- Fixed the "trash bag" shape of asteroids and comets
- Fixed ESI equation
- Fixed planets disappearing near black holes or binary white dwarf systems
- Fixed terrain discontinuities (buggy-looking cliffs) in equatorial ridges
- Fixed rayed craters being extremely deep when generated on top of equatorial ridges
- Fixed warp bubble not scaling to the ship's size
Build 0.990.45.1940 (public) [2022/12/19]
- OpenVR SDK and Oculus SDK are upated to latest versions
- Fixed crash on start-up in OpenVR mode
- Fixed behaviour of the Watermark command (now default is Visible true)
- Fixed bug with missed "loading screen" skybox in VR
- Fixed issue with galaxy numbering shift if new galaxies were added to the catalog (again):
-- User names database is updated to the new galaxy ID after loading some location in that galaxy