For unmapped and procedural planets, the surface is generated procedurally using your computer's GPU. For many Solar System bodies, actual data from space probes is used, with huge, high-resolution texture packs available as free DLC.

Volumetric 3D models of galaxies and nebulae with interstellar dust clouds, and 3D landscapes on planets and stars. Detailed interactive tutorials will familiarize you with the controls. Also, time travel is possible: you can accelerate, decelerate, or reverse the flow of time, and jump to a specified date. Moving through space is as easy as 'click and go', as well as game-style free flight using the WASD keys or a gamepad. You are free to move around the universe – travel seamlessly between any object and any distance, from surface to orbit to interstellar and intergalactic space. Regions of space not yet cataloged feature procedurally generated objects: galaxies, stars, star clusters, nebulae, and planetary systems. Known celestial objects are represented using data from catalogs: galaxies (NGC/IC), stars (HIPPARCOS), star clusters, nebulae, and planets (Solar System and known extrasolar planets). With SpaceEngine, the possibilities are limitless.Īll types of celestial objects are represented: galaxies, nebulae, stars and star clusters, planets and moons, comets and asteroids.

SpaceEngine is also very friendly for creators of mods and add-ons – create your own planets, star systems, even galaxies, import your own spacecraft models, create custom GUI skins, and more, all easily sharable with others. Spacecraft with Newtonian physics and pilot-assist autopilot features (in early development but fully usable) are yours to fly anywhere in the universe in the Flight Simulator mode. Everything you see in the sky – stars and galaxies, planets and moons, asteroids and comets, black holes and neutron stars, star clusters and nebulae – are yours to explore at the press of a button. Every planet you encounter in your journey will feature procedural 3D terrain with detailed textures. Explore Earth and our neighboring worlds in the Solar System, orbit a black hole in a galaxy billions of light-years away, or visit anything in between seamlessly, with no transitions.Īll of time and space are yours to explore – cruise between the stars at a million times the speed of light, and accelerate time to watch the orbital motions of a thousand worlds play out before your eyes. SpaceEngine is a 1:1 scale science-based Universe simulator, featuring billions upon billions of galaxies, nebulae, stars, and planets, all shown at their full real-world scale.

Universe sandbox 2 vs space engine