Marek's Dev Diary: March 13, 2025

What is this

Every Thursday, I will share a dev diary about what we've been working on over the past few weeks. I'll focus on the interesting challenges and solutions that I encountered. I won't be able to cover everything, but I'll share what caught my interest.

Why am I doing it

I want to bring our community along on this journey, and I simply love writing about things I'm passionate about! This is my unfiltered dev journal, so please keep in mind that what I write here are my thoughts and will be outdated by the time you read this, as so many things change quickly. Any plans I mention aren't set in stone and everything is subject to change. Also, if you don't like spoilers, then don't read this.

Space Engineers 2

• On Monday we released our first update (VS 1.1) - Steam Workshop. Now players can share their blueprints and worlds. I can see a lot of activity there.
• We are now focusing on VS 1.2 and polishing the last few things, and then the testing period begins.
• Our graphics team is hard at work on planetary features planned for Vertical Slice 2. They’re currently focused on improving flora draw distance and developing new foliage for a variety of biomes, including high mountains and savannas.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Today we are finishing the design for Dynamic Music. Here’s a short summary: The music system will feature dynamic tracks based on context, including missions, and sandbox exploration. Music selection will prioritize combat scenarios, playing faction-specific tracks if applicable, or generic combat music otherwise. Location-based ambient music will play when no combat is detected, with unique loops for different planets (Verdur, Byblos, Kemik) and biomes, underwater areas, and space. Combat and danger states will trigger specific loops with a 15-second cooldown before reverting to ambient music, while transitions from danger to combat or ambient to danger/combat are instant. 
• Adding support for emotes/animations + here you can also see the Inverse Kinematics on character’s feet
  
  
  

We are also streamlining our animation tools

• We are improving the 3D UI for Partial copy selection. Currently it’s a bit confusing where the selection volume is because it is rendered without depth-testing. We will enable depth testing and also add more contrasted edges.
  
  
  
  
  
• More and more survival mechanics are being added (for VS2), for example here is “manual respawn”. The block dropped after death is a current placeholder for the character backpack. ;)
  
  
• There’s a Brown Dwarf in the center of Almagest System, here’s how it will most likely look (The in-game side is just the first iteration - so far without any added effects).
  
  
  
  
  

Space Engineers 1

• SE1 team is almost finished with the 206 update, and soon to start working on 207. Looks promising!