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 This is my unfiltered dev journal, so please keep in mind that what I write here are my thoughts and will be outdated by the time you read this, as so many things change quickly.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
Some of the results from our cloud experiments are honestly breathtaking. We’re testing multiple cloud layers, different textures, and atmospheric effects, and the combination is starting to create skies that feel deep, heavy, and alive.
It’s fascinating to see how much presence a planet gains once the atmosphere stops feeling flat and starts behaving like a real volume.
The first pieces of our new weather systems are starting to take shape. We’re testing rain and sandstorms, each appearing in their respective biomes based on biome humidity and local conditions.
We’ve also laid the first foundations of a working Speed Particles system. This is important to me because without a strong sense of motion, traveling long distances can start to feel strangely static. When your reference points are far away – a planet, a star, an orbital landmark – it’s easy to lose the feeling that you’re actually moving.
Speed particles give you that missing feedback. They help communicate velocity and direction, making travel feel active and intentional instead of quiet and disconnected.
Here are Speed Particles in space:
And on a planet:
This is work-in-progress, before artists have polished it, so it doesn’t have final visuals. We’re also working on wind as part of the broader weather system. Wind is not pushing grids around yet, but the particles are already reacting to it, giving the environment a stronger sense of motion and direction.
And to wrap this up, here’s a small sneak peek at a few blocks the art team sent my way recently – the Trade Terminal, Sound Block, Sensor and Neon Tubes.
Question to you: What kinds of weather events would you like to see in Space Engineers 2?
Share your thoughts in the comments below – I read them all, and they’re one of my favorite parts of making our games.
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Nice!
nice
What would it be like if during fog or other weather events, to have windows and other things start to fogging up.
or possibly having wind work as like a moderator to atmo thrusters? Since would be interesting if the direction of the wind affected the power of the thrusters in either a positive or negative way
Windows fogging up sound cool, could also apply to transitions between atmo and space, depending on your speed. Perhaps with an automatic de-fog and de-frost slowly kicking in if the grid is powered.
But after adding so many effects related to atmosphere it would be nice to finally include atmospheric drag physics to go along with it, similar to what’s already quite neatly modded in SE1.
That’s a cool idea, for transitions between space and atmo 🙂
Space particles look nice, subtle yet visible enough to give a sense of speed. But I don’t think atmospheric speed-generated clouds are necessary and seem too artificial to me – there aren’t any cloudlets that suddenly appear only from up close (of course no dust in space but I see why it’s beneficial there).
I think the atmospheric ones could be toned down or real effects like over-wing vapors or wingtip vortices could replace them to give you a sense of speed, at least when viewing the aircraft from outside. Even shaking and audible rattling when performing sharp turns in high G while in dense atmosphere could improve the feel of speed, I know that too well from DCS flight simulator.
Looking forward to wind on planets affecting other particles as well, makes it seem much more alive 🙂 hopefully trees will also sway to the wind.
Feel like for atmospheric effects, it should suit the enviroment more. Since you would notice the effects from high speeds different I feel if you were somewhere foggy, or windy.
Though a rattling effect would be nice when turning at high G
Weather Effects on Gameplay
I’d really like to see weather having meaningful gameplay impact, not just visual effects.
1️⃣ Dangerous Weather Conditions
Flying during high winds or storms should be very dangerous, especially for:
• Lightweight ships
• Engineers using jetpacks
Wind should apply directional velocity to your grid or character, depending on wind direction, along with occasional random turbulence.
If you have lightweight grids that are not connected to the ground or attached to heavy/static structures, the wind could potentially blow them away.
Storms should feel significant — something where you’re better off:
• Staying indoors
• Using heavy ships
• Operating grounded vehicles
2️⃣ Weather With Benefits
On the other hand, weather should also provide gameplay advantages.
For example:
• Biomes with harsher weather could contain richer and/or rarer ore deposits
• Right after a storm, ore scanners could receive a temporary detection boost
(Depending on how planetary ore detection is implemented — I personally hope for something more advanced than the traditional small-range ore detector.)
3️⃣ Visual Resource Clues
Alternatively, weather could enhance visual resource clues.
Instead of simple “dark patches” like in SE1, there could be something more immersive:• Specific types of rocks scattered on the ground
• Certain ores can be found more often adjacent to some other voxel materials
• Different visual indicators for different resource types
These clues should be subtle, not visible from far away. Players would still need to explore actively and pay attention.
After a storm, those clues could be:• Temporarily amplified
• More visible
• Changing color during rain or fog
• Shining more brightly after certain weather types
4️⃣ Knowledge-Based Gameplay
Anything that improves knowledge-based gameplay would be a huge win.
Experienced players should be able to:• Understand different weather patterns
• Use specific weather conditions to their advantage
This would compensate for the negative effects (like dangerous flying conditions) and make the weather system engaging far beyond just “cool visuals.”
Great progress as usual and some very exciting developments. Can we please have a better solution than speed particles? They dont help in a combat situation or in micro manoeuvreing situations instead of or as well as, can we please get a hud element that shows directional vector in screen like the horizon level indicator (that i assume will also be coming later). This is a staple of space flight sims and games and is present in current real life commercial and military aircraft.
HUD elements are projected on screens in front of windows in aircraft including said directional vector indicator, not sci-fi future tech, right now. It is such an important feature of flying that they have it in real world scenarios. Its even more important in a game where you cannot feel your inertia. Please reconsider this.
can you share an example of this device? I am not a pilot and I can’t think of anything in my all other space games what you are referring to?
it’s typically called the Flight Path Marker or Velocity Vector. It looks like a small circle with two horizontal and one vertical line coming out of it.
@Jeanluc Grey
if you play a lot of space games, you have seen what im talking about because im hard pressed to think of a single space flight game that doesnt have this except for SE1 and 2. Actually, scratch that, flight game period. It is a HUD element that shows the direction of travel of the craft relative to the direction of facing. Its a tool that enables you to check your flight vector when there are no points of reference. Say you make a sharp turn and your dampeners arent strong enough to make the vector change as quickly as your turn speed, your facing and your heading deviate. The hud element shows your actual direction of travel so you can adapt or track your movements better. if you are flying sans dampeners as i usually do, it shows you your heading when the system isnt auto driving you forward. This is extremely helpful for docking too. You line up your directional vector with the landing pad and coast in instead of with dampeners, tapping all the way and making adjustments because holding down forces max thrust but letting go makes you brake. If you’re coasting in atmo or you want to break out of orbit but dont want to burn fuel pushing against the speed limit, turn off your dampeners and use the vector heading icon to be able to manually adjust your flight path. It has so much utility and as I said is in actual real aircraft HUDs. Ive been bleating about this for years and Marek has explicitly said in streams that he has no intention of including it. Makes no sense. He wants to make the game more approachable to new players but the things we actually want that would do that he doesn’t like.
Great progress this week, Marek! And my answer (in the form of a question): Would it be possible to see rainbows in some paradisiacal environments in the future?
Phenomenal progress, thanking your team for the hard effort poured into making the weather in SE 2 impactful. I can see some potential with applying the volumetrics to create Aurora borealis/australis at the poles of the game’s planets. It could look pretty nice and give people greater reason to set up in the arctic parts of a given planet
Great work and transparency, keep up! The biggest problem i see with the really impressive clouds is distraction 😀 I mean why should I leave the planet if even the coulds look so beautiful…
Do you see a chance once wind is implemented and wind has a effect on grids, that we could get atmospheric drag on wings? I’m sure ar some point there will be mods, but having it in Vanilla would be so cool.
There are many types of weather in space. I believe we need auroras and sprites, which can be observed from space and visualize the energy that permeates the planet. We also need meteors, which are plasmas that penetrate the atmosphere accompanied by flame-colored reactions. Instead of rocks spewing fire and smoke, it would be preferable to detect approaching asteroids followed by a warning signal. Stellar flares and sunspots are also important weather phenomena. Large outbursts may cause electrical disturbances. More familiar weather phenomena include tornadoes, which vary in number, size, and the objects they scoop up. We may also have the opportunity to observe typhoons and permanent atmospheric vortices. Some planets will produce rain or ice other than water. This may cause damage, but it could also be a harvestable resource. I believe there are also many other phenomena that will amaze engineers, such as rockfall hazards, geysers, and undersea chimneys.
I like the atmospheric speed particles and also the idea of speed particles in space, however I wish for a config option to disable them, because I personally like a more realistic game and speed particles do not exist in real life.
Speed Particles in space are familiar from Star Trek opening, and introducing them here is exciting and welcome. SP in atmosphere is truly exciting! Cloud streaming by and that subtle occasional leaf zipping past really increases the immersion experience for me. Love it!
Could you maybe elaborate a little bit about your vision of contracts? You acknowledged the ones already in the game are disliked, but we don’t know which direction they’re going to go in the future. “Making them more interesting” is so vague it doesn’t say anything and potentially involves changes that will also be heavily disliked. For example, I’d be unhappy with a contract “weld up these 3 blocks but there’s a storyline going on”.
I like the look of the Trade Terminal. Especially the keyboard module with apparent cables and a missing cover plate in the background. Such imperfections contribute to realism.
As for speed particles: speed of sound is 340 m/s (1235 km/h) on 0m above sea height. But at 10.000m altitude this speed is 299,5 m/s (1078 km/h) due to pressure and temperature of air. At higher altitutes it’s even lower (lower than ingame speed limit). What if to add sound barrier boom and visual effect? It would be a small nice effect to experience in singleplayer, and in multiplayer it might alert players if something is getting into or outside planet’s atmosphere, or just flying by very fast. And would encourage multiplayer players flying slower for stealth gameplay/attacks on planets with atmosphere.
Intense Lightning storms please!
Imagine the entire landscape getting illuminated with bright flashes at night, with the lightning splitting the entire sky!
Neon Tubes are back!!! May I request also adding the singular tubes like we have on small grid in SE1? I always find myself wanting to use them on large grids.
Also I’m a biiig big fan of the sensor. Doubles as a functional and a deco block. More of this please!
Good work on the clouds. I really like the multiple layers. The storm clounds also look really good. I especially liked the swirly coulds, that video was probably the first one that made me think this is an alien solar system and things are different. I was missing that from SE2 so far.
I think the planet starting to look a bit too small, even if it’s not in vanilla I’d like to see larger planetsizes in mods, maybe more planets with enough flat terrain for car races.
In terms of the wether I’d like to see more randomization of what weather and when appears as well as weater effecting flyability and driveability, mud slowing down the rover, wind introducing drag and turbulance etc.
Not sure how hard that would be but I’d like to see water levels increase or decrease based on dry weather and rain, like raising a lake by a meter or half a meter after rain for a while.
I am loving the new blocks; wind, speed and cloud particles also look great too. One concern I have – will there be DLC’s like in SE1 after the base game is finished? If so, will it be the same system with only new blocks and such?
I am personally a huge fan of severe weather systems and events in games such as Icarus. Similar to the weather systems in SE1, I wish to have a reason to build up a big base to survive the environment. Although I’d love to ask for tornadoes, that is most likely not going to happen. I really like 4Peace’s ideas on the weather impacting game knowledge, with advantages and disadvantages.
The large grid blocks in the game feel like they take way too much resources to make. Are there plans to make them cost less
would like weather to not be like it is on SE1, where clear weather feels like a rarety
I would love to see the effects of weather not only on planets, but also in space, such as:
Massive clouds of microparticles or gases that could damage the most sensitive and exposed systems of spacecraft, such as engines, antennas, etc.
Radiation clouds that could disable or disrupt the operation of some systems, hindering navigation or even leaving the spacecraft adrift and out of control.
This could make space an even more interactive and challenging place.🙂
You got speed particles wrong.
Any glowing or illuiminated particles will be MORE visible where they have less angular motion, i.e: in the center of the view as they move forwards, and not at the edge.
Snowfall on a snowy mountain would be a great weather event.