Summary
Space Engineersis 11 years old. Despite its age, the game still has a loyal following. Keen, the developers, has a policy of releasing major new game features for free, alongside an optional cosmetic DLC pack. This means that players who bought the base game on launch have access to all the new features that have been patched over the years for this space survival game.
However, the original game is starting to look quite dated and simply does not exploit major technological advances such as raytracing and multicore CPUs. This is whereSpace Engineers 2comes in. In recent weeks, Keen has released several teaser videos, finally announcingSpace Engineers 2on the 10th of December in a final teaser video. The newspace gamewill feature the modern iteration of the Vrage engine, Vrage3. No release date has been hinted at yet, and it is likely fans will have to wait sometime to playSpace Engineers 2, but at least it is confirmed as in production now.
New Vrage3 Engine
Replacing The Vrage2 Engine
Vrage3 is the next iteration of the Vrage engine that has been used inMiner Wars 2081,Space Engineers, andMedieval Engineers. The engine focuses on supporting large, voxelized,destructible worlds.
Vrage3 looks like a much more modern version of the engine, exploiting hardware improvements. Keen has stated on their development site that Vrage3 will come with multicore CPU support, follow a GPU-driven pipeline, and have DX12 support. It will also be multiplatform and is going to be a huge upgrade over the dated Vrage2 engine.
Water Physics
Shape The Waterscape Of A World
Space Engineersdoesn’t have any water at all. It does have ice lakes, but these are made from static voxels. There are mods that attempt to addwater physicsto the current game, but these can be a little clunky and can tank the game’s performance on older hardware.
Space Engineers 2will feature full water physics. Take a step back here for a moment, and consider what this means. Due to the fully destructible nature of the world, players will be able to modify the landscape and impact the water table. Imagine drilling and trimming down the edge of a cliff beside a lake to create a waterfall, or re-routing the watercourse to fill a valley, for example.
Improved Multiplayer
No More Steam Networking!
Let’s be honest here, the current multiplayer implementation inSpace Engineersis pretty dire and uses the Steam networking services. It looks likeSpace Engineers 2will include reworkedmultiplayer featuresand better netcode.
The Keen development site states that multiplayer will be based on a client-server model. Meaning, locally hosted games will become the authoritative server, in the same way a dedicated server works. As the new engine is stated as being multiplatform, it would be nice if Keen releases a Linux version of the dedicated server. Currently, Linux server owners need to run aSpace Engineersserver inside a container, under WINE. Time will tell.
Improved Rendering Engine
Much Better Graphics
Considering it is an 11-year-old game,Space Engineersstill looks pretty good visually. However, it doesn’t include many of the graphical features players have come to expect from modern games. The new version of the Vrage engine thatSpace Engineers 2will use should address this issue.
Many veteranSpace Engineersplayers will be pleased to know that Vrage3 will fix the ever-present lighting bleedthrough, as well as add real-time dynamic global illumination. Raytracing is being added, no surprise here. Something thatSpace Engineershas always lacked, is any form of antialiasing. The new engine solves this, by providing a range of post-processing effects, including TAA. Overall, from what has been teased so far, Space Engineers 2 is going to look amazing.
New Game Assets
Not Simply Revamped Models
In the teaser videos forSpace Engineers 2that Keen has released so far, it is plain to see that the game assets have been completely redesigned forSpace Engineers 2. Rather than take the existing assets from Space Engineers and rework them, they seem to be entirely unique.
This was likely a requirement due to the new grid system, but it is a welcome new addition and a sign of Keen’s commitment to makingSpace Engineers 2a fresh experience. Many developers would have simply reworked what they already had.
25cm Unified Grid System
No More Split Size Grid!
Currently,Space Engineersenables players to build two different sizes of grids: small and large. Think of this like normal Lego and jumbo Lego. Indeed,building a base, ship, or station inSpace Engineersis much like Lego currently, plugging blocks together to achieve an overall design.
Space Engineers 2is going to change this system entirely. Large and small grids will be a thing of the past. Instead, the new Vrage3 engine will feature a scalable grid system, working on a 25cm grid, meaning blocks can be scaled down or scaled up to any size in this grid. Although blocks such as assemblers and refineries won’t scale, of course. What this means, is that players will be able to create much more detailed designs, and this is evident in the teaser videos.
