No Man’s Sky’s much anticipated Beyond update is now live, and brings with it a host of patch notes.
See below for a selection. Click here to read them in full.
VIRTUAL REALITY
No Man’s Sky is now fully playable in virtual reality.
Many interactions have been given special VR-only options, including: grabbing plants and other collectables with your hands; physically opening the cockpits of ships and exocraft; piloting starships directly with a VR stick/throttle; and punching objects to cause damage.
Introduced special VR menus: including controlling Multi-Tool options via a menu embedded on the in-world Multi-Tool; and browsing the quick menu and inventory via a personal wrist-mounted display.
GRAPHICS AND PERFORMANCE
OpenGL has been replaced by Vulkan. Many players, particularly players with AMD graphics cards, should see a performance improvement.
Significant optimisations to asteroid generation.
Significant optimisations to planet generation.
Improved loading times.
Significant optimisations to 2D rendering.
Reduced memory usage across the game generally.
Significant optimisations to cloud and terrain shaders.
Significant optimisations to the animation LODing system.
Added level-of-detail mesh optimisations to the majority of in-game assets.
Significant optimisations for large bases.
Revised HDR support, updated output curve in line with advances in HDR calibration.
Adaptive and Triple-Buffered V-Sync are now selectable from Graphics Options.
Players with more than one GPU can now select which is used from Video Options.
Many graphics settings no longer require a restart to apply.
The ‘LOADING SHADERS’ load step has been removed, improving the loading experience.
BUILDING
Reworked the Base Building Menu: improved visual clarity; improved usability; and allowed quicker access to parts, including adding the ability for parts to be in more than one group.
Day/night cycles are now deterministic and synced between players.
Significant improvements have been made to the base part snapping system, allowing for faster and more convenient building.
Added a new photo-mode style building camera to allow easier placement of complex structures.
Added the ability to scale some base parts.
Added the ability to rotate some base parts around more than one axis.
Added new power generation base parts: Biofuel Reactors, Solar Panels, Electromagnetic Generators and Batteries. Each offers a different way to generate power for your base.
Added wiring, allowing you to connect base parts that need power to your generators.
Removed the manual fueling of many base technologies and replaced it with power grid requirements.
Added power requirements to existing parts such as lights.
Added a range of logic gates and switches, allowing for creative control of powered parts.
Added new large-scale mineral and gas extractor base parts.
Added mineral/gas pipelines, allowing players to connect their new extractors to remote depots for ease of collection.
Added a new Survey Device upgrade for the Analysis Visor, allowing player to hunt out the optimal spots to place mineral/gas extractors and electromagnetic generators.
Overhauled the gravity simulation, improving the experience on dead planets.
Added Short-Range Teleporters. These pads may be placed around your base and wired up to create a network of near-instant transportation.
Improved the management of base options when interacting with the base computer, including improving the ability to take screenshots of the base.
Added the ability to jetpack while the Build Menu is open.
Improved the visual effects of the Terrain Manipulator.
Unified the functionality of the Message Module and the Communications Station and added a new unique art asset.
Added several new roof pieces, allowing players to build complete sloping roofs.
Added new exocraft-sized doors that can be powered to open and close automatically as you approach.
Added new interactable props, including customisable light boxes and audio frequency generators.
Added a powered Sphere Generator that allows players to generate large movable spheres.
Improved the visual effects when constructing base parts & technology.
BUG FIXES
Increased the tolerance of trader ships participating in a freighter battle so that they do not report friendly fire as a crime unless the shot is fatal.
Fixed an issue where Sentinel drones would become stuck when scanning a player who was entering and exiting their ship.
Fixed an issue where the third person player model would never look directly at the camera.
Fixed an issue where ship rain audio was being played when it was not raining.
Added creature sounds to the weird biome creatures.
Fixed a Multi-Tool animation glitch when firing the Mining Beam from sheathed in first person.
Change Asian numerical separators to be correct format.
Fixed an issue where the starship can appear floating above the terrain if the player is spawned at a long distance from the ship.
Fixed a number of item duplication exploits.
Fix for the starship HUD reading ‘Moon of Unknown Planet’ when the planet is known.
The Mining Beam is now the correct colour when upgraded with a procedural upgrade module.
Fixed an issue where the wrong impact particles were sometimes used when shooting Sentinel Quadrupeds.
Miscellaneous text fixes.
QUALITY OF LIFE
The Exosuit torch can now be turned on whatever the time of day.
While the Pulse Engine is engaged, the central ship screen now displays a clearer message about fuel use.
Technology can now be installed in stages, allowing incomplete tech to be placed in an inventory and its individual components added over time.
Technology can now be moved after installation.
Significantly overhauled the system for pinning instructions for building technologies, products and base parts.
Added the ability to pin a substance and receive directions for where to find it.
Removed the Advanced Mining Laser requirement from large trees on lush planets.
Added an Antimatter Reactor base part that generates antimatter over time.
Added specific efficient Starshield Batteries for use in starship combat.
Added ‘Warp Hypercores’, a large hyperdrive fuel unit with five times the capacity of a regular Warp Cell.
Increased the base mining speed of the Mining Beam.
Fixed a bug that caused resource notifications to stack up while playing without the HUD.
Reduced the length of time resource notifications are displayed when you have multiple resources stacked up.
Added alerts when new items are encountered or recorded to the Catalogue.
Added the Optical Drill, a Mining Beam upgrade that increases the resources gained from mining.
Added the Launch System Recharger, a starship upgrade that automatically recharges the Launch Thrusters over time.
Added an extra slot to the starting Multi-Tool.
When installing an upgrade module, the correct inventory is automatically selected.
Adjusted the probabilities of low, medium and high security planets in Normal Mode.
Adjusted the timers of Sentinel patrols on lower security planets.
In normal mode, allowed some planets to never spawn Sentinel drones.
Added a chance to collect geodes when mining rocks or asteroids. Geodes can be analysed to extract large quantities of substances.
Increased the base speed of all Refiner units.
In normal mode, increased the slot storage limit for substances from 250 to 10,000.
Increased the wealth levels at which higher tiers of pirates will attack.
Increased the base energy levels of the Mining Beam and the Terrain Manipulator, allowing for less frequent recharging.
Replaced the ‘Find specific building’ component of the Signal Booster with a system of planetary charts. Acquire planetary charts from Space Station Cartographers.
Navigation Data can be traded for planetary charts. Collect Navigation Data when saving and charting at waypoints and save beacons.
Using the Terrain Manipulator to mine basic ground will award silicate powder, which can be used to refine glass.
Added a note on the interaction label of NPCs that have already been visited.
When craftable products are the current mission objective, they are automatically pushed to the top of the product list.
Adjusted the frequency of rare asteroids.
When buying a freighter, it now comes with some basic cargo already in the inventory.
Increased the minimum speed while in space combat, creating better combat handling in most conditions.
Increased the maximum speed while flying in space.
Added a degree of roll when banking in planetary flight.
The warning triangle in the cockpit is no longer displayed when the Pulse Engine is not being requested.
Added a cockpit throttle indicator to show current thrust settings.
The ‘Shields Down’ message is no longer displayed when claiming an abandoned ship.
The ‘How to land the ship’ notification no longer displays immediately after planetary takeoff.
When charging the Pulse Engine, the current autopilot target marker is now highlighted.
Missions now add hints to highlight the relevant items in the build and crafting menus.
Inventory popups are now closed automatically if you click outside of them.
Tweaked the weighting of mission selection in the mission board to give a better range of available missions.
Increased the likelihood of procedural upgrade modules being relevant to the player’s current tech setup.
Added several new environmental protection Exosuit upgrades.
Ammunition is automatically promoted to the top of the crafting list if players try to reload but have no available ammo.
Increased the default stack size for Ammunition.
The Mining Beam now has a much higher base heat capacity.
Reworked the Mining Beam overheat mechanic: the beam now cools down correctly rather than instantly resetting; the Mining Beam does more damage as it approaches max heat; the Mining Beam changes colour as it approaches max heat.
