Alpha 3.0 is going to be the most important update for Star Citizen and a huge milestone to achieve. Not only because it will add the full Stanton system and the first set of professions in the game but mainly because it will add planetary landings and give players the opportunity to land on planets and moons, explore and in general pursue their goals planetside. The planetary tech of Star Citizen has advanced a lot since the first time it was revealed, creating beautiful planets and making us dream of the moment we will be able to visit them.



We could say that the first look we got on this tech was when the Nyx Landing Zone Preview was released. For the first time we witnessed a spacecraft in star citizen approaching a landing zone on the surface of a planet. Obviously the developers have been working on this for a while and it was quite awe inspiring to watch this achievement even at its first steps.



What followed was the "From Pupil to Planet" trailer, a video showing for the first time a seamless transition from the surface of a procedurally generated planet to space and the realization that our universe was about to become a lot bigger. This trailer was showing a small procedurally generated rock planet with an atmosphere and a diameter of 1000 KM. What was even more amazing, was the fact that it was a 100% in-game footage rendered in real time.



The developers have been experimenting with many different planets with and without atmosphere before creating the small rocky planet of the trailer. After this great little video we didn't think CIG would be able to surprise us again, something they have achieved many times since then. Starting with a very short clip of a character walking on the surface of a planet. The planet was not anything special, a simple surface with low quality textures but still very beautiful to watch another accomplishment of the talented team behind this amazing project.



And then came the Gamescom of 2016 and changed everything. CIG revealed their plans of an expanded persistent universe with procedural planets, the full Stanton system with five planets and their moons, including Delamar imported from Nyx for extra variety and testing purposes but also many space stations, planetary outposts and points of interest around them. During the presentation we visited Levski, the Delamar landing zone, an area full of NPC and alive and saw what the future holds for Star Citizen. We also learned about the evolution of the missions system and the implementation of many new and innovative features to the game with the 3.0 update. No matter how impressive this was, the planetary tech was not simply "there" yet and there was no real diversity on the planets at this stage of development. But it was certainly a harbinger of greater things to come.



We had to wait a bit until the Citizencon of 2016 to admire the true potential of this technology. Procedural planets V2 was revealed then, an improved version of the planetary tech we had seen at Gamescom a couple months before and it was breathtaking. We were shown a beautiful planet, an alive planet with much better quality and the existence of different ecosystems on that one only planet. Biomes that will be able to blend together and create a realistic experience, a first look at vegetation and learned of how CIG was creating a full weather simulation with the biomes themselves controlling the weather, clouds but also proper water reflections, waves and realistic oceans in general. Another very important info had to do with lighting and shadows. The light in the Verse will depend on our location related to the sun, the planets will rotate on their axis and also rotate around the sun, creating a day-night cycle and not only beautiful planets but also very realistic scenarios.



What is also very important is the fact that although these planets will be procedurally generated, will be Artist -Driven procedurally generated planets. That means that the planets will be created with procedural techniques but will also include many locations handcrafted carefully by the artists of CIG to give a unique and warm feeling, look. Planets will be created to have many different ecosystems but could also be created with a unique condition, a frozen planet for example, something that will be dictated by the rich lore of Star Citizen.



Today the work on the planetary tech continues and the planets and moons of Star Citizen are getting better and better. Every week we hear news of improvements on clouds, lighting, planetary and weather effects, news that make us anticipate the release of this great update and the waiting harder!