Space Engineers 2 News

Space Engineers 2 Dev Diary: October 16, 2025

One of the last touches to our planets is adding tree variations. Different shapes, sizes, and colors give each biome its own character. Even small visual differences can change how a whole area feels when you explore it.

We’re also making final adjustments to biome transitions, especially between grass and snow. These areas now blend more smoothly.

And we won’t stop improving our planets even after the VS2 release. There’s still plenty we want to add and refine to make them feel even more detailed and dynamic over time.

Remember when we showed you the first prototypes of multi-character emotes? Here’s a look at a much more refined version. These improvements will allow us to create proper story cinematics in SE2!

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NPCs won’t be part of the VS2 Update – planets and survival foundations are already massive tasks on their own. However, we’re already working on all the named characters that will appear in the future SE2 storyline.

So how will you get missions if there are no NPC characters in VS2? For now, this will be done through a Contract Block, which will serve as your main interface for receiving and managing your contracts.

Our art team keeps improving their workflow – this time they revealed their Kitbash Library, a collection of small detail elements used to add those final touches and ensure every block is rich in detail.

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We’ve also polished all the block build stages, making the construction process more visually consistent from start to finish.

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A small but useful visual feedback feature is the new welder particle effects that change based on your distance from the block, clearly showing when you’re too far away to weld effectively.

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How important is it for you that Space Engineers 2 has strong lore, memorable characters, and a storyline woven directly into the sandbox experience? Do you prefer a deeper narrative layer, or would you rather keep the focus purely on engineering and exploration?

Full Blog Post: https://blog.marekrosa.org/2025/10/mareks-dev-diary-october-16-2025/

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Space Engineers 2 Dev Diary: October 9, 2025

I’m super proud of the magic our render team is practicing. Because honestly, how else can you explain these latest screenshots?

Tree destruction tuning is successful – they no longer explode all over the place. Now they fall and break much more naturally.

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And of course, we can’t forget to tune ship collisions with Verdure flora – something tells me you’ll be using this feature a lot!

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We finalized biomes and voxel transitions. In real life, you don’t have only desert, rocky, or snowy terrain – everything blends together naturally. The same goes for our planets in SE2.

We’re using procedural masks and height based blending to merge materials smoothly across different terrain types. Each biome mixes gradually with the next, creating natural borders shaped by altitude, slope, and humidity/temperature. We made sure transitions are seamless at every distance and every LOD, so planets don’t end up looking like a patched clown costume.

The Art Team is working not only on VS2 content, but also thinking far ahead with our development – working on both surface flora and the underwater environment. The goal is to make the transition from land to water feel natural and alive, with its own atmosphere, vegetation, and lighting.

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There are also new blocks connected to the water feature. The team is exploring several water-related concepts, and the latest concept art is looking really nice.

Here are the first try-outs of ocean waves tessellation. It’s early, but the shape and motion are starting to feel right.

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And we are experimenting with the possibility of textured water foam.

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If you haven’t done that already – don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter. You don’t want to miss the reveals coming later this month!

Full Blog Post: https://blog.marekrosa.org/2025/10/mareks-dev-diary-october-9-2025/

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Space Engineers 2 Dev Diary: October 2, 2025

VS2 is primarily a planetary update - but it will also contain all the foundations for survival systems.
One of them is the new Inventory screen, along with all the essential features. Here you can see moving resources, splitting them using a slidebar, or type in an exact number or amount.

We have the first visuals of Delfos, the brown dwarf at the center of the Almagest system. Everything in this system, even the bright star Almagest, is placed around it. The visuals are still a work in progress as we fine-tune the contrast and brightness, but they already highlight the unique atmosphere and color palette that will set Delfos apart from other celestial bodies.

Colonization map implementation for VS2 is starting to take a more concrete in-game shape.

Planet Map: https://2.spaceengineersgame.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/MapPlanetClouds2.gif

We are fine tuning colors and saturation to give the planets a more vibrant feel. Small touches like this make the terrain, biomes, and skies stand out more, helping each planet feel distinct and alive.

We are also working on voxel material transitions across planetary surfaces. The goal is simple - make sand, soil, rock, and snow biomes blend cleanly at the edges so the terrain reads well both up close and from altitude.
At ground level you should see clear texture detail without hard seams. From far away the same areas should group into readable shapes without turning into noise.
Getting this right takes tuning masks, falloffs, and filters per biome, but it pays off in smoother slopes, cleaner cliff lines, and more natural looking terrain.

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We have the first implementation of tree fractures in SE2. When you cut or crash into a tree it now splits into logical pieces with proper colliders, particles, and temporary debris. The next step is tuning - so trees don’t “explode” all over the place. 🤭

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When you drill or destroy the roots of a tree, it will fall and break apart. This adds a more natural way to clear forests, and it makes interactions with trees feel more physical and grounded. Again, fine-tuning is in progress.

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We are optimizing the performance of flora, caves, and other planetary features as they load on the planet. Step by step, we are getting closer to a smooth experience when exploring and traveling across different biomes.

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And I will leave you with more images. I can’t believe how quickly the planets are coming together and how beautiful they are starting to look - all thanks to the work of our talented teams.

Full Blog Post: https://blog.marekrosa.org/2025/10/mareks-dev-diary-october-2-2025/

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Space Engineers 2: Planet Kemik, Almagest System

Up next on our roadmap is Vertical Slice 2, which introduces the first phase of the Space Engineers 2 survival experience - the colonization progress and contracts system - along with two brand-new planets to explore: Verdure and Kemik.

This early version of survival will lay the groundwork for all the core systems, including the new Almagest colonization features. We're accelerating development to get it into your hands soon, so you can start exploring - and pouring in your feedback, helping us shape the survival experience.

In the meantime, the planets are coming together beautifully, and we think it’s time for a sneak peek. Here’s your first look at the planet Kemik. Still very much a work in progress, but it gives you a glimpse of Kemik’s harsh and inhospitable terrain - a challenge to explore and tame in the Almagest System.

While you're watching, keep in mind: every inch of the planet is destructible voxel terrain!

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Space Engineers 2 Dev Diary: September 25, 2025

Some of you are worried about our yellow submarine - thanks for thinking about her, she is fine!
Here is the progress:

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[h3]Improvements from our amazing Graphics Teams[/h3]
We are so proud of our graphics teams. They are always searching for ways to innovate and speed up the workflow. Every improvement in our tools means more time for creativity and less time spent on repetitive tasks. We have already shown you MateriaLinker by Alice Vescio.
And now check out a preview of another tool, created by Asyraf Braza.
To speed up the workflow, he built a custom Blender add-on for faster block fracture processing:

Quick presets for adding custom attributes
One-click mesh separation, auto-renaming, and automatic attributes setup for construction stages
More improvements that we plan to release to our modding community, so you can process block fractures for modded blocks just as fast as we can

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[h3]Planets[/h3]
Work on the Space Engineers 2 planets is at its high peak right now. Our team is fully focused on making planets, terrain, and biomes not just bigger and prettier - but also richer to explore and build on. Every detail matters: from voxel destruction and particle effects, to the look and feel of each biome.

And a funny thing - humans are actually pretty bad at judging the scale of virtual terrain without a clear reference point.

Let me help you – that tiny speck is actually a standing astronaut. Makes the cliff look a bit more impressive, doesn’t it?

We are also working on mining and voxel destruction particles, as well as terrain details. Here you can see particle testing on asteroid, sand, snow, and soil:

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Both planets and all the planetary biomes also need its own unique style of rocks:

What planet - and what biome - will be the place for your very first base in Space Engineers 2?

Please join us for Space Engineers Developer Livestream!

🚀 Friday, September 26st, 5 PM UTC
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Image Credits: HARV-E by Engineered Coffee

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