Star Citizen videos celebrate a seamless, procedurally generated universe

Star Citizen 5

Star Citizen's Alpha 2.0 build rolled out to backers earlier this week, but Roberts Space Industries is already showing off forthcoming features. The videos embedded below are breathtaking demonstrations of the game's planetary exploration. More specifically, they show off the seamless transition between space, the planet's atmosphere and finally, the planet's surface.

Both videos show in-engine footage, and both appear to focus on the same rocky planet which, according to the second video, has a 1000km diameter. These planets procedurally generate on demand "at different LODs as the camera moves".

While light on details the first video is the most impressive, showing one ship's journey from outer-space to a nearby planet's landing zone. It's stuff like this that gets me most excited about Star Citizen. If you can't wait to fly seamlessly from space to a planet, Elite: Dangerous's Horizons update lets you do just that, right now.

Shaun Prescott

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.