No Man's Sky spruces up its visuals in the Next Generation update

(Image credit: Hello Games)

No Man's Sky's next update isn't really for us. The Next Generation update was announced today, and its headline features only come into play if you end up buying either Microsoft or Sony's new tellyboxes next month. But bringing the space romp up to scratch for the new consoles comes with some nice visual benefits for those of us exploring the galaxy on PC.

Cut through the console-specific new features (which, let's be fair, largely bring those versions up to par with the PC build), and you'll find some lovely new visual upgrades for players on 'Ultra' graphics settings. The density of detail models like grass, rocks, fungi and weird space hexagons has been ramped right up, while there's been a general bumping-up of draw distances for all objects.

Model and texture definition has also been "significantly increased", and grass should now push aside nicely when walking through fields. It does all look quite nice, too, with comparison shots showing worlds that suffer less from that dramatic detail fallout I've come to associate with No Man's Sky's worlds.

There's a few other fixes and improvements to go along with the visual upgrade. Target locking in orbital dogfights has been tightened up, a number of icons have been updated, and a particularly nasty crash involved in loading older, larger saves has been fixed. The full list is available to scroll through in the 3.10 Patch Notes at the bottom of the update page.

No Man's Sky's Next Generation update will be free to download when the new consoles launch, which probably means it'll drop alongside the Xbox Series X on November 10. Until then, there's still time to dive into some eerie space derelicts to unlock goofy monster hats in No Man's Sky's Halloween update.

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.