Universe Sandbox News

Run Steam to download Update 29, or buy Universe Sandbox via the Steam Store.

[h3]Update 29[/h3]
Planetscaping is a powerful new tool to design and shape planets to your whims. Surface Lock, which gives a clear, stationary, and illuminated view of the surface of a rotating object, has been enabled to better observe how an object’s surface is changing.

[h4]Planetscaping (Surface Editing)[/h4]
Create continents, freeze oceans, flood planets, and more with Planetscaping. Watch the realistic consequences of your actions unfold as you alter the face of planets. Learn more in our Planetscaping guide:
Guides > Tutorials > Planetscaping



[h4]Surface Lock[/h4]
We’ve made it easier to view how the surface of an object is changing by improving and enabling Surface Lock. This gives a clear, stationary, and illuminated view of the surface of a rotating object when you zoom close to it.



[h4]More Highlights[/h4]

• We’ve added a Blank Planet, like a blank canvas for Planetscaping, to the Add panel
  
  
  
• Collisions have been further improved with updated frictional forces
  
  
  

  
  

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• We’ve exposed the Elevation Span, the distance between the lowest and the highest elevation point of an object, to better assist with Planetscaping
  

This update includes 5+ additions and 18+ fixes and improvements.

Check out the full list of What's New in Update 29

Please report any issues on our Steam forum, on Discord, or in-game via Home > Send Feedback.

Run Steam to download Update 28.2, or buy Universe Sandbox via the Steam Store.

[h3]Update 28.2[/h3]
Stars have new Absolute and Apparent Magnitude properties, which measure their brightness from different distances. This minor update also includes improvements to black hole collisions, object trails, and bug fixes.

[h4]Stellar Magnitudes[/h4]
Stars now have both Apparent and Absolute Magnitude properties, which are measures of the brightness of a star, under Properties > Temperature. Learn more in our new Stellar Magnitudes guide: Guides > Science > Stellar Magnitudes.



[h4]More Highlights[/h4]

• Colliding black holes now compute the correct Schwarzschild radius
  
  
  

  
  

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• Trails for objects are no longer broken and jagged when an object is set as the trail center
  
  
  

  
  

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• Starlight color on nearby objects now updates in real-time
  
  
  

  
  

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• Human scale objects are now simply heated by stars and supernovae to better reflect their temperature in space
  
  
  

  
  

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• Created a new guide about object oblateness and its effect on gravitational fields under: Guides > Science > Non-Spherical Gravitational Fields

This update includes 3+ additions and 13+ fixes and improvements.

Check out the full list of What's New in Update 28.2

Please report any issues on our Steam forum, on Discord, or in-game via Home > Send Feedback.

Run Steam to download Update 28.1, or buy Universe Sandbox via the Steam Store.

[h3]Update 28.1[/h3]
We’ve improved the “Realistic” Object Visibility setting to better reflect the sensitivity of the human eye to object brightness and colors. We also added a new “Enhanced” Object Visibility, improved collision detection, smoothed out habitable zones, added bug fixes, and more!

[h4]Realistic Object Visibility[/h4]
The “Realistic” Object Visibility setting now shows objects fading in and out with adjusted colors tuned to what the human eye would see. Learn more in our guide, Limits of Human Eyes.



[h4]Smoother Habitable Zones[/h4]
The habitable zone now smoothly changes size for stars of all luminosities, including very hot, bright stars like Rigel. Check it out under View > Habitable.



[h4]More Highlights[/h4]

• “Enhanced” has been added as an Object Visibility option, which removes rim lighting from objects while keeping them always visible
  
  
  
• Collision detection has been further improved as part of our continued work to make collisions even better
  
  
  

  
  

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• We’ve added a satellite to our human-scale objects
  
  
  
• Created simulation of ESA and JAXA’s BepiColombo spacecraft flyby of Mercury in October 2021: Open > Historical > BepiColombo Flyby of Mercury in 2021
  
  
• Open, Guides, and Workshop panels can now be pinned open, allowing for much easier simulation browsing
  
  
  
• The View Settings panel has been reorganized for better clarity and usability
  
  
  

  
  

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This update includes 6+ additions and 12+ fixes and improvements.

Check out the full list of What's New in Update 28.1

Please report any issues on our Steam forum, on Discord, or in-game via Home > Send Feedback.

Run Steam to download Update 28, or buy Universe Sandbox via the Steam Store.

[h3]Update 28[/h3]
Fire Ring introduces a collision model that simulates an impact shockwave across the surface of an object, as part of our work to continuously improve collisions. In addition, there are improvements to object trails, additional object information, bug fixes, and more.

[h4]Shocking Collisions[/h4]
Object heating from impacts now realistically moves over the impacted object as a shockwave. Fragments are ejected from the edge of the shockwave at more realistic angles. Learn more in our Collisions guides:
Guides > Tutorials > Planetary Collisions Guides > Science > Collisions: Energy, Mass, and Speed



[h4]Impactor Heating[/h4]
Both objects involved in a collision now experience collisional heating on their surfaces, instead of just the larger object.



[h4]More Highlights[/h4]

• Grazing collisions now look more realistic with shockwaves and surface dragging
  

• Object trails are now projected back in time to show their full past trajectory
  

• Objects now have additional information (like, planet, moon, rogue object) in the property panel based on their relative motion around other objects
  

• As we work toward making our simulations more deterministic, seeds for randomized simulations are now easier to find, allowing you to recall previous random scenarios
  

This update includes 6+ additions and 22+ fixes and improvements.

Check out the full list of What's New in Update 28

Please report any issues on our Steam forum, on Discord, or in-game via Home > Send Feedback.

Universe Sandbox on iOS! We’re also working on an Android version.

You can purchase Universe Sandbox via the Steam Store.

Have you ever wanted a universe in your pocket? We have too, and so we’ve been actively working on a mobile version of Universe Sandbox for both iOS and Android to make this a reality.

Universe Sandbox for mobile will have the same features and interface as the desktop version (in fact mobile and desktop are built from the same source code) and we are working to make sure it is an equally enjoyable experience.

[h3]All-Around Improved Experience[/h3]
Our work on mobile has motivated many features and improvements that have already been made to the desktop version. This includes automatic scaling of graphics settings based on screen resolution and the separate, minimizable panel that comes up when you use a tool, like the laser. Additionally, optimizing Universe Sandbox for mobile has the added benefit of improving performance on the desktop version.

Adapting Universe Sandbox for mobile challenged us to simplify our user interface to its core, resulting in changes like the separate, minimizable panel for the tool currently in use, like the laser (shown in the lower right here on a smartphone).

[h3]Designing a Handheld Universe Simulator[/h3]
For the last few months, we’ve been focusing on making sure the mobile version is just as fun to play as the desktop version. In Update 26, we unified the user interface across desktop and VR, and we’re continuing to develop this unified interface with physically smaller (that is, mobile) screens in mind. You can check out how we are building this flexible user interface right now by making the window in the desktop version small. If you do try this, you’ll notice it presents quite a design challenge, not only for existing features but also for any features we add.

The interface filling up the entire screen on a mobile phone shows how challenging it can be to fit all of the windows on a smaller display.

You may have seen some of the improvements we’ve made to our user interface in recent updates. For example, our bottom bar redesigns both create a sleeker, more adaptable desktop experience while also making everything more accessible on mobile. However, we are still working on solving a few design challenges including (but not limited to):

• What’s the best way to manage all of the different panels on a small screen (our guide system creates particular challenges)?
  
• Working around the limitations of minimum button sizes required for a touchscreens
  
• How do we make the user interface work in both portrait and landscape orientations?
  

Lower amounts of memory on mobile phones, as well as hardware limitations leading to poor performance, are two of the challenges we are still working on to get Universe Sandbox to run smoothly on mobile devices.

[h3]What’s Next for Mobile Development[/h3]
We have been working on numerous updated user interface designs that improve functionality and clarity no matter what device you are on, and implementing those is one of our major next steps. We’re also currently hiring a cross-platform engineer to help bring Universe Sandbox to mobile and beyond.

There are occasional bugs to fix in the mobile version, such as this one showing patchy trails on an iOS phone at high simulation speeds. (By the way, we fixed this bug!)

While we still do not have a release date or official price for mobile, we currently plan on it being a one-time paid app with no ads or in-app purchases. We hope to write more of these mobile-focused DevLogs as we make more progress, so stay tuned!

If you want to receive updates when there is new information about mobile, like this DevLog, sign up for our mailing list:
http://universesandbox.com/mobile/

To join our community discussions, please join us on our Steam Forum and our official Discord community.