No Man’s Sky gets new Prisms update, adding lots of visual improvements to the game like reflections, fur, refractions, better rain and weather, and more.
Here’s a new trailer for the update:
Here’s a rundown on the core features in the update:
Update 3.5, Prisms, dramatically refreshes the No Man’s Sky experience with a range of new visual features and technologies. The universe has never looked better, with reflections, new texture effects, more biome detail, improved lighting, new skies, new warp effects, creature fur, and a host more besides.
SCREEN SPACE REFLECTIONS – No Man’s Sky now supports screen space reflection (SSR) technology for PC, next-generation consoles, and Xbox One X. Screen space reflections have been used to add stunning reflective surfaces and to improve lighting quality in the Space Anomaly, space stations, Atlas stations, freighter hangars, derelict freighters and more! Busy locations feel more dynamic than ever, with starships and lifeforms creating reflections as they move, and lighting in reflective areas feels higher quality and more realistic.
VOLUMETRIC LIGHTING – New styles of volumetric lights have been introduced, with coloured and directional volumetrics used to add atmosphere all across the universe. Examples include the menacing searchlights of Sentinel drones, the soft glow of bioluminescent flora, and the bright headlights of starships and exocraft. Volumetric lighting techniques have also been significantly optimised, and are now available in VR.
HYPERDRIVE WARP EFFECTS – Interstellar travel has undergone a sensory overhaul, with the audio and visuals of the warp experience dramatically reworked.
DEEP LEARNING SUPER SAMPLING – PC players with compatible NVIDIA RTX graphics cards can take advantage of DLSS, gaining vastly improved performance and visual quality. DLSS is an NVIDIA RTX technology which incorporates anti-aliasing and super sampling techniques to improve image detail at higher resolutions, without compromising framerate. Learn more on the NVIDIA site.
RICHER CAVES – Caves and subterranean biomes are now even more alien and exotic. Fungus and flora glows with new atmospheric lighting effects, and environments are more detailed and more diverse.
PARALLAX OCCLUSION MAPPING – New parallax occlusion mapping technology has been used to bring additional depth and definition in previously flat surfaces. Many textured surfaces in the Space Anomaly and planetary structures now appear more detailed.
METEOROLOGICAL REWARDS – Hazardous weather events such as meteors or lightning impacts now have a chance to spawn valuable objects, creating lucrative opportunities for explorers who brave extreme planetary conditions.
IMPROVED TORCH VISUALS – The Exosuit torch now benefits from improvements to its visual effects as well dynamic brightness and positioning improvements.
REFRACTIONS – New lighting technology brings refractions to No Man’s Sky. The new effects can be seen all over the universe, including on glass base parts, starship cockpits, forcefields, alien bubbles and more!
APPEARANCE MODIFIER UI REFRESH – The UI for the Appearance Modifier has been refreshed for a cleaner and clearer customisation experience.
EXOTIC COMPANIONS – The range of creatures that can be adopted as your companion has been hugely increased to encompass virtually every lifeform you encounter.
DRAMATIC STARFIELDS – The variety, quality and number of stars in the sky has been significantly increased – a dazzling reminder of the vastness of the universe.
CREATURE FUR – Fur has been added to a wide range of planetary creatures, bringing both extra variety and additional fuzziness to exploration and companion taming.
PHOTO MODE IMPROVEMENTS – Photo Mode now benefits from significantly improved depth of field quality and controls, as well as now giving photographers manual control over bloom settings.
LIGHT SHAFTS – Crepuscular rays have been reworked and improved, creating atmospheric new lighting effects.
BYTEBEAT SHARING AND DRUM IMPROVEMENTS – The Bytebeat Synthesizer now allows you to save tracks in a personal library and use them as a custom soundtrack to your exploration experience. The Bytebeat Library also allows you to send and share tracks with other players, spreading your music across the stars. Significant improvements have been made to the ByteBeat’s drum synthesizer, allowing for the creation of meatier drum loops and driving rhythms.
MOVEABLE FREIGHTER BASES – When purchasing a new freighter, your existing freighter base is automatically transferred and reconstructed. In addition, freighter base layouts can now be reset at any time from the Freighter Upgrade Control terminal.
EXTRA PLANETARY DETAILS – Players on next-generation consoles or PC players who use Ultra settings will see a dramatic increase in planetary detail across a whole range of environments.
IMPROVED RAIN EFFECTS – Rain effects have been significantly improved. Rainstorms are heavier, and the droplets themselves refract the light, bringing storms to life in a new way. As the rain pours, the planet’s surface now becomes slick and damp, and even planetary creatures and the Exosuit itself slowly become soaked through.
SYNTHESIS LABORATORY – A new terminal has been added to the blueprint research area of the Space Anomaly. This new automated research station will provide recipes for crafting components, in exchange for nanites.
PARTICLE EFFECT IMPROVEMENTS – Explosions have been enhanced for a more satisfying burst when destroying sentinel drones, blasting through asteroids, and shooting down hostile spacecraft.
QUALITY OF LIFE IMPROVEMENTS – A number of UI and quality of life improvements have been added. These include: an icon to show when new items have been added to an inventory; improvements to the UI when receiving several blueprints at the same time; and improvements to planetary charts. Charts will no longer be consumed should they fail to find a building.
RIDEABLE FLYING CREATURES – Low-flying creatures, such as giant beetles, flying worms, and huge butterflies, can now be adopted as your companion. Mount up and explore planets from a freshly elevated perspective.
SPACE STATION CORE – The Space Station hangar has been dramatically overhauled. Please observe flightpath conventions while docking. The station controller will be watching…
And here’s the full patch notes for the update:
3.5 PATCH NOTES
DEEP LEARNING SUPER SAMPLING
SCREEN SPACE REFLECTIONS
VOLUMETRICS
PARALLAX OCCLUSION MAPPING
REFRACTIONS
RAIN AND WEATHER
VISUAL & AUDIO QUALITY
PHOTO MODE
CREATURES & COMPANIONS
BYTEBEAT
UI & QUALITY OF LIFE
OTHER BUG FIXES & OPTIMISATIONS
The most previous update for No Man’s Sky, “Expeditions,” added a multitude of new content – including a new racing mechanic which sees players hop from planet to planet as quickly as they can. Read more about that in our previous report.
No Man’s Sky is currently available for Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X+S, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.
