Development Update August 4th, 2025

Hello everyone!

A lot of effort this month of course went into preparing the first minor release for all of you to try out in the public beta branch. If you haven’t jumped into the public beta branch to try out the new feature, here is what is included:

Annotations for star systems.

• This allows for custom annotations that can be placed anywhere in the star system (“Solar Navigator”) view.

Entirely revamped marker (“Pin”) system which should be far easier to use and includes additional features.

• Custom pins – You can create your own pin images and place them in the data files for Stellar Navigator to use in your star systems.

• Favoriting pins for quick access.

• Adding text beneath pins to give them more life.

• A conversion script to bring all your existing markers in your solar systems over to the new pin system. Ideally this will provide a seamless method to update your existing work into the new system; however, this is not always a guarantee such are data conversions.

User Feedback!

• Clouds can now be toggled on and off.

• Additional data points for orbital period.

• Ability to turn the scanner visual on and off in the galaxy map.

• Added a new setting to the games graphics settings to select which monitor Stellar Navigator should use. This is a potential fix for when some users with multi-monitor set ups are unable to select a resolution. This issue is still under investigation.

⚠️The minor patch will be released to the live branch on August 29th, 2025. As this is early access, and there’s always a chance for things to go sideways, please back up your game’s data folder in .../My Games/Stellar Navigator… before the 29th. ⚠️

As for this month’s updates: New planet type designs have moved on prototyping and in some cases implementation! For Major Update One you can expect at least two new planet types based off the fantastic ideas provided by our very own Planetologists!

And as fun as reading can be, let’s look at some visuals:

Prototyping procedural clouds, and the new lighting effects!

Finally, I am looking through the ideas submitted to the ideas board by the community to see which bits of feedback and ideas could be included in the major update. More on this as the scope of the major update settles down and work begins on the multiple galaxies.

Well folks, that’s all for this month! I hope you are all having a wonderful summer and as always keep looking to the stars!