The Verse

A 1:1 simulation of the Milky Way to explore, drawn like a PlayStation 1 game.

Early work in progress: no sound yet, no save game (your journal is kept).

HOW TO RUN
Unzip the whole folder anywhere (keep the "mothership" and "data_TheVerse_windows_x86_64" folders next to TheVerse.exe)
and run TheVerse.exe. Windows 10 / 11, 64-bit, a graphics card with Vulkan 1.2 or Direct3D 12 support.
The first start takes a little while: the mothership is a big model (about 150 MB).

HOW TO PLAY (the short version; F1 in the game shows the controls)
Click in the window to capture the mouse, Esc releases it. To quit: Esc, then close the window (Alt+F4 also works).
You start standing in the cockpit of the mothership EUROPA MINING CORP above the Moon.
W A S D walk, Shift run, Space jump, mouse look.
P take the helm (W/S thrust, mouse steers). V at the pilot's seat / by a shuttle: take the helm / board it.
Home fast-travel to the hangar (walk to a shuttle and press V to board it)
End fast-travel to the biome garden PageUp fast-travel to the crew quarters (sleeping cabin)
E drive a cargo buggy / call the Main Lift. H torch (on foot) / floodlights (in a craft).
T target the planet or star under the crosshair, G turn to face it, J supercruise, Shift+J hyperspace jump.
M galaxy map (left-click a star, Enter jumps), L living worlds, Shift+L jump to a random living world.
Land gently on a world or a sea and press V to step out. B bookmarks where you are.
F2 retro effects on/off, F3 display settings, F4 next look. F9 Flora Lab, F10 Sea Life Lab.

OPTIONAL LAUNCH ARGUMENTS (after "--", e.g. a shortcut target of TheVerse.exe -- --earth)
--earth start near Earth instead of in the mothership
--hangar start in the shuttle on the hangar deck of the mothership

YOUR FILES
Journal, display presets and Lab ratings are saved in %APPDATA%\Godot\app_userdata\TheVerse\

CREDITS
Created by Flin Turner. Built with Godot Engine 4.7.2 (.NET), MIT licence.
Real star data: HYG Database v4.4 by David Nash (astronexus.com), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Everything else (models, textures, plants, animals, sea creatures) is generated by the game's own code.
Inspired by Elite Dangerous, No Man's Sky, Red Dwarf and Silent Running.
Licences and notices: see THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.txt, Godot-LICENSE.txt and Godot-COPYRIGHT.txt.