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You already know that for VS2.3, we are working on wheels as one of the main features.

This is not just “add wheel block and done.” The physics team is implementing a custom friction estimator instead of using the default Havok one. We are also testing new wheel colliders that can behave either like cylinders or spheres – depending on the situation.

The reason is terrain. Ramps, slopes, and uneven surfaces can make wheels behave badly if the collider is too simple. So we are testing a hybrid approach and iterating/refining in Havok demos before we will release the wheels in-game.

Wheels are a tricky physics feature in a sandbox game where gravity and terrain can vary a lot, so we are taking the time to build a solid foundation.

Andre Lopes, Art Team: “The first main idea for the Hangar door was to avoid weird gaps and make the interior more detailed, in case the player placed the door sideways. So all parts should look properly connected and, when closing, they all should fit correctly like a puzzle. With this in mind, I tried to nail the puzzle part first, and then worked the interior details around that, by creating some mechanics and a logical structured frame.”

“After that, the second idea was that players could have a bit of liberty with their door design, since for now it is just 1 block. So now you can play around with these simple “vertical lines” patterns, by just rotating each block 90 degrees, when stacked.”

“The last idea was inventing a sort of visual locking mechanism between each door and the base, so that it looked even more industrial and realistic.”

LCDs in our internal builds already include the formatting options from Space Engineers 1, plus a simplified markdown subset for headers, bold, and italics. They also support localized strings, so text can be displayed in the player’s language. You will be able to customize background colors, fonts, and choose from a catalog of project-defined images. Blocks can also support one or more customizable screens, and these screens can be signaled as on or off through the terminal UI.

Each screen can have its own aspect ratio and texture resolution, for example 512×512 for square panels or 1024×512 for wide panels. This helps prevent content distortion. SE2 Control Seat currently has eight individual screen slots, and our artists have created several LCD panel configurations.

Players can also access a block’s inventory directly through its LCD screen terminal dummy!

The grass in SE2 will look so good, I can’t even believe this is our game 🙂 If you’re wondering why grass visuals matter in a space engineering game – honestly, I don’t know. It just feels important, and if you can make something more beautiful, it’s your duty to make it more beautiful. Also: “need to create,” all the way.

Mirko Bartolini, Art Team: “This is our new grass clustering tech, which allows us to scatter grass in a more natural and realistic way. It lets us combine many more grass types in the same biome and distribute them using splat masks that control both spawn probability and scale. It also gives us better control over sparse tufts, especially in more arid biomes.”

• We started detailed planning for VS4 NPCs and Coop multiplayer. This is fun, because we are finally working on NPC user stories for our game! NPCs will make Almagest so much more alive, challenging, and surprising!
  
• Hinges for VS2.3 are something special… I can’t wait to share something with you soon!
  
• Event Controller for VS2.3 is starting to look like an amazing addition to the game.
  
• On today’s playtest we checked exploding warheads — the balancing and visuals are coming together nicely.
  
• With sound designers we reviewed some of the new SFX. This time I actually said the opposite of what I usually say – for the warhead arm/disarm event, I asked them to make it less aggressive and tune the volume down. (Usually I push the other direction.)
  
• A few weeks ago we had a nice review with Karel Antonin about the music updates. Some small things will come in VS2.3, but most of the music updates are coming in VS3 and VS4 – especially the “water music,” both for the OST and as ambient tracks that change based on depth.

Full Dev Diary: https://blog.marekrosa.org/2026/05/mareks-dev-diary-may-14-2026/


Please join us for Space Engineers 2 Developer Livestream!

• 🚀 Friday, May 15th, 5 PM UTC
  
• 🛰️ Twitch: https://twitch.tv/keencommunitynetwork
  
• 🛰️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SpaceEngineers

Image Credits: Cargo Ship by Dan2D3D


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A few snippets from our internal build – we have working buttons and soon you will have them too!

Here you can see buttons activating the new timer block.

There’s also an overlay that shows what each button does, so complex control panels are much easier to understand.

And we will be introducing inventory access from any interactive element of a block, not just at conveyor ports. Sometimes ease of use and quality of life override strict in‑game logic, and this is one of those times.

On this Tuesday’s playtest, we reviewed the wheels and suspensions. They feel good, but we agreed that some tweaks are still needed – mostly around making the wheels feel like they have good traction and are properly in contact with the terrain.

We also tested the wind turbines, and I must say they feel very cool and give strong engineering vibes! The art is beautiful too. In this demo you can see the turbine spinning freely until wind is blocked, at which point it slows and stops.

Then we tested some of the new encounters where you have to build or repair something. I think these are one of the things that will make playing SE2 more meaningful – making the world feel like a place where things are happening, and more alive.

On the art side, the team has been busy. The Event Controller and Timer blocks are starting to look beautiful; they have a clean industrial design that fits naturally with other ship components:

And I can also share a progress on large and small Magnetic Plates:

Let’s talk about explosions!

In VS2.3 we’re introducing an explosion system into Space Engineers 2. We’re working on new warheads – check out our progress on Warheads – from first concept art to first in-game blasts!

We want explosions to feel powerful without being over the top, and to provide clear feedback about what happens when something goes boom.

Warhead 3D model was created by Abdullah Natour (from the concept art by Mike Hamlet): “The Warheads were very fun blocks to work on that break the usual shapes. These blocks had a very unique set of challenges – we wanted to introduce functionality that allows the player to tell when it is engaged from a distance and being fracturable when it is not – while keeping in account how it would interact with other blocks and how it can be mounted.

We introduced different motions that can indicate a powerful look: the large version featuring locks that move apart when engaged and a spinning core that changes colors. The small Warhead is a compact version that allows it to be used anywhere with a small locking mechanism.

These blocks were done in Blender (with custom tools we were constantly improving and creating) and rendered in Marmoset.”

More planetary fauna – introducing mighty Oak-like trees!

Expect dense canopies, thick trunks, and forests that look powerful enough to survive whatever engineers throw at them. Well… most of it.

Mirko Bartolini (our designated Treemaster): “This is a set of oak trees designed for temperate, mid-altitude environments. The set is intended to cover different growth stages, ranging from mature trees with larger, more developed canopies to mid-adult and younger specimens.

The trees were created in SpeedTree using custom texture atlases that include a variety of branch shapes. These branches are applied to plane meshes and chained together to build complex canopy silhouettes while keeping the polycount low.”

Full Dev Diary: https://blog.marekrosa.org/2026/05/mareks-dev-diary-may-7-2026/


🛠️ Feedback & Support - https://support.keenswh.com/
🗺️ Roadmap: https://2.spaceengineersgame.com/roadmap-2/#current
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📫 Newsletter: https://www.keenswh.com/newsletter
➡️ Connect and find us on your platform of choice: https://www.keenswh.com/connect/


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