Most video games get worked on for a couple of years, launch, then receive several patches before the development team moves on to the next title. That’s definitely not the case with No Man’s Sky, which is now five years old and has just received a major visual overhaul.
Hello Games has today revealed Update 3.5 for the game, which is called Prisms. It “dramatically refreshes the No Man’s Sky experience with a range of new visual features and technologies.” Those visual improvements include screen space reflections allowing for reflective surfaces and improved lighting quality, especially for interior spaces. Volumetric lighting allows for more atmosphere such as “the menacing searchlights of Sentinel drones, the soft glow of bioluminescent flora, and the bright headlights of starships and exocraft.” Then there’s the warp effects, with the audio and visuals receiving a complete overhaul.
If you are playing on PC with a Nvidia RTX graphics card, the game now takes advantage of DLSS to offer “vastly improved performance and visual quality” without compromising on framerate. Parallax occlusion mapping means textured surfaces will no long appear flat, and using the Exosuit torch is a more visually rewarding experience thanks to new effects and dynamic brightness.
In terms of content, Hello Games refreshed the user interface of the Appearance Modifier so as to offer a clearer customization experience, and hazardous weather conditions in the game (meteors, lightning impacts) bring with them the chance of valuable objects spawning. It offers a potential reward for exploring planets with extreme conditions. The range of companions has also been greatly increased to “encompass virtually every lifeform you encounter.” And if those lifeforms are furry, expect them to have “additional fuzziness” now.
The list of updates and improvements is far too long to include all of them here, so if you already own the game expect to be surprised by how much has changed for the better. If you have yet to pick it up, this seems like the perfect opportunity to jump in, especially if you’ve managed to grab a new graphics card recently. If not, then the game is also available to play on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
