A precision planetary spaceflight sandbox, built toward seamless journeys from surface to space.
Build a modular spacecraft, launch from Florida, and fly with physical propulsion and attitude thrusters. Return to terrain or the pad, settle, and relaunch within the current flight limits. NovaCore is developed by Albatronic Productions.
Active development · Windows 11 x64 source build · No packaged download yet
Try NovaCore · What works today · Controls · Development status
Vehicle Editor presentation now banked in M16.2; captured September 29, 2026. Actual application capture; spacecraft art and interface are still evolving.
Build → save/load → launch from Florida → fly → return and settle → relaunch
- Enter one fullscreen application. Configure the session, follow real loading progress, then enter gameplay. Menus and the Vehicle Editor overlay the scene while the renderer keeps the full viewport.
- Build and revise spacecraft. Connect cores, tanks, engines, support adapters and RCS attitude thrusters. Use symmetry, undo/redo and saved craft designs.
- Launch and fly. Fill tanks, charge batteries and launch a compatible craft. Control the main engine and attitude thrusters while finite fuel and changing mass affect flight.
- Make physical contact. Return to terrain or the pad, slide, rock, settle, use grounded controls and relaunch within the supported flight and impact limits.
- Explore planetary worlds. View planets, moons, Saturn's rings and Sun-driven day and night. Move the camera from space down toward Earth's terrain. Slow exploration to 0.1× or pause while the view and interface remain responsive.
Craft construction, flight and returning to your design share one application. The current build supports a bounded flight domain; it does not yet provide a complete orbital mission or unrestricted landing anywhere on Earth.
Current access requires a Windows 11 x64 source build and local terrain setup. There is no installer or ready-to-play binary release.
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Follow the Windows build guide for source access, resolve Git LFS assets and build the application. Prepare both global Earth and Florida terrain packages using the terrain guide. No prebuilt terrain download is currently configured.
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From the prepared repository root, run:
& ./tools/NovaCore.App/bin/Release/net10.0-windows/NovaCore.exe
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In fullscreen Configuration, choose the session and display settings, then START NOVACORE. The dedicated Loading screen shows preparation progress and selected-GPU memory before gameplay is ready. Explore the Solar System or choose Esc → New Vehicle to build a craft.
For a first craft, place a Command core, then connect a Short tank → Engine adapter and feet → Main engine below it. Add an 8× ring of Attitude blocks to the tank; use 1× symmetry for the central stack. Finish or cancel the held placement, choose Fill consumables, then Save / Load → Save new and Launch vehicle.
New tanks and batteries start empty. If launch is refused, read Launch details and fix the reported problem. A buildable design still needs valid support, resources and attitude control. Heavier craft may burn fuel on the pad before thrust exceeds their weight.
Click the scene to give it keyboard focus.
| In flight | Action |
|---|---|
| Z / X | Main engine on / off |
| W/S · A/D · Q/E | Pitch · yaw · roll |
| Mouse drag / wheel | Orbit the view / zoom |
| F / 1–0 | Focus the craft / celestial bodies |
| Esc | Open the contextual pause menu; resume, save/load flight, or return to construction |
Releasing an attitude key stops the command, not the craft's rotation. Cutting the engine preserves motion. Camera movement does not steer the spacecraft.
Hover at the top edge to reveal the menus. One upper-right display shows the active mode's speed or pause state.
In exploration, comma / < decreases speed and period / > increases it. Below 0.1×, comma enters pause; another comma keeps it paused. Period resumes at 0.1×, then advances through the existing rates. Closing the Esc menu preserves a user-requested pause. Space is unbound; staging is not implemented.
In the Vehicle Editor, click a part card, hover a compatible socket to preview, then click to attach. Catalogue drag-and-drop is not implemented. Right-drag orbits, middle-drag pans and the wheel zooms. X cycles 1×/2×/4×/8× symmetry; Rotate changes the attachment angle. Delete or Cancel cancels a held part. Undo / Redo revisits edits; Save / Load opens your craft library.
To revisit your design from flight, choose Esc → New vehicle / retained design. This opens the editor; it does not physically land the spacecraft.
NovaCore is an early development build. Performance optimization, visual stability and presentation remain ongoing work. M16.2 — Player Entry, Fullscreen Viewport & UI Architecture Convergence is banked under m16.2. It brings Configuration → Loading → Gameplay, the overlaid Vehicle Editor and exploration pause controls together. Performance, planetary fidelity and release qualification remain open; known limitations records the retained debt. This is not a packaged public release; no release date has been announced.
Today's limits:
- Physical spacecraft flight supports 1× and pause. Celestial exploration has separate time controls; accelerated spacecraft flight is not supported.
- Craft must pass launch checks. Editing or saving a design does not make it flyable.
- Excessive or unsupported impacts stop continuation. Full damage and destruction are not implemented.
The long-term goal is surface → launch → atmosphere → orbit → interplanetary flight → return → landing.
Atmospheric flight, aerodynamics, reentry/heating, staging, a complete orbital insertion-and-return mission, SAS, a navball and autopilot are not part of the current playable feature set. See current limitations for the full scope.
Star or watch the repository to follow development. Report reproducible problems through GitHub Issues, including your revision, hardware, steps and relevant logs or screenshots. For code contributions, read the engineering rules and the contribution terms in LICENSE, section 12.
High-precision positioning connects planetary distances with local spacecraft motion. A deterministic C# simulation core and native C++/Vulkan renderer keep physics separate from presentation. Earth uses NASA/NOAA imagery and elevation, with USGS regional data around Florida.
Architecture · Engineering state · Change history · Earth data credits
NovaCore is source-available under the NovaCore Source-Available License 1.0. Read the licensing guide, Creator Content Policy, Modding Policy and commercial licensing information for rights and limits. NOTICE and BEPU provenance preserve ownership and third-party credits.