Shear Space

Version: Initial release | Pre-Alpha v0.1 

At its core, Shear Space is a space-sim game that prioritises physics over graphics. The rendering is intentionally kept as lightweight as possible so the GPU has more resources available for real-time material physics and destruction.

Every part can bend, deform, and break. That's the focus. Think a low-poly Kerbal-like space-sim with real material physics instead of rigid bodies.

The chunky triangles and flat-shaded 90s look aren't there for nostalgia. They're there because simpler graphics leaves more of the GPU available for the material physics calculations.

This is a very early pre-alpha tech demo, not a complete game. Right now the focus is proving the physics system (which does still need some work but is good enough to get the idea). If people enjoy it and think it's worth continuing, I'll keep expanding everything around it. 

Controls in flight: WASDEQ for ship rotation, IKJLHN for RCS translation (assuming you have placed your RCS thrusters in balanced locations and have adjusted the control point correctly). M brings up orbital map.

In the Ship Creator to attach to a hard point you need to be able to see the center of that hard point, try panning the cam such that its level with or underneath/looking up at the hard point you want to connect your dragged part to.  You can move the whole ship up and down by dragging the root part (glows blue). You can use WASDZX to move the camera focus around. You can right click 'Quick Sim' for more options.

Features currently implemented 

• Completely GPU-resident material physics system
• Ship builder/editor with save load system
• A ship staging system (triggered by space-bar in flight mode)
• Some basic parts from Struts to Hulls to Stagable Explosive Charges (good fun)
• A zero loading time quick sim system 
• Regular and Reaction Control Thrusters
• A planet to orbit with a single small continent
• An orbit map with orbital statistics and information
• An atmosphere and basic uniform drag system
• Few other quirks and features to be found 

Features that aren't in the game.. yet 

• A persistent universe (every launch starts in a fresh world)
• Multi-ship support (currently only one controllable vessel can be loaded at a time)
• Save/load for play sessions (ship designs can already be saved and loaded)
• A fuel / resource system (all thrusters currently fire forever, consider it creative mode)
• Time acceleration
• Stability Control / Stability Assist
• Decouplers (though there are separation charges)
• A comprehensive range of parts of varying sizes and functions.
• A range of different materials to choose from (currently only one standard material)
• More celestial bodies to visit (ie moons and planets)
• A complete Earth-like planet with multiple continents (currently single island/continent)
• Aerodynamics beyond simple uniform drag
• Astronauts
• ... and plenty more

The ship builder is also pretty rough at the moment. It's a minimum viable editor that exists to get people building things and interacting with the physics system. It'll certainly be overhauled/replaced with something much better down the track.

I could go on about limitations but as I said above the goal of this initial release is to show people the idea in a minimum viable form and see what everyone thinks.

It's free to download. You will just need a system with a dedicated GPU that has at minimum 4gb of vram.
My old 2022 laptop with an RTX 3060 (laptop gpu) handles 300-600 parts before starting to slow down (does vary as some parts are heavier than others physics wise) and can handle almost 2000 before sim speed drops below 30%. I have run tests past 8000 parts on this same laptop/system while still remaining above 55 fps (all with near zero loading times), admittedly though time does slow to a crawl at that scale. 

While technically the game only requires 2gb of vram to run, I've been looking around at cards that have 2gb of vram and they just don't have the compute and the mem bandwidth to support the scale you'd expect when watching the release video. I suspect cards in this range will run the game, but will only be able to handle 60 - 90 parts before slowing. I haven't tested this though and they may simply not run it at all.

I've also not run any tests on integrated graphics systems but I suspect even worse performance than the above if it loads up at all. You will need a dedicated GPU.

If you think Shear Space is worth continuing, let me know in the comments. Seeing people interested is what will decide whether I keep building it out. 

Critiques are welcome but keep in mind this is a very limited tech demo. I'm aware of how much work needs to go in before moving to even an official alpha or beta, let alone a full launch. I estimate it will take about 8 months to a year to get to a feature complete beta and probably another year or two after that for a full release, Depending on how much time I have to allocate to this project.

I'm also keen to hear feature ideas, whether it's basic features that you think should be added next or completely ridiculous long-term ideas. Everything is welcome.