No Man’s Sky gets new Prisms update, adding lots of visual improvements to the game like reflections, fur, refractions, better rain and weather, and more.

Here’s a new trailer for the update:

Here’s a rundown on the core features in the update:

Update 3.5, Prisms, dramatically refreshes the No Man’s Sky experience with a range of new visual features and technologies. The universe has never looked better, with reflections, new texture effects, more biome detail, improved lighting, new skies, new warp effects, creature fur, and a host more besides.\

SCREEN SPACE REFLECTIONS – No Man’s Sky now supports screen space reflection (SSR) technology for PC, next-generation consoles, and Xbox One X. Screen space reflections have been used to add stunning reflective surfaces and to improve lighting quality in the Space Anomaly, space stations, Atlas stations, freighter hangars, derelict freighters and more! Busy locations feel more dynamic than ever, with starships and lifeforms creating reflections as they move, and lighting in reflective areas feels higher quality and more realistic.

VOLUMETRIC LIGHTING – New styles of volumetric lights have been introduced, with coloured and directional volumetrics used to add atmosphere all across the universe. Examples include the menacing searchlights of Sentinel drones, the soft glow of bioluminescent flora, and the bright headlights of starships and exocraft. Volumetric lighting techniques have also been significantly optimised, and are now available in VR.

HYPERDRIVE WARP EFFECTS – Interstellar travel has undergone a sensory overhaul, with the audio and visuals of the warp experience dramatically reworked.

DEEP LEARNING SUPER SAMPLING – PC players with compatible NVIDIA RTX graphics cards can take advantage of DLSS, gaining vastly improved performance and visual quality. DLSS is an NVIDIA RTX technology which incorporates anti-aliasing and super sampling techniques to improve image detail at higher resolutions, without compromising framerate. Learn more on the NVIDIA site.

RICHER CAVES – Caves and subterranean biomes are now even more alien and exotic. Fungus and flora glows with new atmospheric lighting effects, and environments are more detailed and more diverse.

PARALLAX OCCLUSION MAPPING – New parallax occlusion mapping technology has been used to bring additional depth and definition in previously flat surfaces. Many textured surfaces in the Space Anomaly and planetary structures now appear more detailed.

METEOROLOGICAL REWARDS – Hazardous weather events such as meteors or lightning impacts now have a chance to spawn valuable objects, creating lucrative opportunities for explorers who brave extreme planetary conditions.

IMPROVED TORCH VISUALS – The Exosuit torch now benefits from improvements to its visual effects as well dynamic brightness and positioning improvements.

REFRACTIONS – New lighting technology brings refractions to No Man’s Sky. The new effects can be seen all over the universe, including on glass base parts, starship cockpits, forcefields, alien bubbles and more!

APPEARANCE MODIFIER UI REFRESH – The UI for the Appearance Modifier has been refreshed for a cleaner and clearer customisation experience.

EXOTIC COMPANIONS – The range of creatures that can be adopted as your companion has been hugely increased to encompass virtually every lifeform you encounter.

DRAMATIC STARFIELDS – The variety, quality and number of stars in the sky has been significantly increased – a dazzling reminder of the vastness of the universe.

CREATURE FUR – Fur has been added to a wide range of planetary creatures, bringing both extra variety and additional fuzziness to exploration and companion taming.

PHOTO MODE IMPROVEMENTS – Photo Mode now benefits from significantly improved depth of field quality and controls, as well as now giving photographers manual control over bloom settings.

LIGHT SHAFTS – Crepuscular rays have been reworked and improved, creating atmospheric new lighting effects.

BYTEBEAT SHARING AND DRUM IMPROVEMENTS – The Bytebeat Synthesizer now allows you to save tracks in a personal library and use them as a custom soundtrack to your exploration experience. The Bytebeat Library also allows you to send and share tracks with other players, spreading your music across the stars. Significant improvements have been made to the ByteBeat’s drum synthesizer, allowing for the creation of meatier drum loops and driving rhythms.

MOVEABLE FREIGHTER BASES – When purchasing a new freighter, your existing freighter base is automatically transferred and reconstructed. In addition, freighter base layouts can now be reset at any time from the Freighter Upgrade Control terminal.

EXTRA PLANETARY DETAILS – Players on next-generation consoles or PC players who use Ultra settings will see a dramatic increase in planetary detail across a whole range of environments.

IMPROVED RAIN EFFECTS – Rain effects have been significantly improved. Rainstorms are heavier, and the droplets themselves refract the light, bringing storms to life in a new way. As the rain pours, the planet’s surface now becomes slick and damp, and even planetary creatures and the Exosuit itself slowly become soaked through.

SYNTHESIS LABORATORY – A new terminal has been added to the blueprint research area of the Space Anomaly. This new automated research station will provide recipes for crafting components, in exchange for nanites.

PARTICLE EFFECT IMPROVEMENTS – Explosions have been enhanced for a more satisfying burst when destroying sentinel drones, blasting through asteroids, and shooting down hostile spacecraft.

QUALITY OF LIFE IMPROVEMENTS – A number of UI and quality of life improvements have been added. These include: an icon to show when new items have been added to an inventory; improvements to the UI when receiving several blueprints at the same time; and improvements to planetary charts. Charts will no longer be consumed should they fail to find a building.

RIDEABLE FLYING CREATURES – Low-flying creatures, such as giant beetles, flying worms, and huge butterflies, can now be adopted as your companion. Mount up and explore planets from a freshly elevated perspective.

SPACE STATION CORE – The Space Station hangar has been dramatically overhauled. Please observe flightpath conventions while docking. The station controller will be watching…

And here’s the full patch notes for the update:

3.5 PATCH NOTES

DEEP LEARNING SUPER SAMPLING

• Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) is an NVIDIA RTX technology which incorporates anti-aliasing and super sampling techniques to improve image detail at higher resolutions, without compromising framerate.
• DLSS can be enabled for all compatible NVIDIA RTX graphics cards, and offers significant performance and visual quality improvements.

SCREEN SPACE REFLECTIONS

• Screen space reflections (SSR) have been enabled for PC (coming soon to PCVR), next-generation consoles, and Xbox One X.
• SSR creates high-quality reflective materials and improves lighting quality.
• Bespoke SSR visuals have been authored and enabled on the Space Anomaly, the Space Station, freighter interiors, derelict freighters and Atlas Stations.

VOLUMETRICS

• The existing volumetric lighting system has been significantly optimised.
• Volumetric lighting has been enabled in VR.
• Added support for coloured volumetric lights.
• Added support for directional volumetric lights.
• Added volumetric lighting to caves.
• Added volumetric lighting to starship and exocraft headlights.
• Added volumetric lighting to Sentinel drones, quads and walkers.
• Added volumetric lighting to more props in derelict freighters.

PARALLAX OCCLUSION MAPPING

• Parallax occlusion mapping has been added for all platforms.
• Parallax occlusion mapping adds additional detail and definition to textures and materials used on the Space Anomaly and large planetary buildings.

REFRACTIONS

• Light refraction rendering has been enabled for all platforms except VR on base PS4.
• Glass basebuilding parts will now refract light.
• Refractive materials have been added to appropriate glass or liquid decorative items, such as glass containers or transparent screens.
• Refractive materials have been added to appropriate planetary effects, such as floating bubbles.
• Refractive materials have been added to the Space Anomaly.
• Starship and Exocraft cockpits now refract the light.

RAIN AND WEATHER

• The visual quality and density of rain effects have been significantly improved.
• Raindrops now refract the light.
• Planetary surfaces, plants, minerals, creatures, starships and players now become wet when they are rained upon.
• Lightning storms now have a chance to create storm crystals at the impact point of lightning.
• Meteor showers now have a chance to leave valuable harvestable rocks at their impact site.

VISUAL & AUDIO QUALITY

• Light shaft / crepuscular ray rendering has been improved for a more atmospheric planetary experience.
• Many foliage props have been reworked for increased detail.
• Additional planetary details have been added, and draw distances on existing objects have been increased, for next-generation consoles and PC using Ultra settings.
• Caves have been overhauled, creating a rich, more detailed, more atmospheric environment to explore.
• Warping and teleportation visuals and audio have been completely reworked.
• The Space Station hangar bay now features an automated Space Station Controller to monitor traffic and ensure smooth station operations.
• Starship engine audio has been remixed and improved.
• Particle effects, such as drone, ship and asteroid explosions, have been significantly improved.
• The visual effects for the player torch have been improved.
• Fixed a number of issues that caused the player torch to be too bright for the current location.
• Fixed a number of issues that caused the player torch to intersect the player while running.
• Debanding has been improved, fixing several visual artifacts in high-noise areas.
• Fixed an issue that caused the galaxy map to be less colourful than intended.
• Fixed an aliasing issue affecting chairs and other seating in the Space Station.
• Fixed an issue that could cause incorrect shadows on freighter bridges.
• Fixed an issue that caused ship takeoff audio to trigger as the game loaded.
• Fixed several visual issues with the alien pods aboard derelict freighters.

PHOTO MODE

• The depth of field effect has been rewritten, based on physical circle-of-confusion simulation.
• The quality of the DoF field has been significantly improved.
• In Photo Mode, DoF controls have been adjusted to reflect these settings. Auto-Far mode has been removed. A Macro mode has been added, giving fine control over focus close to the camera.
• Bloom control has been added to the available Photo Mode options.
• The buttons to adjust Photo Mode settings have been made instant click.
• Fixed an issue that caused audio spam while adjusting Photo Mode settings.

CREATURES & COMPANIONS

• Fur rendering technology has been added for all platforms except Xbox One S and PSVR.
• Fur has been added to a number of creatures. These creatures have been selected appropriately from existing species.
• Virtually all low-flying and land-based creatures can now be tamed and adopted as companions.
• Low-flying companions can be mounted and flown through the sky.
• Fixed an issue that caused crablike creatures to always be labelled as extinct.
• Fixed a number of colouration and marking issues with specific creatures.

BYTEBEAT

• The quality of the ByteBeat drum synthesiser has been significantly improved.
• A ByteBeat library and music player has been added to the Quick Menu, under Utilities.
• The library can be used to play saved tracks wherever you are, allowing you to create your own personal soundtrack.
• When within a base (your own or another player’s) with active ByteBeat Devices, you can save the devices’ output as a track to your Library.
• The ByteBeat Library can be used to send tracks to nearby players. Sent tracks are saved to their Library.

UI & QUALITY OF LIFE

• Fixed an issue that caused the galaxy map to show duplicate freighter markers if your active mission involved your capital ship.
• Planetary Charts that fail to locate a building are no longer consumed.
• Planetary Charts that fail to locate a building will give an error message with guidance as to why.
• When purchasing a freighter, your previous freighter base will now be automatically transferred and reassembled aboard the new freighter.
• A new option has been added to the freighter upgrade terminal that allows players to reset their freighter base back to the default layout.
• A new component recipe research station has been added to the Space Anomaly. This terminal allows the research of component recipes in exchange for nanites. Planetary factories and harvesters will still offer component recipes as exploration rewards.
• Pinning instructions will now advise players to visit the Space Anomaly to unlock recipes they do not have access to.
• Pinning instructions will now advise players to purchase components from the Space Station if the player does not know the recipe and components are easy to purchase.
• Fixed a rare instance of an untranslated ERROR string in the popups for the research trees.
• Added an error message when attempting to research a recipe before its parent is unlocked.
• The UI for the Appearance Modifier and other customisation interactions has been overhauled and visually refreshed.
• Inventory tabs and sub-tabs now feature a small icon to show that a new item has been placed in that inventory.
• The UI displayed when receiving blueprints for several components at the same time has been improved and now shows all parts in the bundle.
• On PC, keybinds can now be cleared by re-assigning the same key to the same action.
• Significantly increased the freedom of the third person ship camera, so that players can rotate around the ship while in flight.
• Introduced an alternative and varying camera angle while using the pulse engine in third person.
• Introduced a fuel gauge to the notifications area while using the pulse engine in third person.
• The ship cockpit 3D map now correctly displays Atlas Stations and Black Holes.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the ship cockpit 3D map to feature a space station in systems where no station was present.
• Improved the clarity of the messaging in the Quicksilver Synthesis Companion shop.
• Improved the clarity of the messaging when unable to redeem particular rewards during an Expedition.
• Added a warning message if attempting to undertake an expedition without an online-enabled account (Expeditions do not require paid online accounts, but a connection needs to be made to the NMS Discovery Server to initially download the relevant data before beginning the expedition).
• Fixed an issue that caused some non-extreme planets to be labelled as extreme.
• Fixed a number of instances where icons were missing from the mission notification.
• Fixed an issue that caused several minor UI elements to be incorrectly offset at 3200×1800 resolution.
• Fixed an issue that caused a thin white line to be drawn around an inventory slot as it expands.
• Fixed an issue that overlaid two markers if a building has been visited but also has an active mission marker.

OTHER BUG FIXES & OPTIMISATIONS

• Fixed a crash related to downloaded bases from other players.
• Introduced a minor optimisation related to instanced props on planets.
• Introduced a lighting optimisation on Xbox One X.
• Introduced a significant number of shader optimisations.
• Fixed a PC-specific issue that could cause slow streaming.
• Fixed an issue that could cause hitching on PC and next-gen consoles.
• Fixed a rare issue that could cause NPCs to offer the same interaction repeatedly.
• Fixed an issue that reversed the intended order of a specific interaction with a Korvax found at a planetary debris site.
• The rewards given by NPCs while practising language skills or repairing their damaged starships have been rebalanced to be more generous.
• The construction cost of Ion Batteries has been reduced.
• The construction cost of several Quicksilver reward items have been reduced.
• Fixed an issue that caused incorrect and unbuildable duplicate foundation and door pieces to appear in the blueprint research tree and catalogue.
• Fixed a number of snapping issues with large rooms.
• Fixed a number of desynchronisation issues with Nexus mission destination markers.
• Fixed a number of desynchronisation issues with Nexus pirate missions.
• Increased the number of potential corrupted Sentinel encounters during some Nexus missions.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent the SSV Normandy SR1 frigate reward from being redeemed if it was first redeemed before acquiring a capital ship.
• Fixed an issue that could cause Expedition One save games to be reactivated as expeditions after the expedition had finished.
• Fixed a crash that could occur during the transition from an expedition save to a normal mode save at the end of an expedition.
• Fixed an issue that caused black holes to always take players to the expedition start system during an expedition.
• Fixed an issue that could cause NPC ships to land on top of each other at outposts.
• Adjusted the landing pads at Planetary Archives so that ships do not take off and crash into the building.
• Farmable crops planted in your base no longer collide with players, for ease of navigation.
• Fixed an issue that caused an untranslated string to appear for a short time while joining a Nexus mission.
• Fixed a number of text formatting issues.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the tracking audio to be played repeatedly after a mission target was discovered using a Target Sweep.
• Bespoke UI audio has been added to the companion customisation page.
• Fixed a rendering issue that could cause dark spots to appear on the terrain.
• Fixed an issue that could cause a seam to be visible in the planetary atmosphere.
• Fixed an issue that caused the cursor to appear during dialogue choices while using VR with a pad.
• Target sweeping and hotspot detection in VR now uses the Multi-Tool as the pointer.
• Fixed an issue that could block other players from using some interactions after repairing a cargo pod salvaged from a planetary crashed freighter.
• Fixed an issue that could cause some players to have zero charge on a technology upgrade but no way to recharge it.

The most previous update for No Man’s Sky, “Expeditions,” added a multitude of new content – including a new racing mechanic which sees players hop from planet to planet as quickly as they can. Read more about that in our previous report.

No Man’s Sky is currently available for Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X+S, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.