Starship Space Program: Unreal Engine Starship flight sim enters early alpha on Patreon
A solo developer has released an early alpha of Starship Space Program, a fan-made Starship and Super Heavy flight sim built in Unreal Engine for Windows PC. The developer shared technical details of the custom physics, scaled-space planet and Slate-only UI for other UE developers.
Digital Developer Desk, 6h ago, 2 min read
Starship Space Program is a flight sim for Windows PC covering Starship and Super Heavy: hops, hot staging, the booster catch on the tower, and flights on to orbit. According to a post by developer /u/fael097 on r/unrealengine, an early alpha is available on Patreon. A teaser video is linked from the post.
The developer says the vehicle physics are a custom 6-DOF model, stepped at 500 Hz in double precision. Unreal actors follow that model rather than driving it. That keeps the simulation separate from the engine's own physics.
For the planet, the project uses scaled space with a 16k Earth that includes night lights. Orbits are n-body, computed from JPL ephemerides. The Starbase location is built from lidar, aerial imagery and Sentinel-2 ground albedo.
On the rendering side, all lighting is dynamic. The developer says Lumen is used on High and Epic settings, with a physical Sun and exposure. The UI is built entirely in Slate, with no widget blueprints.
The details come from the developer's own post, and we have not tested the build. The alpha is early, so expect rough edges. The developer states this is a fan project, not affiliated with SpaceX, Tesla, or Take-Two.
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