I wanted to add more depth to my universe, so I added simple shadows to the debris renderer.

For a long time, I had a problem with the stability of asteroid orbits in long-running simulations. I wanted an in-game solution for this instead of simply correcting it on the backend, so I created fireflies. These creatures roam around the system and move asteroids that have drifted away from their designated orbits.

I had to spend some time dealing with the performance of a long-running simulation. The biggest issue was that long-term mining in the system created very complex asteroids that were heavy to simulate. Therefore, I introduced a simplified form of debris. When nothing is too close, I switch to this simplified form. This really lightens the load on the physics engine. Now I can have a solar system with thousands of asteroids without any problems.

After some time, I returned to development. I mainly focused on improving AI, the economy, and performance. And of course, I also had some fun with the physics engine along the way.

It took me longer than I want to admit, but I now have the first version of the Clouds generator. It even handles animation for spawning and despawning.