Piloting Star Atlas NFT ships in UE5

WTF FTX! Did you survive the collapse of the defunct FTX centralized cryptocurrency exchange? Fortunately, although I once thought about it, I never signed up for an account at FTX.US, a separate company and exchange for US customers. Unfortunately, the Star Atlas team developed a close collaboration and partnership with FTX through events like the “FTX Off the Grid” festival in May 2022.

Will Star Atlas survive the FTX collapse? I hope so. Last year, I wondered if non-fungible tokens (NFTs) can survive on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. I wasn’t sure. One year later, I’m wondering if the Star Atlas NFT-based metaverse game can survive on the Solana (SOL) blockchain. But for some reason, I feel more inspired by Star Atlas and its alluring vision for “a grand strategy game of space exploration”.

Hi, my name is Jay, and I’m an IBM TRIRIGA content designer/engineer at Wipro. While the FTX collapse was a turbulent, if not traumatic, roller-coaster ride for the crypto industry, it highlights the epic battle between centralized finance (CeFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi). But instead of digging deeper, let’s take a light stroll through the latest release of the Star Atlas Showroom R2. Ready to fly?

How do I install the Star Atlas Showroom?

What is the Showroom? In the lore, “the Showroom is in fact a piece of our beloved planet, which now lives as a memento mori in the vast MUD territory”, where MUD refers to “Manus Ultimus Divinum” (“The Last Divine Hand” in Latin), “a spacefaring faction of humans originating from their home planet of Earth.” In the gameplay, the Showroom is the first Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) experience by Star Atlas.

Although I installed the original Showroom R1, the process of installing R2 is identical, as follows. For more background, see the (1) Star Atlas Help Center: “Showroom” page, (2) Epic Games Store: “Star Atlas FAQ” page, (3) Medium: “How to Enter the Star Atlas Pre-Alpha Showroom” (R1) article, and (4) Medium: “Lift-off! Star Atlas Launches Pre-Season with an All-New Version of Showroom” (R2) article.

Visit my previous post for details on how to install a compatible Solana wallet, connect your wallet to the Play Star Atlas home page, and enlist (or stake) your Star Atlas faction fleet.
After one week of being enlisted, your Star Atlas faction fleet will become “Seasoned” and eligible to receive one game code (or access key) for the Showroom.
Return to the Play Star Atlas home page. Click Connect Wallet.
- In the Connect Supported Wallet popup, choose your wallet. Click Connect.
Click Profile to open your Star Atlas profile.
- In the upper-right corner, click Claim Game Codes.
Return to the Play Star Atlas home page.
- Select the vertical tab for the Showroom.
- Verify that your Windows PC satisfies the minimum requirements.
- Update any graphics card drivers, if needed.
If you haven’t already done so, Sign Up or Sign In to your account at the Epic Games Store.
- In the upper-right corner, hover over your Display Name. Then Redeem Code.
- Enter the product code from your Star Atlas profile. Click Redeem.
- Click Download Epic Games Launcher.
- Install the Epic Games Launcher.
After installation, open the Epic Games Launcher.
- From the Epic Games Library, Install the Star Atlas Showroom.
After installation, Launch the Star Atlas Showroom.
- Choose Create Wallet or Import Wallet. Follow the directions.
- Choose a Wallet Name.
- Create a Password.
- Confirm Password. This password is local only and protects your wallet on your machine.
- Click Enter Showroom. Congratulations!

Play Star Atlas > Profile > Claim Game Codes

Regarding the installation process, one criticism comes to mind. Although I smoothed out the flow as best I can, it’s still a bit clunky. Especially when you hop out to the third-party Epic Games Store. Ideally, the download should be available directly from the Play Star Atlas home page itself. Then you wouldn’t need to redeem codes externally. On the other hand, Epic Games offers a wider audience.

How does the Star Atlas Showroom look and feel?

In a nutshell, the Showroom R2 is stunning! Don’t get me wrong, the original Showroom R1 was stunning as well. But in R2, the ability to finally pilot your NFT space bike or spaceship into the sky or into space adds another incredible dimension to simply viewing your NFT in-game asset as a flat JPG or PNG image. But before I share my favorite scenes, here are a few quick videos to get a taste.

*Star Atlas Showroom R2 > Flight Instruction*

Regarding the gameplay, another criticism comes to mind. Although controlling the movements of my character, camera, and ships felt very intuitive, natural, and smooth, I noticed a glitch when piloting. For example, after a certain point, I could no longer fly at full speed, even when my speed limiter was set to maximum and my engine wasn’t overheating. Quitting and reentering restored my full speed.

Another glitch occurred when dismounting my larger spaceship. Unless I landed in a perfectly level orientation, some landing gears touched the ground while other landing gears were still slightly off the ground. Which is amusing but annoying. Ideally, dismounting should automatically level the ship so that all of the landing gears touch the ground equally. No worries. I’ll keep practicing my landings!

What are my favorite scenes?

Naturally, I couldn’t resist in taking a few screenshots. Or more. Here are a few of my favorite scenes. As you’ll notice, I piloted 2 NFT ships: (1) Pearce X4 XX-Small Fighter, and (2) Floyd Liner Medium Freighter (free). As more ships become fully rendered and flyable, I hope to fly my (3) Calico Compakt Hero Medium Ship, (4) Calico ATS Enforcer Medium Fighter, and (5) Pearce F4 Medium Fighter.

What are my final thoughts?

Last year, in my previous post, I took a “cautiously optimistic” approach to Star Atlas, as follows.

If Star Atlas isn’t a scam, will it fail? Now that’s a good question. Even though Star Atlas is still in the earliest stages of a multi-year roadmap, the look and feel of its first mini-game module, SCORE, which allows you to stake your NFT in-game assets, already shows tremendous promise and potential for its larger economic framework. This potential doesn’t even integrate its main Unreal Engine 5 game yet!

So for now, my strategy is to gradually increase my exposure or investment in Star Atlas as safely or affordably as I can, while also monitoring its development progress for any “red flags” or “green lights” that might help me to correct or adjust my trajectory. Luckily, my current Star Atlas investment is only a tiny fraction of my crypto portfolio, so I’m not that worried yet. Unless I want to buy a bigger ship?

I may never buy a huge Pearce C9 Capital Ship, but the Calico Compakt Hero looks so damn cool!

Calico Compakt Hero Medium Ship

One year later, despite the “turbulent, if not traumatic, roller-coaster ride”, Star Atlas continues to impress. Especially with its first Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) experience, Showroom R1 in September 2022, then Showroom R2 in December 2022. Like I said, stunning! Meanwhile, regarding the Calico Compakt Hero, I couldn’t resist it and actually bought it in January 2022, just one week after my previous post!

Moving forward into 2023, Star Atlas won’t be out of the woods, or asteroid field, yet. Which means the next 6 months will be crucial. Fortunately, the release of the Star Atlas: Golden Era (SAGE) Game Manual (Part 1 and Part 2) and Asset Catalog (Phase 1 and Phase 2) in November-December 2022 sends a strong and inspiring message that the Star Atlas team won’t give up so easily. Neither will I.

After all, the Star Atlas: White Paper (PDF, Version 1.0.0) in May 2021 offered an ambitious Conclusion.

Star Atlas is an ideal product to emerge from the confluence of state-of-the-art blockchain, real-time graphics, multiplayer video game, and decentralized financial technologies. Basing the Star Atlas universe in a Grand Strategy multiplayer genre creates engaging, long-term gameplay as factions battle it out in a universal spacescape under a constant state of flux.

Players stake assets with real-world value to grow their in-game corporate empires, discover unique and distant alien worlds, battle in high stakes combat, and shape the game’s features and future with earned political influence. Star Atlas’ cinema-quality graphical technology utilizing Unreal Engine 5 is beginning at a state that no other competitors in this space have yet had the luxury to adopt.

To bring all these enabling technologies together presents a unique opportunity for the future of finance, video games, entertainment, real-world professions and blockchain where people can make money and have a lot of fun doing it. All in the familiar frontier of outer space, where exploration is both terrifyingly cold and simultaneously full of unrelenting optimism.

Finally, we can’t forget the favorite battle cry of the Star Atlas community: “Power to the People!“