OpenVerse is an open-source, open-world universe simulator.
The goal is to simulate as much of the universe as possible - multiple star systems, planets, moons, asteroid belts, rings, and more - driven by real gravitational physics.
Not a screensaver. Not a game. A sandbox for curiosity.
 Discover planets and other celestial bodies |
 Simulate entire solar systems |
 Collision of bodies using orbital mechanics |
 Build your own systems using build mode |
No build tools required — just download and run.
Download latest Windows release
Step 1 — Go to the Releases page
Step 2 — Select the most recent version
Step 3 — Download the package for your system
Click the .zip for Windows or the .tar.gz for Linux under the Assets section.
Step 4 — Unzip the downloaded archive
Extract the folder to any location on your machine.
Step 5 — Run the executable
- Windows: Double-click
verse.exe - Linux: Open a terminal in the folder and run
./verse
| Key / Input | Action |
|---|---|
| Left-click | Enter free-look (captures mouse) |
| Escape | Open system menu / exit build mode / exit inspection mode |
| W / S | Move forward / backward |
| A / D | Strafe left / right |
| Q / E | Move down / up |
| Mouse | Look around |
| Scroll | Adjust camera speed |
| T | Toggle warp mode |
| B | Toggle build mode |
| Tab + Scroll | Cycle build presets (in build mode) |
| I | Toggle inspection mode |
| F11 / Alt+Enter | Toggle fullscreen |
+ / - |
Simulation speed up / down |
| Space | Pause / resume |
| R | Reset camera near the Sun |
Simulation speeds: 0 → 0.1 → 0.25 → 0.5 → 1 → 2 → 5 → 10 → 30 → 60 → 100 → 365 days/s
Space is incomprehensibly large. Most simulations either abstract that away or confine you to a single solar system. OpenVerse doesn't.
- Real scale. Every distance, mass, and orbital period is physically accurate. The emptiness between planets is real. Flying from Earth to Neptune takes time.
- Real dynamics. Bodies move under genuine N-body gravity — no baked animations, no shortcuts. Disrupt the solar system and watch it react.
- Open world. Fly anywhere. Approach an asteroid from 10 km. Pull back until the entire solar system fits on screen. Eventually, jump to another star.
- Sandbox. Spawn scenarios, collide objects, break things. Curiosity should have no guardrails.
| Feature | Status |
|---|---|
| N-body gravity — RESPA hierarchical integrator, adaptive per-system timestep | ✓ |
| Full solar system — Sun, 8 planets, dwarf planets, large asteroids, and major moons | ✓ |
| Procedural planet textures, axial tilt & rotation | ✓ |
| Data-driven universe config (JSON) | ✓ |
| Multiple star systems & nearby exoplanet systems | ✓ |
| Ring systems — Saturn (Keplerian particles), Uranus & Neptune rings | ✓ |
| Asteroid belts — Main Belt & Kuiper Belt with gravity-integrated particles | ✓ |
| Planet collision & merge — animation, particle spray, persistent craters, spin transfer | ✓ |
| Build mode — spawn and place bodies at runtime | ✓ |
| Inspection mode — highlight bodies and orbit selected targets | ✓ |
| Catalog-backed skybox — Yale Bright Star Catalog J2000 stars | ✓ |
| Background soundtrack | ✓ |
| Supernovae | ✓ |
| Black holes | planned |
| Enhanced rendering | planned |
| Expand universe | planned |
For contributors and developers. End users should use the pre-built releases above.
Windows (MSYS2 / MinGW-w64)
pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc mingw-w64-x86_64-make \
mingw-w64-x86_64-SDL2 mingw-w64-x86_64-SDL2_ttf \
mingw-w64-x86_64-SDL2_mixer mingw-w64-x86_64-glew
mingw32-make
./verse.exeLinux
sudo apt install build-essential libsdl2-dev libsdl2-ttf-dev libsdl2-mixer-dev libglew-dev
make
./verseFor a full technical reference of the codebase, see ARCHITECTURE.md.
OpenVerse is open source and early in development. The physics engine, rendering pipeline, and coordinate system are all designed to scale beyond a single solar system. If you want to help push toward a truly open universe, contributions are welcome.
See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines on reporting bugs, requesting features, and submitting pull requests.
This project is licensed under the MIT License.