Development

The Universe Sandbox team pointing at something that was most certainly very interesting. Left to right, back to front: Jonathan Hoy, Christian Herold, Dave Nelson, Alexander Grønneløv, Georg Steinröhder, Erika Nesvold, Mat Solomon, Dan Dixon, Jules Litman-Cleper, Jenn Seiler, Jared Meier, David Rappo. Not pictured: Jacob Williams, VR Developer (see Unity’s story on Jacob for a lovely picture of him), Ryan Macoubrie, Composer

We recently had the privilege and pleasure of uniting [nearly] the whole Universe Sandbox team in person under one roof on the southern coast of Spain for an entire week.

In the seven years since Dan hired two developers to begin work on the latest version of Universe Sandbox, our team has grown to 14 strong. In the past two years alone, we have added six members to our team. So for some of us, this meetup meant seeing familiar faces, but for many, this was the very first time meeting each other in person.

While there are countless benefits to having a remote team spread across the globe, there are drawbacks as well — not the least of which is the limited opportunity to experience each other not just as coworkers, but as fellow humans with families, wide-reaching interests and hobbies, and large catalogues of cheesy jokes. This was a chance for us to have conversations that weren’t at all related to code architecture, simulation performance, pesky bugs, or features on our roadmap. Though of course, we couldn’t help ourselves from having those conversations, too.

And importantly, we set aside time to take a step back from the details and appreciate this massively ambitious and unique project we are all a part of and discuss the future that it holds. Believe us when we say our wishlist for the future of Universe Sandbox is not brief.

We’ve now returned to our homes in Germany, Denmark, Australia, and across the United States in Seattle, Portland, St. Louis, Chicago, Birmingham, D.C., Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston, reinvigorated and excited to get back to making Universe Sandbox bigger and better.

We continue to be ever grateful for all of the support we receive from our loving community that makes all of this possible.

Scroll on for proof that we all get along and had a great time hiking, touring historical sites, and of course, eating:

 
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Universe Sandbox will no longer support Windows users running DirectX 9 or 32-bit operating systems later this year. The exact date and release are not known at this time, but we want to give everyone a heads-up.

November 2018: As of Update 22, Universe Sandbox no longer supports DirectX 9 or 32-bit operating systems. Users can run the last compatible version by selecting “*directx9-32bit” via Steam Betas. Learn how

Why?

Short answer:
These are technologies that have been replaced in mainstream computing over a decade ago. There are very few users left on these systems, and it is getting harder to support them as time goes on. This will help us continue to make improvements to performance and stability into the future.

Long answer:
The game engine we use, Unity3D, stopped supporting the DirectX 9 API last year. Unity states that “due to diminishing hardware numbers and the loss of platform support from Microsoft … continued support of the DirectX 9 API is no longer feasible and is working against the development of new features in Unity.” This move mirrors the direction taken by many other companies for their software and video games, including Blizzard’s popular Heroes of the Storm.

The same is true for discontinuing support of 32-bit OSes, as hardware manufacturers like Nvidia are no longer updating 32-bit drivers with new features, Apple is gearing up to drop all support for 32-bit applications, and World of Warcraft is now going to be 64-bit only.

The vast majority of Universe Sandbox users are already running 64-bit, and our ability to focus on and develop only this version will help us continue to make improvements to Universe Sandbox’s stability and performance into the future.

Who Will Be Affected?

This will not affect macOS or Linux users, and if you are on Windows, chances are good that you are already running modern hardware with support for later versions of DirectX and a 64-bit OS that will not be affected by this.

But in case you aren’t, here’s what you need to know:

• This will end support for any Windows versions below Windows 7 SP1+
• DirectX 10 may work, but we recommend DirectX 11 | Find out which version you’re running
• You must run a 64-bit version of Windows | Find out which version you’re running

What Should I Do If I’m Affected?

Upgrade to a newer version of DirectX:
We recommend upgrading to at least DirectX 11. Follow these instructions to find out which version you’re running and view information about upgrading, if needed.

Some older GPUs do not support DirectX 11. You will need to find information about your GPU or contact the manufacturer to see what versions of DirectX it supports.

Upgrade to a 64-bit OS:
If you’re running Windows 7 through 10, you’re able to upgrade to 64-bit for free. Here is one guide for upgrading Windows 10.

You will need to upgrade to a newer version of Windows if you are running a version older than Windows 7.

If you can’t upgrade:
We will offer a DirectX 9, 32-bit compatible version of Universe Sandbox via Steam. This version will not continue to be updated or supported; it will be the last update before we move onto DirectX 11, 64-bit versions only.

November 2018: As of Update 22, Universe Sandbox no longer supports DirectX 9 or 32-bit operating systems. Users can run the last compatible version by selecting “*directx9-32bit” via Steam Betas. Learn how

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us.

July 19: Support for other languages has been officially released in Update 21! Thanks for everyone’s help with testing this feature and contributing to translations. Learn more about 20 Earth Languages & 12 Jovian Moons | Update 21

November 15: Support for sharing simulations on Steam Workshop is now available in Update 22! Learn more about The Universe Just Got Bigger: Steam Workshop Support | Update 22

We are still testing our next big feature:

• Steam Workshop (Sharing Simulations)

Please help us test! Jump into the Community Test build and start sharing and exploring Workshop simulations.

Steam Workshop

Viewing a simulation from Steam Workshop with a custom description. No explanation can be provided for the surplus of pumpkin-related content.

Share simulations to Steam Workshop:
Home > Save > Share to Steam Workshop

Browse & open Steam Workshop simulations:
Home > Workshop

Sharing simulations now will help us test this feature and also help us build up a big catalog of sims on Steam Workshop, so we can show off the creativity of the Universe Sandbox community from day one of the official Workshop release.

As part of our redesigned save dialog and support for Steam Workshop, simulations now support custom descriptions that appear when the simulation loads. And even cooler? These descriptions support the same BBCode formatting that Steam does. Two differences: It also supports images with [img]url[/img], and even animated GIFs! But it does not support [noparse].

Opt Into the Community Test Build

1.  Right-click on the game title in your Steam Library
2.  Click on ‘Properties’
3.  Select the ‘Betas’ tab
4.  Set the dropdown menu to ‘community-test’
5.  Close the Properties window
6.  Steam will now update Universe Sandbox ² to the Community Test build
7.  Once updated, launch Universe Sandbox ²

Please note: We’ve done extensive testing on this feature, but this is a Community Test build for a reason. There are still changes we have planned, and you may encounter bugs. If you do, please let us know through our forums (local | Steam) or in-game via Home > Send Feedback.

Thanks for testing and for your patience!

An overview of changes in the current Community Test build is available here: What’s New | Community Tests

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Universe Sandbox set to Spanish. Interface enlarged to show text.

Support for 20+ languages in Universe Sandbox is now officially available! Learn more about Update 21

Now we’d love your help translating Universe Sandbox into any languages you know!

While this feature was being tested, we added a number of languages and had significant contributions from our amazing community that improved translations across the included languages. Many of the translations, however, are still placeholders from Google Translate, which sometimes produces strange results. While we think this is an improvement over having no translations at all, we’d like to do better.

Which is why we need your help in providing the most accurate translations possible! Universe Sandbox continues to grow and evolve, and we hope we can continue to receive translation contributions from our community.
 

Translating Via Universe Sandbox

To submit translations via Universe Sandbox:

1. Click Home > Help Translate
2. Click Translate (or press F2) in the bottom-right corner
3. Click on any green text to open our translation site (Crowdin) in your browser
   • Some text, such as randomly generated names, cannot be translated 
4. Login or create a Crowdin account then suggest a new/improved translation*
5. To exit Translate Mode in Universe Sandbox, click Translate (or press F2) again
   • You can remove the Translate button entirely by turning off Help Translate in Home > Settings

*By default, you will submit a translation for whichever language is selected in Universe Sandbox. To change languages in Universe Sandbox, click Home > Settings > General > Selected Language. You can also change which language you’re suggesting a translation for in Crowdin by clicking the “Other Languages” tab below the translation input box.

Translating On Our Translation Site (Crowdin)

Crowdin is a system that helps manage translation projects by making it easy for anyone to submit new translations and vote on the best ones.

Even if you aren’t running Universe Sandbox, you can still head to our project on Crowdin and help with translating:
Universe Sandbox Translation Project on Crowdin

While there may be text that only makes sense when viewed in its context in Universe Sandbox, there will also be moments when you want to suggest a bunch of translations and don’t need to go back into Universe Sandbox. Feel free to continue through the list of text in Crowdin and translate as much as you want!

Setting Universe Sandbox to Other Languages

Change languages in Universe Sandbox:
Home > Settings > General > Selected Language

Please note that you will not see your suggestions in Universe Sandbox immediately. Over time we will update existing languages with improved translations from the community. These will be included in our typical updates.

If you’d like to see a language included in Universe Sandbox that is not there already, please let us know! If approved, we will add requested languages to our Crowdin project (with Google Translations as the base) and then start accepting improved translations on Crowdin. Then in a future update, we will add the language to Universe Sandbox to allow in-game translation.

Thanks for everyone’s help in making Universe Sandbox more accessible!
 
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