A new Starfield mod aims to make space exploration more immersive, allowing players to travel from orbit to a planet's surface without loading screens. Called Seamless Landings, the project has been in development for roughly six months, and its creator has shared a preview showcasing its progress.
🎮Manual and Automated Landings
Players will be able to land using autopilot or fly manually, exploring low orbit before descending to the surface. With autopilot enabled, they can even leave the cockpit and walk around their ship during the journey. The mod will also allow landings on water.
🌍Enhanced Planetary Rendering and Atmosphere
To achieve seamless landings, the modder is rebuilding Starfield's planetary rendering system in 3D, adding detailed environments at every altitude. Features include volumetric clouds, dynamic weather, thunderstorms, lightning, auroras, atmospheric effects, city lights, terrain and cloud shadows, oceans, and snowcaps.
The mod also adds re-entry heat effects that leave a layer of ash on the ship's hull, along with enhanced cockpit monitoring and new HUD elements. Its rendering system uses the game's own planetary, biome, climate, and atmospheric data.
Seamless planetary landings have long been among the features requested by the Starfield community, with many players hoping Bethesda would bring this level of exploration to the game. The feature is already familiar to No Man's Sky players, where traveling from space to a planet's surface without loading screens is part of the core exploration experience. This mod aims to bring that same freedom to Starfield.
📅Release Status
Seamless Landings remains in development, with no release date announced. The mod will be free on Nexus Mods, exclusive to PC, and require the Starfield Script Extender (SFSE).