A guide to Genesis
Star Citizen Starchitect & Planet Tech V5
Planet Tech V5 changes how Star Citizen’s planets are built. Starchitect adds settlements and other places to visit. This guide explains how both work and what’s being tested on Nyx I.
About 23 min read · 16 chapters
How climate, soil and geology shape the surface.
How Starchitect builds and groups locations.
Mission boards and contracts from settlement residents.
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What is Genesis?
Planet Tech V5 and Starchitect are both part of Genesis.
Genesis is the name for CIG’s tools for creating planets and filling them with places to visit. Planet Tech V5 handles the natural landscape, including the ground and the plants growing on it. Starchitect uses the planet’s data to decide where settlements and other locations should go, then builds them from parts made by artists and designers.
A mine, for example, can be placed near a resource deposit, with supporting facilities nearby. Planetary geology helps determine where that resource appears. Starchitect uses the resource information when choosing a site for the mine.
Shapes the ground and helps decide which rocks and plants belong there.
Uses the world’s data to place and assemble settlements and other locations.
Add people, work and encounters, with servers supporting the action.
There’s still a lot of work for artists and designers. They make the plants and buildings, choose each world’s character and decide what happens at its locations. Procedural generation applies that work across the planet without someone having to place every tree and outpost by hand.
What the names mean
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Genesis | The broader world-building effort and its connected technologies. The name is also sometimes used as shorthand for a planetary test. |
| Planet Tech V5 | The technology for creating and drawing planetary landscapes, including terrain, surface materials and vegetation. |
| Starchitect | A developer tool that uses planetary data and design rules to decide where locations go and how they’re put together. |
What is Planet Tech V5?
V5 uses climate, soil and geology to decide what a planet’s surface looks like.
Earlier planet tools used prepared sections of desert, forest and other environments, placing them according to temperature and humidity. The results could be attractive, but familiar combinations could turn up again in widely separated places.
V5 has more information to work with: terrain height, temperature, moisture, soil type and amount, geology and erosion. The wider Genesis tools also account for soil nutrients and sunlight. A tree or fern can have its own requirements, so a change in the ground can change which plants get placed there.
Emergent biomes
A biome is an area with a characteristic mix of conditions and living things. With emergent biomes, that mix comes from checking the requirements of many individual plants. Several species might suit a wet valley; fewer might survive on an exposed ridge. Woodland can thin gradually into grassland as the conditions change.
This also allows smaller variations within an area. A clearing doesn’t need to be treated as a separate biome, and deeper shade can favor a different kind of undergrowth just a short distance away.
What artists and designers control
Developers choose the environments they want on each planet. For Nyx I, that includes mountains, forests, grasslands, wetlands and swamps. They prepare the planet’s data and make the plants and rocks that the system will use.
Some calculations happen during development. An erosion map can describe where water would have worn away the land and later guide rock placement. Weather can use environmental information during play. The game doesn’t have to calculate every geological process, or every plant’s life, continuously.
Plants suited to wet ground
Wet ground suits plants that can thrive with plenty of water. Shade and competition then help determine what grows beneath the trees and what does better in the open.
Less water, different vegetation
With less water available, a different mix of plants may do well, leaving more soil or rock exposed. How dry the area is, what the soil is like and which plants suit the world all matter.
Growing conditions at higher altitudes
Higher ground can have different temperatures, slopes and growing conditions. A ridge won’t always be snowy; that also depends on the planet’s climate.
How the terrain is built
V5 adds smaller terrain features and places rocks according to the local geology.
Mountain ranges give a planet its overall shape, but the ground needs much more detail when you’re walking or driving across it. V5 adds smaller ridges, gullies and uneven slopes, with soil and loose stones on the surface.
Medium tiles
The 2025 work introduced medium tiles, which add detail over the existing four-kilometre terrain tiles. Slope, soil type and erosion help decide where that detail belongs. These tiles can change the ground’s height and provide more information about soil and the size of exposed bedrock, giving you a more varied surface to cross.
Cliffs also get larger features that match the local geology. Artists build rocks as related families, so a loose boulder can look as though it broke away from the cliff above it. Information from both the larger terrain tiles and the medium tiles helps determine where smaller stones collect.
Loose rock can collect beneath a cliff or along a slope, giving you obstacles that follow the terrain rather than appearing evenly scattered across it.
How the ground is layered
The material system starts with bedrock, adds soil, then adds things such as fallen leaves or pine needles where they belong. Snow can form another layer. Each has its own appearance, with transitions that help the layers blend together. Moisture can also change how the ground looks, so rain can leave a visible effect on the surface.
How that surface looks and how a vehicle handles on it are separate pieces of work. Wet-looking soil doesn’t automatically mean your wheels will sink or lose grip. The terrain can supply useful information to physics and sound systems, but those systems still have to use it.
Where resources can appear
CIG has also described using geology to place mineable material. If rock types and deposits follow a consistent relationship, miners could learn which areas are worth checking. Recognizing the rock could narrow the search, though it wouldn’t guarantee a valuable deposit.
How trees and plants are placed
Plants are placed according to the conditions they need, including water, sunlight and space.
Several species may be able to grow in the same spot. Genesis uses rules for competition over water, nutrients, sunlight and space to decide which plants to place there. Artists can adjust how common each species becomes.
A large tree takes up more space and resources than a small plant. Its canopy casts shade that may suit ferns underneath. Plants that need more sunlight do better in the open.
Different sizes and growth stages
The plant models include different growth stages. Poor conditions can produce smaller or less healthy examples; better conditions can support larger, more mature ones. Age and vitality can affect a tree’s height and leaf color. Species can also form groups that resemble the way seeds spread nearby, giving the forest a less random appearance.
These rules describe how the landscape is created. They don’t mean every tree grows through its entire life while you watch. Seasonal changes have also been explored, but a complete annual cycle, falling leaves and lasting snow accumulation each need further work and their own release confirmation.
How grass is rendered
The grass work shown in 2025 uses ground-cover tiles that follow the terrain, with individual blades aligned to gravity. Its lighting treats a meadow more like a mass of fine fibers than a flat surface. That helps it keep the soft, full appearance of grass as you move above it.
Swamps, jungles and redwoods
The wetland and swamp examples use dense ground cover with plants suited to saturated soil. In jungles, plants grow on the trunks and hang through the canopy. The redwood environments use much taller trees with undergrowth below. Developers choose which of these environments suit each planet.
Interacting with plants
Demonstrations have shown floating debris moving with water and plants reacting to nearby movement. More extensive interactions, such as felling trees or clearing a forest with a ship, need additional physics, suitable models and a way to remember what changed. Drawing a dense forest is only one part of making it fully destructible.
The dense forests shown in demonstrations are examples of what the tools can produce. Different conditions can leave thinner woodland or open ground, so they don’t represent the amount of vegetation you should expect everywhere.
Sources & further reading
How weather works
CIG is developing moving weather systems, including storms that could affect flying.
Genesis aims to let clouds form, move and break up in response to temperature, terrain, bodies of water and prevailing winds. You could see rain falling from a weather system in the distance, then fly into it and encounter those conditions yourself.
Light scattering inside clouds affects the contrast of an overcast sky. Cloud shadows, visible rain columns and ground fog connect that weather to the surface.
Storms and flying
The weather work brings together rain, stronger wind, wet ground, puddles and lightning. CIG has also discussed effects on gameplay: reduced visibility, turbulence, instrument interference and damage from direct lightning strikes. Severe weather could make you reconsider a flight, choose another approach or cover part of the journey on the ground.
Those are development goals, and they won’t necessarily arrive together in the first V5 release. A storm’s effects on flight and damage need the relevant vehicle and gameplay systems to work with the weather.
Wet ground after rain
The system is designed to track average ground moisture, so the surface can stay wet after rain and dry gradually. This is a way to produce believable weather effects without the cost of running a full atmospheric simulation on the game servers.
Cloud stability, overcast lighting and memory use were still being worked on in August and September 2026, along with loading weather resources as players move. Those details affect whether a storm remains convincing throughout a flight.
How V5 handles rendering and performance
V5 uses the graphics card for more terrain work and reuses data when drawing distant landscapes.
A forest still needs to be visible from orbit, long after its individual trees have become too small to draw. The same is true of a meadow when you can no longer see its grass blades. The renderer needs a cheaper way to preserve their appearance at a distance.
Work handled by the graphics card
V5 moves suitable terrain-generation and placement work onto the GPU, or graphics processor. Placing large numbers of rocks and plants is often called scattering. The GPU can handle many similar calculations together, then use the results to draw the scene without passing every individual object through the CPU each frame.
Visibility checks can also treat distant objects as groups and become more precise as you get closer. That helps make room for detailed ground and denser vegetation. The system still supports CPU work where it makes sense, and gameplay, collisions and networking have their own requirements.
What virtual terrain does
Virtual terrain stores, or caches, terrain information at different scales. The engine can reuse those results instead of repeating the terrain and placement calculations for each view.
That information also helps represent distant vegetation. The renderer checks what covers the ground and adjusts its appearance accordingly. Soil, rock, plant species and plant health can all contribute to the view from orbit. Where seasonal variation is supported, that can contribute too. The forest stays visible as part of the landscape even when its individual trees aren’t being drawn.
Using the same information for the distant view and nearby detail helps reduce repetition and abrupt changes during the descent.
Frame rates and server performance
Some of the savings can go into drawing more detail, so greater efficiency won’t necessarily translate into higher frame rates on every computer. Resolution, settings, memory and the scene itself will affect the result.
Server tick rate is a separate measure from the frames your computer draws. GPU scattering helps generate and render scenery; distributing the simulation between servers addresses server workload. A fast test session won’t tell you how the finished combination performs on every machine.
How Starchitect works
The tool helps CIG choose sites for settlements and build them from prepared parts.
To place a farm, a designer can specify the temperature and soil it needs. Starchitect searches the planetary data for suitable sites, then assembles the location from a prepared library. A mine can have different requirements, such as being close to a particular resource.
Designers set both the requirements for the site and what it should contain. A location might need a particular soil type, then include industrial buildings, living quarters and a power supply. Some requirements are strict; others are preferences that leave room for variation.
Placement rules
CIG has also used wrecks as an example. They could be placed near hazardous flying conditions or anti-aircraft defenses, giving the wreck a plausible reason to be there. Designers choose which of these rules to apply.
Once developers have made and tested a type of location, they can reuse its rules in other suitable areas. Changing the parts, surroundings or occupants can produce variations without someone having to start from scratch at each site.
Starchitect remains a tool for CIG’s developers. The player base-building system has its own interface and construction rules.
Sources & further reading
How settlements are built
Designers supply the buildings and layouts. Starchitect combines them to suit each location.
Artists and designers make a library of buildings, layouts and smaller parts that Starchitect can reuse. These are organized into modular tiles that can be combined into larger locations. A tile is one unit in that process; it doesn’t always mean one room, one building or a fixed area of ground.
An industrial site in a settled corporate region can use a different style and equipment from one on the frontier, even if both do similar work. Those choices influence the layout as well as the appearance.
What can vary between settlements
- What does it look like? Architecture and branding give it a recognizable style. Early examples include frontier, high-tech and utilitarian designs.
- What happens here? Mining, farming and habitation need different facilities. The purpose helps determine what gets built.
- Who lives or works here? A lawful workplace, an outlaw camp and an abandoned settlement need different occupants, equipment and atmosphere.
Developers can assemble and test these parts in the editor before using them across a planet. They still need to check that a space is easy to understand, that encounters work and that missions have the objects they need.
Large cities
Starchitect is intended for small and medium settlements, along with smaller points of interest. Major cities still need their own layouts, landmarks and story work. They can be built individually while Starchitect supplies other locations across the planet.
Repeated buildings and rooms will still be part of a modular world. The variety comes from their arrangement, their surroundings and the activities inside them. How well that holds up after many visits will depend on the content made with the tools.
What are sectors and clusters?
Designers use sectors and clusters to organize locations across a planet.
A sector is a broad area with its own identity and placement rules. Within it, a cluster groups nearby locations that have something in common. The individual sites are built from modular tiles.
The world and its environmental information.
A broad area with its own identity and placement rules.
A related group of nearby locations.
A destination such as a settlement, industrial facility or other point of interest.
A modular piece made by artists and designers to help build the location.
A cluster example
One example grouped a central distribution facility with smaller operating bases nearby and extraction sites farther out. Caves provided more places to find resources. All of these sites were part of the same mining region.
Designers can choose other layouts and numbers of sites. Sectors don’t have to be identical squares, and a cluster doesn’t have a fixed number of locations. The hierarchy lets developers set broad rules for a region, then refine what happens within it.
How far apart are locations?
Early examples discussed spacing of roughly 100 km and showed how thousands of locations could be distributed. Those figures explain the intended scale; they aren’t fixed rules for every world. Density, travel distance and the kinds of sites you find depend on the planet and the content built for it.
How factions affect settlements
Ownership can affect the inhabitants, equipment and loot at a location.
Locations in a cluster can share ownership and resource information. An outlaw area, for example, can use hostile occupants and damaged or abandoned facilities. A protected mining region can use a different set of inhabitants and equipment, with trade facilities connected to its extraction sites.
Distance can help distinguish those regions, too. One of CIG’s examples placed an outlaw cluster well away from other groups of locations, reinforcing its isolation.
Loot and harvestable objects
Work during 2026 has connected loot and harvestable objects to environmental and ownership data. An outlaw-controlled location, for example, can use that information to choose suitable loot without a designer setting it up again at every site. Crafting is also being adapted to this information, alongside freight and security systems.
Writers also check that the outposts and their characters fit the planet’s history and lore. The placement rules don’t do that work for them.
Faction control and the economy
Grouping mines and trade facilities doesn’t mean that NPC ships already transport every commodity between them. Simulating those exchanges is further work for systems such as StarSim.
Assigning an owner also doesn’t add a territory-capture mechanic by itself. Ownership data tells the game who occupies a site; separate gameplay rules determine whether players can change that.
How local missions work
Planned contracts include work for settlement residents as well as larger factions.
The Starchitect Mission Pack is built around local sandbox objectives: work that gives you something to do in and around a planetary region. The intention is to let players spend more of a session on the surface.
Local Contracts add requests from people living in the settlements you visit. That puts some of the work in the hands of residents, alongside the jobs offered by larger factions.
Setting up a mission
A mission needs to know where its objectives are, which objects it can use and what happens when you finish. Starchitect’s location data can help with that setup. Instead of preparing each destination separately, developers can build missions that understand the information attached to suitable locations.
During 2026, work has connected missions to interactive boards and rewards. It has also added support for resource sites used by several active missions and for missions with different outcomes. The content and rewards still need integration and testing, but the framework gives designers a way to reuse that work across more locations.
Working in one region
Having another job nearby could make it worth returning to the same settlement during a session. You’d begin to know the landing spots and routes between facilities. Whether that becomes a satisfying loop will depend on the jobs, distances and rewards in the build, rather than the presence of a mission board alone.
The full Guilds System has a separate roadmap milestone. Guild-related menus in a preview don’t confirm that all guild services and progression arrive with these mission boards.
How Genesis works with other systems
Population, lighting, audio and server technology each have their own development work.
Population Manager
The Population Manager is intended to choose suitable inhabitants for an area while managing the load they put on the game. The AI then needs to navigate the location, use objects and react to events nearby.
Work during 2026 has included navigation fixes and creature spawning. NPCs have also been given checks for darkness so they can decide when to switch on a flashlight.
Light and sound
Global illumination deals with indirect light: light that reaches a surface after bouncing off something else. It helps a shaded forest floor feel different from an open clearing without an artist placing extra lights to compensate everywhere. The wider lighting work also covers reflections and transparent surfaces.
StarAudio uses reusable rules to help give environments appropriate sound. Demonstrated features include the Doppler effect, where a moving sound changes pitch as it passes, and delays based on the speed of sound. A distant event can reach your eyes before its sound reaches your ears.
These are connected engine projects with their own development work. They aren’t all tied to the release of a single Planet Tech V5 feature.
Splitting a planet between servers
The planned DGS Planet Subdivision feature splits a planet or moon into areas that can be assigned to different dedicated game servers. It uses the positions of locations and other objects placed by Genesis to help group those areas. Nyx I is the first intended use.
Multiple servers can then share responsibility for the planet. The complete Dynamic Server Meshing milestone remains a separate roadmap item.
Location information can also remain available when the detailed buildings aren’t loaded. The map and other systems can still use navigation data, routes and associated inventories. Loading a place as you approach brings its detail into memory; it doesn’t require inventing a new settlement each time.
StarSim
StarSim is the planned simulation of the universe and its economy. It has its own development schedule, so new terrain and settlements can arrive before that simulation is complete.
Sources & further reading
- CIG · Brave New Worlds · CitizenCon 2954 (2024) · 58:32
- CIG · Brave New Worlds · CitizenCon 2954 (2024) · 65:28
- CIG · StarEngine developer Q&A · November 2024 · 18:22
- CIG · Roadmap Roundup August 12 2026
- CIG · Star Citizen Monthly Report September 2026
- CIG · StarSim
- CIG · DGS Planet Subdivision
- CIG · Star Citizen Monthly Report June 2026
Exploring the surface
Terrain, landing space and cargo needs all affect how you get to a site.
A site close by on the map may still be awkward to reach. A ridge can block the direct route, and heavy vegetation can leave little room to put down a large ship. Before committing to an approach, look for clear ground and a route from there to the destination.
When to bring a ground vehicle
Several nearby locations could give a vehicle more use over the course of a session. But it’s worth checking the terrain first. A short flight over a wooded slope might turn into a long detour on wheels, especially where there’s no suitable road.
Cargo capacity matters alongside access. A smaller ship may be easier to land near the job, but it still needs space for the crew’s equipment and whatever you’re transporting. Choose for the contracts available in your build and the route you actually need to travel.
Finding nearby sites and resources
Changes in vegetation can reveal changes in conditions, and industrial facilities can suggest related sites worth checking nearby. They’re clues, though. A particular tree won’t identify a mineral deposit for you, and a settlement may not offer the service you need.
What you notice will depend on the job. For a cargo run, access and delivery facilities come first. An industrial crew will spend more time checking resource areas, while a combat team needs to judge visibility, cover and the occupants of the site.
Base building and existing planets
Player base building and upgrades to existing planets have separate development work and release plans.
Player base building is a separate project, with construction tools, resource requirements, ownership rules and progression of its own. Starchitect doesn’t give players access to the developer’s settlement-building interface or make its outposts available to claim.
The two projects can share useful work: placing structures on uneven ground, for example, or creating modular parts that fit together. That helps explain their relationship, but base building still needs its own gameplay systems.
Updating existing planets
A new planet can be built around V5 from the start. An existing planet already has geography, materials, locations and gameplay that need to be considered. Its data and content may need changes so that the new climate, surface and placement rules work together.
Snow, temperature and moisture need to agree for the surface and weather to look right. That can require changes to an older planet’s data. Nyx I is the first target; conversion dates for other planets and moons remain separate decisions.
Roads, seasons and waterfalls
Roads need decisions about which places to connect, routes that fit the terrain and artwork for the resulting infrastructure. Interactive trees need physics, suitable models and a way to remember damage. Seasons need the world’s appearance and content to respond over time. Waterfalls need their own treatment of moving water.
Genesis can help with this work, but availability needs to be checked feature by feature. That also applies to dynamic trading, exploration rewards and large-scale destruction.
Sources & further reading
When will Genesis be available?
As of October 24, 2026, the main Genesis and Starchitect features are still listed as tentative for Alpha 4.11.
As checked on October 24, 2026, CIG’s Release View lists Alpha 4.10.2 as Live. Genesis: Planet Tech V5, Genesis: Starchitect, Genesis: Population Manager, Starchitect POIs and the Starchitect Mission Pack are listed for Alpha 4.11 in Q4 2026. All are marked Tentative, so timing and scope can still change.
CIG confirmed the first Evocati-only Planet Tech V5 Tech Preview in its October 5 weekly update. This was a limited test, with access and enabled features that can differ from the Live game. Technical requirements can also change between test builds.
| Stage | What it covers |
|---|---|
| 2024 reveal | The ideas, tools and examples behind Genesis. |
| 2025 demonstration | A newer look at the planetary technology and Nyx environments. |
| 2026 reports & tests | Progress on connecting, testing and refining the systems. |
| Release View | Public release targets and their status. Tentative entries can move or change. |
Early player impressions can tell you how a test feels. They’re less useful for pinning down final location counts, rewards or performance on your own machine. The video section identifies community commentary separately from CIG’s technical explanations.
If you’re planning a session, check the release notes for the build you’ll be playing. This section records the status on the date above; it doesn’t update automatically.
Frequently asked questions
These answers reflect the information available on October 24, 2026.
Is Genesis the same thing as Planet Tech V5?
Planet Tech V5 is one part of Genesis. It handles the natural landscape; Starchitect handles locations. “Genesis” is sometimes used as shorthand for a planetary test, so the name alone won’t tell you which features are enabled.
Is Starchitect an AI that invents whole cities?
It uses procedural rules and parts made by artists and designers. People create the buildings and layouts, then define how to combine them. It isn’t a text-prompt system that invents arbitrary buildings or stories.
Will a location change every time I visit?
Visiting doesn’t generate a fresh random settlement. Developers use procedural tools to create the locations, then the game loads them as needed. CIG can still revise their layouts between patches.
Will I find something every 100 km?
That was an early spacing example, not a rule for every planet. The demonstrations also showed thousands of locations, but neither figure fixes the density of a released world.
Will every planet be covered in forests?
No. The climate, soil and design of the planet determine what belongs there. The forest demonstrations show one possible environment.
Can I play with these features on Live yet?
As of October 24, 2026, Live is listed as Alpha 4.10.2. The named Genesis and Starchitect features are tentative for Alpha 4.11 in Q4 2026. Limited technology tests have begun, but their features aren’t necessarily available in the Live build.
Will V5 improve my frame rate?
There’s no fixed gain to expect. Rendering savings can go into extra detail as well as smoother performance, and the result will vary with your machine and the scene. Be careful with test figures: server tick rate and the frame rate on your computer measure different things.
Does moving work to the GPU change how NPCs are simulated?
The GPU work described here concerns terrain and scenery. NPC decisions, missions and multiplayer state still need their own gameplay and server systems.
Will every outpost have a mission board?
That hasn’t been confirmed. Services and contracts can differ between locations, and the boards and rewards are still being integrated and tested.
Can I build or take over these settlements?
Starchitect doesn’t grant that ability. Player construction and territory ownership have separate rules; a settlement being accessible doesn’t make it claimable.
Will roads connect all the settlements?
A complete road network hasn’t been established by the Starchitect work. Developers still need to choose the connections, route them through the terrain and build the road infrastructure.
Does V5 include seasons, waterfalls and every kind of storm?
Check those individually. They’ve been discussed as possibilities or related work, but a demonstration doesn’t commit every effect to the first release.
Can I cut down trees or flatten a forest with a vehicle?
That needs more than the vegetation renderer. Suitable models, physics and a way to keep track of damage all have to be in place. Dense forests alone don’t confirm those interactions.
Will mud affect how my vehicle handles?
That depends on the surface and vehicle physics. Ground can look wet without changing traction or deforming under the wheels.
Will older planets keep their existing locations?
CIG hasn’t guaranteed that every layout will stay as it is. Converting older worlds may require changes to their data and content. Check the updates for the particular planet you’re interested in.
Will more locations make exploration more interesting?
Only if there’s enough variety and worthwhile activity in them. Related sites can give you a reason to explore an area, but repeating the same few jobs across more outposts would have limits. The content built with the tools will decide how well this works.
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