Starfield's Seamless Planetary Landings Finally Become a Reality Thanks to a Modder's Tireless Work

For many Starfield players, having to pass a loading screen every time they wanted to land on a planet, instead of flying seamlessly through a planet's atmosphere as in No Man's Sky, was a major change. Continue reading

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For many Starfield players, having to go through a loading screen every time you want to land on a planet - instead of seamlessly traveling through the planet's atmosphere like in No Man's Sky - was a big change.

Now, more than three years after Starfield's initial release, we're finally getting closer to our unstoppable planetary landing, all thanks to Fredrik Wesberg, who is working on a mod to enable it.

Although the mod hasn't been released yet, Wesberg was confident enough in its current state to show it off in a new video. This mod is inspired by the popular Starfield Seamless Grav Jumps and Seamless Planet Takeoff mods, which similarly address two other pain points.

"After seeing Seamless Grav Jumps and Seamless Planet Takeoffs, and especially after we got cruise mode officially in the game, the inability to land on planets without loading the screen really stood out to me," says Wesberg.

With this mod, it is now possible to manually enter a planet's atmosphere and fly into low orbit before deciding to land. The video shows the autopilot option, which allows you to "leave your cockpit seat and freely walk around your ship or enjoy the scenery as the ship flies from orbit to Earth".

This mod also seems to offer more control over where you can land your spaceship, including the ability to land on water. The added atmosphere apparently consists of "real three-dimensional layers of volumetric clouds, built by weather data and climate systems," Wesberg said.

This mod is currently in development for PC only and has no plans to release yet. When it's ready, you can find it and download it for free at Nexus Mods.

Before the game was released on PlayStation 5, developer Bethesda said it had long-term plans for Starfield. What that means in practice remains a mystery, but a Switch 2 port is looking increasingly likely.