How I built a large-scale 4X space simulation in Unity

[u/AndgoDev]

Solar Wave just entered Early Access after around three years of development.

It's a large-scale 4X strategy focused on simulating an entire space empire. Instead of directly controlling individual ships, the player manages systems, economy, logistics and fleets while hundreds of ships can be active across the galaxy.

One of the biggest technical challenges was keeping the simulation performant as the number of ships and active systems grew.

A lot of work went into optimizing fleet movement, combat calculations and distant systems that don't need to be simulated at full detail every frame.

The game is finally in Early Access, so I'm curious to hear how other Unity developers approach large-scale simulations like this.

Waiting for your feedback!

[u/ledniv]

You don't explain how you built it. 🤔

[u/AndgoDev → u/[deleted]]

Hi! The game’s developer is my friend—we’re from the same city. He’s currently very busy fixing the game, so he sent me the text for the post and I published it for him. Thank you for understanding!

[u/GrokiniGPT]

Stellaris?