Huge Hard Vacuum Update and Native Steam Frame Support
2026-09-29Space gets more dangerous. This update features a new optional game mode called Hard Vacuum. In this mode each room becomes an environment that must be actively managed. Power hungry equipment now generates heat, which you'll need to control using the new heat exchangers, while micrometeorites can punch through your hull and cause pressure loss that must be managed on a room-by-room basis. This of course means you can now die from pressure loss, hypothermia and hyperthermia. Steam Frame I Fetch Rocks now includes a native stand-alone Steam Frame version, so you can play the game directly on the headset without your PC. Hard Vacuum Every compartment now tracks temperature, pressure, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.
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Every door has doorway vents that can be controlled on either side, this allows you to isolate a compartment so that you can maintain pressure where you need it or to slow down heat transfer between rooms. A dangerous pressure differential will stop the door from working, but there might be a way to override that. All powered modules generate now generate heat in the containing room. Heat is gradually lost through the hull into space, but that loss isn't enough to keep up with the heat generated by some of the more power hungry modules, so you'll need to use the heat exchangers to remove excess heat. However, if you leave a heat exchanger running, you could end up cooling your ship down to dangerous levels, so make use of the new temperature sensor module which outputs the room temperature in Celsius, Fahrenheit or Kelvin to control it. Micrometeorites With the Hard Vacuum mode enabled, once you travel beyond the station's safe zone, like radiation, micrometeorites can hit your ship, the farther out you travel the greater the risk. An impact will punch a visible hole through the hull and destroy any module in its immediate path, the hole will start venting the rooms atmosphere into space, so listen carefully for the leak location and place any module over the hole to help stop the leak. These holes can be permanently fixed when you dock. General Fixes This update also includes more multiplayer stability fixes and performance improvements on both PC and Steam Frame standalone versions.
