That's why I said "The game, in its current state". StarMade is not instanced but it would need to be in order to pull something like this off.also I'd like to point out people used Elite Dangerous as an example but the thing is ED is not a continuous universe: it has solar systems instances you jump between, it's not continuous wich is hidden with a very clever absence of "barriers"
it would take years to make such a radical change, schema would need to do a whole new game to implement that I think....That's why I said "The game, in its current state". StarMade is not instanced but it would need to be in order to pull something like this off.
DrTarDIS' multiple planet plate idea was mentioned in several previous threads but it's probably the best way to pull off real-scale planets and asteroids. StarMade could load these elements procedurally (as originally intended) but split each planet, asteroid, or other solid object into plates; each plate would have its own instance with adjacent plates being loaded around each active plate. Anything outside of adjacent plates would be unloaded to free up ram.
Multiplayer and shared instances would be the hard part. With all the plate blocks and mining, it would be a lag fest.
Trust me. I totally understand. That's why, as intriguing as the idea is, I don't consider it practical in terms of Schine's current development path (the game in its current state). This is also why I have both StarMade and Elite Dangerous installed on my PC. One is my "gotta-have-a-lot-of-cool-stuff-everywhere-I-go" game. The other is my "I'm-in-the-mood-for-a-long-ass-interstellar-road-trip" game...it would take years to make such a radical change, schema would need to do a whole new game to implement that I think....
what are you meaning by "plate" ?
because if a plate is a certain amount of blocks then what you are describing is litterally how starmade works: chunks with an octree structure or maybe another faster data structure type (Idk as I am not working on the game)