Starfield Fan Reverse Engineers Game Map Using Trailers and Real-Life Star Positions

gamerant.com:

Starfield is a pretty big deal in the world of gaming. It's easily one of the most anticipated releases of 2023, having been pushed back a bit, but it also represents the first new IP from Bethesda in a very long time. Best known for The Elder Scrolls series, as well as the Fallout games since the company took over the franchise in 2008, many are looking forward to how the studio handles space exploration. While there's longer to wait now, one person is offering a sneak peek at the game's map.

As spotted by PC Gamer, GitHub user s9w, whose real name is Sebastian Wehausen, has managed to reverse engineer what's already known about Starfield and turn it into an executable file. Called the «Starfield Navigator,» the download page says that, thanks to in-game footage that Bethesda released last month, they've been able to take the star map that was shown around the 13:30 minute mark and reconstruct the positioning of each celestial entity. As well as the trailer, they've also used the position of real-life star systems, including Sol, Alpha Centauri, and Porrima, to help with calibration.

Report Suggests Todd Howard Neglected Fallout 76 to Focus on Starfield

What's most impressive about this is that, according to s9w, of the «over 100» stars that have been announced for the game, 75 of them were visible in the footage. As many are already aware, the Starfield trailer was revealed at the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase, which took place on June 12. It was the first time fans had been shown gameplay, with the footage demonstrating 15 minutes' worth of aspects from the upcoming sci-fi epic.

Initially intended to be released on November 11 of this year, which is the anniversary of Skyrim's launch, Bethesda had to delay Starfield