I found a patch of what appeared to be particulate matter sitting there near the space station in the starting system on a new save.

I flew closer, and it became apparent that it was something stranger - no designation, no sound effects, no interactive element. But permanent, even after loading and restarting the game.

It is comprised of numerous dots of light, sprites that grow suddenly in size when I fly close, to the point of filling my screen with light.

Of interest - the spots seem to vary in colour like the stars. And of particular interest, they all render BEHIND planets/stations/other large bodies.

I'm wondering if what I'm looking at is actually part of the skybox somehow; if what I'm seeing is the star field that projects onto the background, but... wrong. Visible when it shouldn't be.

No idea, never seen this in my game. Is this on NMS 3.98?

Unsure. I think the GOG version is still at 3.97? It's at whatever the current live GOG version is.

I came across something like this, as well, while I was pulsing to a mission location in space. It was a while ago so i don't remember much. I think the mission bugged and I had to restart the game. (v3.96)

GoG has NMS 3.98 available on galaxy and the website for offline installers.

Yeah literally after I posted this, the game updated.

The anomalous... thing is still there.

Maybe it's one of this:

Enhanced Nebulae
New Asteroids
Asteroid harvesting encounters
Asteroid inhabitants
Space Storms

mentioned here:
https://www.nomanssky.com/endurance-update/

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