StarMade Patch Notes — June 3, 2026
Aggregated from Steam, cross-tracked with Battle.net coverage on GamePatchNote.
StarMade Launcher v4 Beta
Greetings Citizens,
In preparation for the next release update coming in the following days, we are putting out a beta for the new StarMade Launcher v4. This new launcher is a multi-platform electron-based application designed to be as robust as possible. We are asking people to help test it by selecting the launcherbeta option in the Game Versions & Betas section in Steam.
It features multi-instance management, account management, news, mods, blueprint catalog, templates, and even a server panel. Please note, the server panel feature is still WIP, and we are still working on adding more remote providers for it.
This launcher will be required to run the next major update once it's released. The next update introduces huge performance improvements, a move to Java 21, an updated tutorial / guide system, and much more, so be sure to stay tuned!
Important: The v4 Launcher should automatically autodetect and import legacy installs, but in case it fails, you can manually add installs in the launcher settings.
Our goal is to make this transition as seamless as possible, so please report any bugs in the Development Discord!
Note for Server Owners / Providers
The next major release build will require Java 21 to run, as well as the following JVM arguments:
-javaagent:StarMade.jar
--add-opens=java.base/jdk.internal.ref=ALL-UNNAMED
--add-opens=java.base/java.nio=ALL-UNNAMED
--add-opens=java.base/jdk.internal.misc=ALL-UNNAMED
With this, your server's full launch arguments might look something like:
-javaagent:StarMade.jar
--add-opens=java.base/jdk.internal.ref=ALL-UNNAMED
--add-opens=java.base/java.nio=ALL-UNNAMED
--add-opens=java.base/jdk.internal.misc=ALL-UNNAMED
-Xmx8g -jar StarMade.jar -server
We highly encourage owners / hosters to reach out on Discord if they have any questions.
Note for ARM Macs
While the v4 launcher is available for ARM Macs, current dev builds, and the upcoming release build are not playable on ARM Macs due to the technical limitations of legacy LWJGL2 support on MacOS.
The New Foundations builds (game versions >= 0.400.0) in the pre branch will work on ARM Macs, as they use LWJGL3, which can run on Apple silicon via an OpenGL -> Metal translation layer. So if you happen to be on an ARM Mac, and want to play the game, you will have to use the pre branch builds for now.
Please note however, support from ARM Macs is still highly experimental, and has some issues still, notably significant performance issues on lower-end systems due to the overhead of translating OpenGL draw commands to Metal.
Update on New Foundations (Universe Update)
Progress is still being made on the future New Foundations update, and there are WIP builds in the pre branch. These builds are still being worked on, so expect bugs!
And, as always, thank you for playing StarMade.
StarMade Discord: https://discord.gg/VKmWdtBQPj
Development and Modding Discord: https://discord.gg/MhtShemdYN