ICARUS Beta Weekend 7 Details: Competitions, RTX 3080 Giveaway

Time to start planning those epic structures and brushing up on the rule of thirds. The final ICARUS Beta Weekend begins this Friday, November 19th, and participating Prospectors will be able to enter the “Best Photo” and “Best Build” competitions. Photo Mode, which is being added to ICARUS this beta weekend, should be the perfect way to capture your most fantastic creations and vistas over the weekend.

There will also be an NVIDIA 3080 graphics card giveaway during the Beta Weekend, which seems to be separate from the two competitions (at least going by the official announcement). Hopefully, the Best Photo and Best Build winners will get prizes equal in awesomeness to an RTX 3080 — we’ll be getting more details on prizes, the competition categories, and entry details tomorrow.

Whoever does end up with the 3080 will be able to see the planet of Icarus in all its glory: ICARUS will be one of the world’s first games to utilize NVIDIA’s Ray Traced Global Illumination, which should offer incredibly realistic lighting that changes as you chop down trees or build a shelter. Not only will this new system model direct light, but it also attempts to realistically portray the way light bounces off of surfaces. Sounds pretty sweet, but you’ll need an NVIDIA RTX card to turn it on.

Even if you don’t have a fancy graphics card, you’ll still be able to try out the new Photo Mode this weekend. Here’s how it works:

• Turn Photo Mode on by hitting Numpad 8
• Numpad 9 will toggle the UI on and off
• Photos will be saved in your /photos folder

While Beta Weekend 7 isn’t set to introduce any new systems or content besides the Photo Mode, there will be a respectable number of previously available missions to choose from:

• ICEBREAKER: Extermination
• BROKEN ARROW: Recovery
• BLACKSAND: Terrain Scan
• BEACHHEAD: Recon
• LIVEWIRE: Terrain Scan
• DARK HARVEST: Bio-Research
• FIELD TEST: Recovery
• KILL LIST: Extermination
• HEADSTONE: Geo-Survey

Depending on the mission you’re playing, the map’s playable area will vary. Also of note, the fog-of-war map we got last beta weekend will return. The level cap will remain 30, and Tier 4 Planetary Tech will still be locked. However, it has been confirmed Tier 4 will be part of the 1.0 launch.

RocketWerkz also announced that there will be an AMA with Gamerunner Dean Hall this weekend, hosted by Shammgod on the official ICARUS Discord. Head to the #bw7-ama channel at 2PM PST on November 20th with your questions!

As a reminder, Beta Weekend Seven begins 5PM PST Friday, November 19th, and ends November 21st (likely at or around 11PM PST). Let us know what you think about the contests and the giveaway in the comments below, and we’ll see you in orbit!