Elite: Dangerous Beta 3: experience space in 60fps

So you'd like to experience the newly updated YouTube in all its 60fps glory, yes? How about doing so with what's easily one of the most beautiful games in development today? That's the game "Elite: Dangerous" from the folks at Frontier Developments we're talking about, and you're about to be strapped in. You'll be owning multiple ships and scooping up fuel from stars as you take on the next generation of space-based online gameplay. Don't forget to drop an Oculus Rift on your noggin too, if you do so dare: this game has VR capabilities right out the box.

What you're about to see here is a very, very brief demonstration of the visual greatness of this game. This isn't even as excellent as it gets – this is just 1080p where we're also about to be able to harvest and publish video at 4K – sooner than later.

For now you're going to have to live in a 1080p world with YouTube's newest 60fps excellence. See how smooth it is? Feel the weightlessness as you crash directly into your opponents. Harvest asteroid chunks and keep from overheating, lest you blow directly up.

Below you'll see a list of updates made to Elite: Dangerous in its newest update, released for the first time this week. This is part of Elite: Dangerous Beta 3.

• Player-driven interdiction. Players can now interdict NPC ships, pulling them out of faster-than-light travel back into normal space along with the player.

• Philanthropy missions added.

• Fuel scooping from stars added. Keep a close eye on your temperature gauge as you refuel from the blazing surface of stars.

• Asteroid mining added. Cut metal and rock from asteroids using the mining laser.

• New ships added: Imperial Clipper and Federal Dropship.

• Multiple ship ownership. Long requested by the community, players can keep multiple craft docked at starports, allowing for reserve ships dedicated to combat, exploration, trading and more.

• Additional ship images added to loading screen .

• Status panel now shows faction reputation.

• New in-game controls to allow rapid switching between display screens.

• Outpost landing pads now reflect low gravity environment.

• Play area expanded to over 2,400 systems and 869,000 cubic light years of playable space.

• Improved galaxy map, with partial name searching, range display and route finding.

• Planet visuals overhaul. Planet surface types, liquids and atmospheric colours now reflect their chemical composition.

• Planets display volcanic features and complex craters can create dust ejecta. Crater frequency is dependent on atmosphere thickness.

• Ice planets now have fracture features.

• All planets now have dynamic ice caps and liquid levels.

• Asteroid belt clusters added.

• Nebulae added, visible in the sky and the galaxy map.

It's a glorious universe out there. You're certainly going to want to experience this once it's released in full. The Frontier Developments crew suggest this game will be released to the public very, very soon. Inside the next several months, soon. Can't wait!