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Have you tried Elite Dangerous? It leans more towards the Sci-Fi aspect but those elements can be ignored and you could just spend your time exploring the milky way like a lot of others do (even more so if you use VR), if I recall they sourced real data to build the universe and extrapolate to fill in the blanks. Sure it isn't the universe but it's still a pretty good way to explore our galaxy

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Elite Dangerous doesn't give you nearly the sense of scale that Space Engine does.

Have you tried it in VR?

I believe the scale isn't correct in many places to enhance gameplay. That said, it is pretty great in VR and the universe replica they created is unmatched in any game.

SpaceEngine let's you zoom through _galaxies_ like that old windows screensaver was for stars. I've always sorta understood that the universe was "big", but it never clicked how infinite it really is until I zipped through SpaceEngine for an hour.

That said, Elite: Dangerous is pretty awesome. It helps ground how far away everything is. Even with the game's FTL travel, the fact that it takes actual weeks to reach Sagattarius A* boggles the mind.

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