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Starfield mod spotlight: Seamless Planet Takeoffs 2.1 gets rid of the takeoff loading screen

By PPRGaming · October 21, 2026

Starfield cockpit view from Seamless Planet Takeoffs SFSE, showing a ship's HUD and control panels in space with an orange gas giant on the right
Image: 0xBobby via Nexus Mods

This week’s Starfield mod spotlight goes to the loading screen nobody misses. Seamless Planet Takeoffs SFSE by modder 0xBobby removes the black loading break when your ship lifts off from a planet. Instead, you keep climbing and the game spawns your ship in space above the landing site you just left. Version 2.1 went up on Nexus Mods on October 20, a few days after a big 2.0 update, and the mod is up to about 300 endorsements.

What it does. In the base game, takeoff plays a short cutscene, cuts to a loading screen and drops you in orbit. This mod extends the takeoff animation and hides the switch from the planet to space. 0xBobby is upfront that “the transition isn’t perfect yet,” but it has improved a lot since the first preview in June. Per the changelog, version 2.0 added:

  • A view of your ship leaving the atmosphere if you look back.
  • Moving up through the clouds instead of watching them fade out.
  • Camera shake, which you can turn off in the config.
  • Thrusters that keep firing during the extended animation.
  • Better-matched lighting before and after the transition, with space spawning further out to hide pop-in.
  • The option to get out of the pilot seat during takeoff.

What’s new in 2.1: less stutter during the transition, a fix for the ship sometimes pointing the wrong way afterward, and a fix for a crash when fast traveling to orbit while you’re not in a ship. 0xBobby has also been answering bug reports in the comments quickly. One player who reported a 2.01 crash on October 19 had a fix by the next day.

Tweak it. Settings are in Data/SFSE/Plugins/SPT_Config.ini. TakeoffExtensionLength sets how many seconds the takeoff animation runs past vanilla (0xBobby gives 7.6 as the 2.0 default and 4 as the minimum), and you can toggle the takeoff camera, the loading blur and camera shake. 0xBobby says the cutscene camera can be switched back on too, though it hasn’t been tested with 2.0.

Platforms, price and requirements:

  • Platform: PC only. It’s a Starfield Script Extender (SFSE) plugin, so it won’t work on Xbox, and it isn’t on Bethesda’s Creations store.
  • Price: free on Nexus Mods. The author accepts optional donations.
  • Required: Starfield Script Extender (SFSE) and Address Library for SFSE Plugins. Launch the game through SFSE.
  • Recommended: Fly Closer To Planets in Cruise Mode. Without it, your ship teleports upward when you enter cruise mode after takeoff. 0xBobby also suggests a high-resolution planet texture mod.

And landings? This mod only handles leaving a planet. When a player asked about seamless landings, 0xBobby pointed to Frederik Wessberg, who is working on a separate Seamless Landings mod. PC Gamer reports it will be free on Nexus Mods when it’s finished, with manual or autopilot descents and landings anywhere, including on water. It has no release date yet, and 0xBobby says making the two mods compatible will be a priority.

PPR take: Starfield’s loading screens have been its biggest immersion breaker since launch, and takeoff was always the worst one because nothing happens during it. Seamless Planet Takeoffs isn’t flawless, and you should expect the occasional stutter or bug, but 2.0 and 2.1 make leaving a planet feel like flying. Pair it with Fly Closer To Planets and you can go from landing pad to cruise without the game cutting away. If Wessberg’s landing mod arrives, PC players may finally get the full ground-to-orbit-to-ground loop.

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