unjustodin/Zenith

Overview

Zenith is a 3D visualizer for Factorio, not a remake. Factorio itself continues to run the game, headless and windowless, on a server; a bridge mod streams live state to a separate client built in Godot 4, which draws the world and sends input back. Because the real game does the simulation, saves, research, belts, trains, biters and Space Age mechanics behave as they do in Factorio.

The client rebuilds Factorio's interface in 3D, including inventory, crafting, research, map, blueprints, circuit network, train schedules and tooltips, using the GUI art and fonts from your own Factorio installation. It ships 3D models for over 400 entities across the base game and Space Age, with 39 buildings and vehicles using FUE5's textured models. Pressing F6 switches to Factorio's native camera for comparison.

It is aimed at Factorio players who want an angled third-person view of their existing games, not at people looking for a standalone game.

Quick start

You need your own copy of Factorio 2.1; Space Age is supported but optional. Download Zenith-<version>-windows.zip or Zenith-<version>-linux.zip from the latest release, unzip it anywhere, and start Zenith.exe on Windows or Zenith.x86_64 on Linux. The bundled START HERE.txt covers the remaining setup. The main menu can create or load a world and starts Factorio for you; the user guide documents install, controls and settings.

To run from source, open client/project.godot in Godot 4.4+ and press F5. Without a Factorio install, run python3 tools/mock_server.py first to play against a fake world; docs/RUNNING.md covers setup, tests and running your own server.

Optional releases include the bridge mod on its own for self-run servers and a cinematic camera add-on that goes into the addons folder.

Constraints

• Early release. Several models still differ from Factorio sprites in shape or colour, and some animations have not been checked against a real game. The asset inventory lists which ones.
• Performance. Large bases are heavy on the graphics card, especially dense forests and long view distances. Zenith holds 60 UPS by asking for less when needed.
• Platform coverage. Tested only on Windows 11 with Factorio 2.1.23. A single-player hybrid mode that attaches to a normal Factorio window exists but has seen little testing.
• Assets and licence. The client reads Factorio graphics, sounds and fonts from your install at runtime; no Wube assets are in the repository. Code is MIT-licensed, but models converted from Wube's printable release keep Wube's non-commercial licence and FUE5 models keep CC BY-NC-SA 3.0. This is an unofficial fan project, not endorsed by Wube.
• Contribution model. One maintainer, no pull requests or feature requests; bug reports are welcome. Forks are covered in CONTRIBUTING.md.

Extending

Any .glb named after a prototype can replace that entity's model, from the project or a user folder via --models and --models-first. Add-ons are small GDScript programs that extend the client through a versioned API without forking; the add-on guide documents it. The Mods window can run other Factorio mods on the server, with their entities shown as coloured boxes until modelled; MODDING.md describes what currently works. Much of the code and many models were written with AI coding agents under the maintainer's direction, with automated tests, a mock server, UI checks and model validators run on every push project README.

HotRepo's take

The repository first appeared on HotRepo's new-project list for Python on 2026-11-02, with 103 stars and 3 stars gained over roughly one hour of observation. That is a thin record: it shows early attention shortly after the project surfaced, but no sustained trend, no all-language daily rank, and no discussion threads. Given the project's testing scope is limited to one Windows/Factorio version and the release is self-described as early, the useful signal here is interest in the concept rather than evidence of stability.