After ten years in museums, anyone can experiment the simulator on personnal computer, Volcano Simulator - Reunion Island was released on Steam on 12 May 2025 !
Discover a fully interactive lava simulator : watch eruptions and lava flows across the landscapes of Réunion Island. The simulation was co-created with Eric Chahi, author of Another World, From Dust and Paper Beast.
You interact in real time with eruptions in photorealistic, dynamic environments, and watch a whole range of volcanic structures appear — from lava fields to the birth of a cone. Open new eruptive fissures, set the flow rate, the temperature and the pressure, then let the terrain answer.
It runs on the custom graphics and physics engine built for this project, designed around the compute power of modern GPUs.
96% positive on Steam. A few of the reviews, quoted as written:
Definitely one of the best physics-based simulators of any variety out there.
Steam review, 18 h played
…if you’re a volcano geek who’s been waiting ages for a decent volcano simulator, this is what you’ve been waiting for.
Steam review, 42 h played
A fantastic simulation and education tool with incredible graphics and amazing physical fidelity.
Steam review, 6 h played
Videos from the Steam page. Everything here is real time, the frame rate you see is the frame rate the simulation was running at !
Scenario 2 - In-game
Adjust fissure settings and watch "fresh" lava flow !
Scenario 3 - Dolomieu crater
Filling the crater that collapsed in 2007.
Scenario 5 - Pahoehoe
Very close view of lava flow by night !
Real-time frames from the released Steam build. The whole island is modelled from its digital elevation data, you can pull the camera out until the Réunion Island sits in the ocean below you !
It is a real-time GPU simulation, so the graphics card matters more than the processor. A card from the GTX 770 generation will run it; anything from the GTX 1080 generation upward will run it comfortably at high resolution.
Available on Steam for Windows, in English and French. Updated regularly - the September update added a new round of scenarios and lighting work.
