The first screen shot reminds me a lot of my current project. I, however, do not have such pretty graphics . Your gameplay differs from mine though, from what I can see.
I am currently working on a large scale space game am interested if you do any sort of paging, also how you render far away planets without them getting culled (do you use billboard?)
I export MAX files as osm and use a custom loader. This is a weak point of my system as I really need a true editor. Right now I have to interpret what my artists setup and do the materials by hand.
The render distance is infinite. Since I'm doing things by hand I do a lot of tricks for good FPS. The planet in the last screenshot is unlit, for example, using an emissive map and dual channel uv scrolling for rotation. There are also a lot of billboards.
Wow... very nice.
Would be very very interested in seeing how it all fits together as i'm trying to create something similar... i'll be uber-happy if i can get it to look nearly as cool as yours.
Public Closed Alpha has now started. It means anyone can signup as long as you agree to the NDA not to divulge specifics. Only 1000 slots open. http://www.galacticmelee.com/beta/