I don't know if this will help or not, but I made a couple changes to try. The stars are rendered with what DirectX calls a "point list." This point list has a point size, minimum point size and a maximum point size defined for it. The code set the point size and the minimum point size, but did not define a maximum. So I set the maximum. I also tried setting the "z order" as well. Download the latest Maelstrom and see if that changes anything for you.