[Suggestion] Return of Engine Trails, Compromise

[ZachZent]

The old trails were a bit janky and with stretch tech, people place a lot of engines individually to make fantastic engine blocks. So instead of trails from the engine, how about trails from the ship as a whole? A space wake.

Basically from a set point around the ship, for example the bounds of the shield, a single scaled trail that diminishes with distance. Just like a wake of a ship. A starship displacing space. Extra bonus, the "wake" could even be visually different in different environments. Denser in an gas giant as it has to push more space out of the way.

Art/10

[ProPeach]

I like the wake idea, it has the potential to be really pretty. I think I'd prefer if the "wake" effect was for ships in Lightcruise though rather than regular flight, as you'd see these ships zooming around the system like shooting stars or comets with this wake. (as is the case in Elite)

For more regular flight the trail effect per engine cluster is a better look imo, although it can get messy if you're manoeuvring to land or going slowly... So how about only having the trail effect if the ship is boosting? That ensures it's travelling fast enough that the trail is long and arching rather than messy like it could be in 6dof mode.

In general though more plume effects are nice, especially if they react to which way the ship is going and how fast etc... Speaking of, any chance of a return of the old pulse effect that showed which way your ship was thrusting in 6dof? (the gif is of a bug where the thrusters fired erratically, but you get the idea). All these effects bring some real life to ships and sell their movement.

[ZachZent]

That would be cool for cruise. As for boost, I don't think reverting to classic engine trail style will really work. I mean people use dozens if not more of engine blocks on their own to make complicated engine segments. Plus there is always the potential issue of engines being inside the ship causing weird clipped trails.

Maybe wake size and intensity can vary based on boost, cruise, and even warp. Boost has the smallest relative wake and warp has the largest.

Art/10

[cloudrambler]

I would think there is a mathematical way to determine points where the bulk of engines are clustered. For example engine area divided by distance squared; that should identify hotspots. Then each hotspot gets an engine trail starting behind the rear of the ship.

My ship has two clearly defined engine clusters, so I very much hope to see some localised trails for that some day.

In any case, there could be several trail mechanics available, with a selection (per ship) in the ship computer.

[cloudrambler]

I also like the lighcruise wake idea, though I would prefer it to be subtle.

[tsunamayo]

Thanks, I will update you when I have to time to read this ^^ But yeah I would like to work again on that, but I will have to roll my own system like for everything, as again unity / asset wont cut it. Thanks