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Topic: Transitions into and from Hyperspace (Read 5447 times)
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Angelfish
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For a little thing I'm developing, I'm curious as to what you think about the transitions into and from hyperspace.
It would seem that Star Control 2 uses some kind of 'invisible wall' that is bounced into when you reach a certain distance from the star. This allows the hyperdrive to be activated and you're taken into hyperspace.
I'm wondering what this transition would look like if it happened in real time. Because SC2 doesn't really provide this info, you get a different screen and then you're suddenly in hyperspace  .
Things I can think of are:
- The portal to hyperspace is projected in front of the ship, or projected by a 'jumpgate'. (Babylon 5)
- The portal is formed around the ship and the ship gradually disappears in it. (Homeworld)
- The ship starts spinning rapidly, eventually turns into a bright light and disappears. (Dr. Who )
- The ship is simply accellerated, in the meantime causing various visual effects like stars getting heavy motion blurred/striped and the ship is 'catapulted' into hyperspace. (Star Trek)
Also, from the way SC2 works I think we can conclude that where there's gravity exerted by a mass, hyperspace doesn't exist or can't be formed around the ship.
The same goes for exiting hyperspace. In SC2 it appears that the whole hyperspace is some kind of pool table, where star systems and ships act as pockets which the ship can 'fall' into.
For the transition to truespacee, I can imagine there being some kind of 'whirlpool effect' where the ship gets sucked into the gravity well that is excerted by the solar system.
Other ideas:
- A 'gate to truespace solar system' appears which the ship simply enters. (Babylon 5)
- A portal appears which 'forms' the ship in truespace. (Homeworld reversed)
- The ship simply slows down and hyperspace gradually disappears around the ship, after which it'll find itself in truespace. (Star trek, but reversed)
- A bright light appears, spinning rapidly then slower and slower until you can make out the structure of the ship, which appears. (Dr. Who reversed).
And then there's another issue for which I'd like your opinion:
Ships that enter or exit hyperspace, are they visible to other ships? I guess this all depends on whether we consider hyperspace to be another dimension or simply a faster way of traveling. I imagine that it'd be really cool if you could see huge fleets 'warping in' really fast from hyperspace and entering the solar system that the player is in.
Anyhow, hopefully you guys have some cool ideas about this  .
PS: I'm not really interested in the science behind this all, but ofcourse try to make it a bit canon. But remember, in all cases, Gameplay > Canon.
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Spurk
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The intro for SC2 (especially the 3DO movie, but even the slideshow intro for the PC) seems to imply the B5 method, though without jumpgates.
Hyperspace, according to Commander Hayes, the Arilou, the Orz, and the Androsynth, is another dimension. Of course, the Arilou, Orz, and Androsynth are talking more about general Interdimensional Fatigue (IDF) and the ability to open portals to other (creepier) dimensions, but they all start off by saying, "It's like hyperspace, except we're opening a portal to a different dimension." So hyperspace works on the principles of IDF.
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Draxas
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Definitely the Bab-5 method, just without a physical structure for jumpgates. The ships seem to project them ahead of themselves using onboard equipment instead. This is supported both by the SC2 intro as stated above, as well as the background info on the Androsynth leaving Earth. It's not so much a case of an "invisible wall" as the ship needing to be a certain distance from a star system in order to make the jump.
Making a comparison between Hyperspace and a pool table seems to be perfectly accurate, and is a great way to describe it. It seems that you need to be a certain distance from even relatively small sources of gravity (apparently ship-scale is enough to disrupt Hyperspace travel) in order to successfully leave Truespace (the pockets). Considering the in-game behavior of the flagship exiting Hyperspace, I'd say the whirlpool descriptor fits perfectly as well.
I would think that a fleet warping into a system from Hyperspace would manifest as a whole lot of red holes being torn in space, and the ships emerging from them in small groups.
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Dabir
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I dunno, I kinda like the idea of one hole opening, then thousands of ships pouring out and expanding into a wall of firepower.
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Ricoman
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well, as far as reality goes...
the pool table analogy fits it best. Imagine a blanket stretched out tight so that it did not droop anywhere. the star systems would be like pool table pockets in the blanket. the pool balls would be your ship. As it rolls, there would be a constant falloff near the object: as your ship nears a system it would be "pulled' near it as the blanket fell away into the hole.
I think it would be more of a hybrid of SC2 and star wars. The front of the ship would start to pull away, stretching out the ship inch by inch until the whole ship was gone. Unfortunately, the sheer amount of energy it would require to generate a gravity well strong enough to form a wormhole is ridiculously massive.
But to jump DIMENSIONS, would speed even be an issue or a contributing factor? It's not like you would be dealing with space-time anymore, you'd be moving in the 4th dimension at that point.
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« Last Edit: September 18, 2009, 06:38:34 pm by Ricoman »
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Angelfish
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Okay, thanks for all the tips guys . Here's what I've come up with.
I will indeed use the babylon 5 method, generating red portals into hyperspace.
For the portal generator, I fitted the ship with a thingy that draws lines in a circular motion.. this will eventually form the portal. See the example below.
Now is my question.. should the portal in question be elliptical (so it looks a bit better on this top down view when the ship moves through it) or keep it circular like it is trying to generate now?
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« Last Edit: September 18, 2009, 08:52:33 pm by Angelfish »
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Ricoman
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I would say it depends on the angle. Like a flashlight, if you point it straight down it's circular. but as you move the focal point of the flashlight, it becomes elliptical.
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Alvarin
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I think horizontally positioned ellipce 1:3 will look best in this case
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Death 999
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We did. You did. Yes we can. No.
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Considering that combat appears to occur in truespace, I'd say that's near-certain. The question is, where did they get those planets from, and why can't we mine them?
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Tiberian
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Don't forget that when the Androsynths were escaping from Earth, they assumingly jumped into Hyperspace before reaching the Asteroid Belt.
When moving in Hyperspace, the gravity waves of the ship create a "true space bubble" inside Hyperspace. When getting too near any gravity well, a ship is pulled from Hyperspace into true space.
When in battle, the emergency warp is actually a warp into Hyperspace.
The fact that in SC2 you have to cruise to the edge of the solar system is probably just a gameplay thing. If it is not, then it would mean that to jump properly into Hyperspace, a ship has to be far enough from the gravity well.
Maybe it is possible to jump into Hyperspace from pretty much anywhere, but shifting back into true space could only be done onto the edge of the gravity well.
I think it is also just a gameplay thing that there is a planet nearby when encountering an enemy in Hyperspace.
semi-on-topic: I think the ship uses some kind of a device to create a Hyperspace-hole in front of it. Just like the portal spawner does with Quasispace. Let's also remember the testimony of the ore freighter pilot who saw the Androsynths escaping from Earth. "A great read hole appeared in front of the space stations."
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