[Trivial Psychic]

I'd say include as many colors as possible, like have the leading edge of the shockwave one color, and its trails getting dimmer and cooler as they go further in.

[StratComm]

Problem is, they are ani's and as such all frames use the same 256 color pallete.  So monochrome they shall stay, unless DaBrain has 75% of the pallete entries free to play with.

[Swamp_Thing]

The shockwaves and explosions shouldn´t be fire like. There´s no oxygen in space, thus there wouldnt be any big ass explosions and fiery shockwaves. Small explosions are ok, because terran ships have oxygen inside that could fuel them. But big ones, like some we see, are a definitive no no.
Explosions could also be species colour coded. Terran ships have an oxygen based atmosphere, thus it makes an orange coloured blast. Shivan and vasudans have diferent atmospheres (if at all) and so the explosions would have a diferent colour, depending on wich gas their atmosphere is composed of.
Now, if i were to choose based on looks alone, i would definitely choose the blue one, or the oranje one.  The red shockwave starts ok, but then the red colour feels out of place. Maybe it could be done so that it starts red, and then fades into orange and yellow...

[Deepblue]

Vasudans breathe air. Look at the shield test cutscene.

[DaBrain]

Originally posted by StratComm
Problem is, they are ani's and as such all frames use the same 256 color pallete.  So monochrome they shall stay, unless DaBrain has 75% of the pallete entries free to play with.

Even if I stick to one color, there will be a minor quality loss.
While it's ok for smaller ANIs, the shockwave can be quite huge.
So I can't use even one other color

I think there is no way to avoid a complete recoloring for this effect.

[Zarax]

That reddish one could do for some weapon effect... Keep it, someone will find an use ;-)

[Ransom]

Originally posted by Deepblue
Shockwaves need to be colorless. Period. In fact you shouldn't see them at all, just see the debris getting pushed and feel the hit.

But flashy effects look cooler!

I'm not sure what realism is good for. All it seems to do is make things not look as good.

[Gloriano]

Blue one looks coolest

[DaBrain]

2:1 for Blue (right?)
So I guess it's going to be blue

[Woolie Wool]

I vote for FIRE!

[StratComm]

Go with blue.  More canon, and it just looks better against the black of space.

[Zarax]

Canon? Can you explain me how blue is more canon than orange/yellow? Or any other color?

[Woolie Wool]

Because the original shockwaves were blue?

[Zarax]

Err... weren't they gray?

[Woolie Wool]

No.

[DaBrain]

Some kinda grey-ish blue. If you ask me it looks like it was drawn for a cartoon. Well, perhaps it's just me.

[Vaelinx]

I've often wondered if the shockwaves would look cooler a little more asymmetric...  Is that possible?  Like either longer on one axis, or sort of 'chunckier' in places...

But as far as color goes, I'd say a grey-ish blue, not too bright.  (now are these the same shockwaves we get when bombs go off as well?)

[DaBrain]

Yes

[DaBrain]

If you want to test it. This is more or less the alpha version of the effect. To be precise, this is what the little tool  Bright offers me.

Not enough for my taste, but still very cool

Could someone take a shot or two?


http://www.8ung.at/dabrain/shockwave01.rar

[Psychonaut]

For itself, the shockwave is a nice improvement to the old one (nice job as usual ). But it seems, that the old effect is bigger and lasts longer, than the new. e.g. destroy an arcadia-station and you can barely see the shockwave behind this huge explosions. In that case the old one works much better.