Overall, we need the ability to have the ship fade from a transparent/cloaked appearance as it exits so that there is no point where you can see the ship behind the vortex. That could only be done with shaders IIRC.
Here's a thought as to how we can implement my idea (SEE ALSO: Page 1)
brute force without any glowpoint:
- Create a fullbright sphere as stated in my previous post with fullwhite glowmaps (see Page 1)
- Intersecting this sphere are double-sided planes using a transparent subspace vortex texture. There is one vertical plane, one horizontal, and one sideways one -- so that no matter what angle you look at the sphere from, you see a subspace vortex image facing you.
I know, its a rather "low tech" idea, but with enough intersecting planes around the sphere, it could be made to look rather darn smooth. This implementation would really benefit from the use of HDRish as it would brighten up the entire thing and thus blend the edges to reduce "boxiness".
Perhaps the SCP code monkeys could find a way to multiply the number of planes dynamically depending on the size of the sphere (like the detail steps on the Death Star model)?
Finally, around all these planes, might be a good idea to consider adding an invisible sphere surrounding it. This outer sphere can be used to apply a "distortion" shader or even blooming (I saw this done in X3: Reunion, a warp texture blooms all things behind it) down the line, should shaders become available through the SCP.
