If we could use our own mesh as sprite/particle, instead of a simple quad, we could reduce the memory use of this new 2d/3d shockwave by 3/4.
Of course that would be even lower with a single frame/texture.
But to be honest, I never understood the 'realism' point in a game like FS2.
There are so many things "wrong" and unrealistic, that it simply doesn't make sense to me to argue about the realism of a shockwave.
What about the weapons? Subach Laser? The explosions would have to look different. And there I don't want to play without sound.
It's either complete realism, or this kind of "Star Wars realism", which has shockwaves just like the 3d shockwave.
A completely realistic space game would be interesting as well, but it wouldn't be anything like Freespace.
And if you still want to argue about it, watch
this video and tell me again that 3d shockwaves do not fit into Freespace.