With the new planetary textures soon to be released in the Beyond Chapter 1 update, it got me thinking about other improvements that are not on the drawing board (AFAIK), but would certainly add to the immersion and coolness factor. In a nutshell, this post is about suggesting improvements to the particle emitters in your Cobra engine. You already have some good particle effects during station emergencies. For example, the sparks that spit out or sometimes droop down look like molten iron. It's really immersive. The idea here is to expand on that framework.
Brownouts
Details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownout_(aeronautics)
Currently when landing or taking off, there's only a lightweight particle effect of sediments being blown about from your thrusters. I would love to experience brownouts or trails of dust clouds when traveling close to the surface. When landing in such sediment rich zones, seeing the dust cloud form, hearing the tiny sediment particles bounce off your cockpit window and then slowly dissipate (time to dissipate should be based on gravity) once you shut down your engines would add much immersion. Other commanders already on the planet surface in their ships or SRVs would experience the rush of the dust cloud rolling over them as their friend is landing on the planet.
Geyser Improvements
I experienced my first geyser on Enceladus. To be honest, the experience wasn't as dramatic as I was hoping for. When I look at satellite photographs of these geysers, they have beautiful plumes of vapour spew out and cloud the surrounding area. What we have in game feels more like a blowtorch as the particles quickly spew out then disappear. This is an area I would like to see an improvement. You have your central fountain where the liquid/gas is being emitted. Both liquid and gas/vapour should be emitted from the geyser to add more substance to the effect. The particles should spew out to cover a larger region as well. It should feel grand and spectacular. People need to say "wow!". Gas clouds should create mist in the area and have a downward translation to simulate the effects of gravity. If a commander enters this region, their windows should begin to form water droplets and they should also see the sparkles from light refracting in the finer water particles (if you've ever been near a waterfall, you'll have experienced this misty effect). If you want to go a step further, you could also darken the soil in the area of the geyser as it is being exposed to a liquid/moist substance.
So that's pretty much it for now. Care needs to be taken with any particle emitter as to much can tax the fillrate on the GPU, but some game developers have done amazing things with their emitters. I think you guys have the potential to create similar engaging responses within your environments. I hope this will encourage your programmers and artists to explore the benefits of having better particles
Brownouts
Details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownout_(aeronautics)
Currently when landing or taking off, there's only a lightweight particle effect of sediments being blown about from your thrusters. I would love to experience brownouts or trails of dust clouds when traveling close to the surface. When landing in such sediment rich zones, seeing the dust cloud form, hearing the tiny sediment particles bounce off your cockpit window and then slowly dissipate (time to dissipate should be based on gravity) once you shut down your engines would add much immersion. Other commanders already on the planet surface in their ships or SRVs would experience the rush of the dust cloud rolling over them as their friend is landing on the planet.
Geyser Improvements
I experienced my first geyser on Enceladus. To be honest, the experience wasn't as dramatic as I was hoping for. When I look at satellite photographs of these geysers, they have beautiful plumes of vapour spew out and cloud the surrounding area. What we have in game feels more like a blowtorch as the particles quickly spew out then disappear. This is an area I would like to see an improvement. You have your central fountain where the liquid/gas is being emitted. Both liquid and gas/vapour should be emitted from the geyser to add more substance to the effect. The particles should spew out to cover a larger region as well. It should feel grand and spectacular. People need to say "wow!". Gas clouds should create mist in the area and have a downward translation to simulate the effects of gravity. If a commander enters this region, their windows should begin to form water droplets and they should also see the sparkles from light refracting in the finer water particles (if you've ever been near a waterfall, you'll have experienced this misty effect). If you want to go a step further, you could also darken the soil in the area of the geyser as it is being exposed to a liquid/moist substance.
So that's pretty much it for now. Care needs to be taken with any particle emitter as to much can tax the fillrate on the GPU, but some game developers have done amazing things with their emitters. I think you guys have the potential to create similar engaging responses within your environments. I hope this will encourage your programmers and artists to explore the benefits of having better particles