Revamped black hole designs

[Dusk118]

With the recent discovery of our first real images of a black hole, I would like to see black holes universally get a brand new design style that reflects it in a way. As current designs go, the gravitational lensing effect is cool, but when there's nothing else surrounding it, they can get rather boring (my opinion, don't @ me). I'd like to see more danger, but also a more rewarding experience for taking a risk with that danger.

Real black hole image:

Possible game effect when up close (from Interstellar):

 

[Lestat]

Please do your research before posting. Top one was done by a RADIO telescope and not a telescope.

 

[Burke]

Please do your research before posting. Top one was done by a RADIO telescope and not a telescope.

Im not disparaging the achievment of seeing it, but i do wonder exactly what im looking at. I think that image probably needs decoding for the average person, altho it did look good on the news.

The interstellar black hole is again very nice to look at but if you poke too much at the supposed scienctific accuracy it tends to fall apart a bit.

Agree with op tho, ingame black holes could do with a polish.

 

[Riverside]

I'd like to see accretion and asteroid disks better presented in the game, and around black holes & other massive primary bodies would certainly add some elements of both danger and educational beauty to the game.

The light distortion of an accretion disk may raise the minimum hardware level to an unreasonably high baseline though, and a dangerous gameplay element shouldn't be affected by graphics settings.

 

[moorison]

Both images took a lot of processing time to create them, although i am sure that there are shortcuts. After the upgrade of neutron stars and white dwarfs, I would like to see more interesting black holes as well.

I remember having bumped into the exclusion zone of a black hole not too long ago, (in normal space). Surprisingly save to do. I couldn't make out any kind of event horizon, although it was a small one.

 

[Riverside]

Can't be sure of course, but I think that if you are flying a ship that can fold space the event horizon is a bit more arbitrary.

But the enormous energy of an accretion disk could disrupt the FSD just as the neutron star ejecta does over a much wider angle of the black hole's local surroundings.

 

[moorison]

Can't be sure of course, but I think that if you are flying a ship that can fold space the event horizon is a bit more arbitrary.

But the enormous energy of an accretion disk could disrupt the FSD just as the neutron star ejecta does over a much wider angle of the black hole's local surroundings.

We might get to the problem with relativistic time in a multiplayer game as well.
And it would be weird if approaching the poles would work without issues if approaching the disk becomes dangerous.

 

[SolaceOpossum]

I agree, the current black holes aren't even scientifically accurate.
Black holes are meant to be, you know, BLACK. The black holes in game at the moment are what black holes would look like if they had a naked singularity, in other words, not at all accurate.
What black holes should look like is similar to how Sag A* looked before it was revamped (I prefer the old Sag A*, fite me), see the attached image.

Accretion disks are a big must for me, especially for Sag A*, it'd make going out all that way much more worth it, rather than just having another regular black hole but bigger and in a completely empty system, at the very least FDev could add more stuff to the Sag A* system.

 

[saicoth]

Please do your research before posting. Top one was done by a RADIO telescope and not a telescope.

It's an image nonetheless radio or not. In fact the image was created using Interferometry from data gathered by 8 radio telescopes all combined to create a virtual earth-sized radio telescope.

 

[corous]

Accretion disks are a big must for me, especially for Sag A*, it'd make going out all that way much more worth it, rather than just having another regular black hole but bigger and in a completely empty system, at the very least FDev could add more stuff to the Sag A* system.

Actually there are several stars orbiting Sag A in real life so I was expecting multiple star system but alas. It's very outdated.

Look it up, it's on wikipedia, article on s2(star) has some pictures. Orbits of these stars are comparable to Sedna orbit in solar system.

 

[SolaceOpossum]

Actually there are several stars orbiting Sag A in real life so I was expecting multiple star system but alas. It's very outdated.

Look it up, it's on wikipedia, article on s2(star) has some pictures. Orbits of these stars are comparable to Sedna orbit in solar system.

Yeah that's what I was saying, that Sag A* being completely empty in-game is entirely unrealistic.
In reality Sag A* would be a swirling vortex of dust, gas, stars and planets all being drawn into the black hole.

 

[Azmuth Divarchchron]

I belive frontier said they wanted to add accretion disks at some point but it was low on their priorities

 

[Bortas]

I belive frontier said they wanted to add accretion disks at some point but it was low on their priorities

Rightly so... I mean, honestly... how much of their playtime does the average player spend looking at black holes?

 

[SolaceOpossum]

Rightly so... I mean, honestly... how much of their playtime does the average player spend looking at black holes?

I mean, as an explorer I tend to spend a lot of time around black holes, they're one of the more interesting things to look at but at the moment they're a little disappointing and the exploration aspect of Elite Dangerous has been neglected for far too long. The overhaul in the recent updates has been a good start but it still needs much more work.

 

[Azmuth Divarchchron]

I mean, as an explorer I tend to spend a lot of time around black holes, they're one of the more interesting things to look at but at the moment they're a little disappointing and the exploration aspect of Elite Dangerous has been neglected for far too long. The overhaul in the recent updates has been a good start but it still needs much more work.

the emptyness of exploration is what has prevented me from participating in it since the dawn of the game.
im on the group of people who have the mind set "you've seen one barren planet you've seen them all" at the moment
though frontier has added more variety there isnt enough to explore yet to retain my interest.

 

[SolaceOpossum]

Decided to throw this together, what I think the black holes should look like in ED (minus accretion disk).