Visualizing an FTL drive
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For the physics folks: If you wanted to create a cool animation of a ship with an FTL drive, specifically something like an Alcubierre drive[^], what visual cues might you use? Trying to keep things a little bit based in reality (yes, I'm aware the drive doesn't really exist, and due to certain annoying laws of physics probably never will) would the ship simply disappear? Would there be any weird light artifacts (i.e. GLows, streaks, distortions) from the POV of the camera viewing the departing ship?
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As seen as it's sometimes called a "Warp Bubble", because it bends space in front of it, what about something like this? Image. I do have a much better image, however, it is in a book so I can't post it here :laugh:
I know you believe you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize what you heard is not what I meant.
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For the physics folks: If you wanted to create a cool animation of a ship with an FTL drive, specifically something like an Alcubierre drive[^], what visual cues might you use? Trying to keep things a little bit based in reality (yes, I'm aware the drive doesn't really exist, and due to certain annoying laws of physics probably never will) would the ship simply disappear? Would there be any weird light artifacts (i.e. GLows, streaks, distortions) from the POV of the camera viewing the departing ship?
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Given that light cannot reach from the ship to the front of the bubble, I'm guessing it would be red shifted, there would also be time dilation effects. So a blinking light near the ship would probably go through color and rate changes as well as extreme accelerations. That's an interesting puzzle to work out.
I can imagine the sinking feeling one would have after ordering my book, only to find a laughably ridiculous theory with demented logic once the book arrives - Mark McCutcheon
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For the physics folks: If you wanted to create a cool animation of a ship with an FTL drive, specifically something like an Alcubierre drive[^], what visual cues might you use? Trying to keep things a little bit based in reality (yes, I'm aware the drive doesn't really exist, and due to certain annoying laws of physics probably never will) would the ship simply disappear? Would there be any weird light artifacts (i.e. GLows, streaks, distortions) from the POV of the camera viewing the departing ship?
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow
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Given that light cannot reach from the ship to the front of the bubble, I'm guessing it would be red shifted, there would also be time dilation effects. So a blinking light near the ship would probably go through color and rate changes as well as extreme accelerations. That's an interesting puzzle to work out.
I can imagine the sinking feeling one would have after ordering my book, only to find a laughably ridiculous theory with demented logic once the book arrives - Mark McCutcheon
Yeah, I pondered red/blue shifting for about five minutes, then gave up and posted a joke reply :P
Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
Author of Guardians of Xen (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novel) -
Infinite improbability... Get to your destination almost instantaneously, without all of that tedious mucking about in hyperspace!
Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
Author of Guardians of Xen (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novel) -
Yeah, I pondered red/blue shifting for about five minutes, then gave up and posted a joke reply :P
Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
Author of Guardians of Xen (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novel)Don't feel bad - I'm a bitpretty fuzzy on that as well, I sort of vaguely know what it means, but still...
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Yes that was my first thought as well, but then I decided to maybe try for something a little more grounded... :)
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I bet there'd be a nice HLSL firework effect ;)
In which case I'll be emailing you soon! :)
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For the physics folks: If you wanted to create a cool animation of a ship with an FTL drive, specifically something like an Alcubierre drive[^], what visual cues might you use? Trying to keep things a little bit based in reality (yes, I'm aware the drive doesn't really exist, and due to certain annoying laws of physics probably never will) would the ship simply disappear? Would there be any weird light artifacts (i.e. GLows, streaks, distortions) from the POV of the camera viewing the departing ship?
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow
When something moves away from you under "normal" velocities, it gets smaller and smaller as time progresses. And since the visual range of the ship sufficiently close in terms of how far light has to travel, to be negligable, the effect that you would "see" is that the ship would "appear" to all of a sudden be all sizes from a pinpoint to its current size. Sort of the affect you would get if you held the shutter open and zoomed out (not in) on an object, but everything else of course stays static. So, in other words, you'd see a rather blobulous thing, like when the camera zooms in on Oprah. Marc
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When something moves away from you under "normal" velocities, it gets smaller and smaller as time progresses. And since the visual range of the ship sufficiently close in terms of how far light has to travel, to be negligable, the effect that you would "see" is that the ship would "appear" to all of a sudden be all sizes from a pinpoint to its current size. Sort of the affect you would get if you held the shutter open and zoomed out (not in) on an object, but everything else of course stays static. So, in other words, you'd see a rather blobulous thing, like when the camera zooms in on Oprah. Marc
Marc Clifton wrote:
like when the camera zooms in on Oprah.
Yes, but unlike Oprah, my ship will look cool :)
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow
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For the physics folks: If you wanted to create a cool animation of a ship with an FTL drive, specifically something like an Alcubierre drive[^], what visual cues might you use? Trying to keep things a little bit based in reality (yes, I'm aware the drive doesn't really exist, and due to certain annoying laws of physics probably never will) would the ship simply disappear? Would there be any weird light artifacts (i.e. GLows, streaks, distortions) from the POV of the camera viewing the departing ship?
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow
It would almost certainly disappear in a puff of logic.
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For the physics folks: If you wanted to create a cool animation of a ship with an FTL drive, specifically something like an Alcubierre drive[^], what visual cues might you use? Trying to keep things a little bit based in reality (yes, I'm aware the drive doesn't really exist, and due to certain annoying laws of physics probably never will) would the ship simply disappear? Would there be any weird light artifacts (i.e. GLows, streaks, distortions) from the POV of the camera viewing the departing ship?
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I think that behind and beside the ship would be utterly black, but in front a white disc of starlight, microwaves and CMB, massively blue-shifted into the far gamma regions, which along with the interstellar dust being hit at ludicrous speeds, would instantly vaporise the ship, drive and everyone in it.
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I think that behind and beside the ship would be utterly black, but in front a white disc of starlight, microwaves and CMB, massively blue-shifted into the far gamma regions, which along with the interstellar dust being hit at ludicrous speeds, would instantly vaporise the ship, drive and everyone in it.
I'm torn on this one. The dust between here and there would not get into the bubble, as it is not 'moving'. All the dust between here and there should get crushed together in the compresses spacetime of the forward edge. I originally thought that there would be huge blue shift of the radiation ahead of the bubble, but now I'm not sure. I can see how there would be in the compressed space, but I don't have a clue as the transient effects of crossing into and out of the region that is being compressed. I look at this problem and think is is best discussed over ice cold pepper vodka. (What with Russia having good physicists and all)
Opacity, the new Transparency.
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I think that behind and beside the ship would be utterly black, but in front a white disc of starlight, microwaves and CMB, massively blue-shifted into the far gamma regions, which along with the interstellar dust being hit at ludicrous speeds, would instantly vaporise the ship, drive and everyone in it.
I asked my boss about this too, as he has a degree in nuclear physics, and he said what Andy mentioned, that it would be red-shifted at the front. Any idea on what the difference means?
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For the physics folks: If you wanted to create a cool animation of a ship with an FTL drive, specifically something like an Alcubierre drive[^], what visual cues might you use? Trying to keep things a little bit based in reality (yes, I'm aware the drive doesn't really exist, and due to certain annoying laws of physics probably never will) would the ship simply disappear? Would there be any weird light artifacts (i.e. GLows, streaks, distortions) from the POV of the camera viewing the departing ship?
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It would be in a local pocket of infinite mass, so light would either be distorted around it, or disappear into it, and it wouldn't give off any light. So no bright flashes. At most, you'd see a ripple, like a heat ripple in air -- but you'd have to be a long, long way off to see it; perhaps so far away that you wouldn't be able to see it anyway. Before it reaches light speed, normal Doppler activities can be expected, but the parallel increases in mass as higher velocities are achieved will "soften" the effect, so still no bright flashes or "lucid booms". Note that the above completely ignores the fact that it can't be done, according to current Physics knowledge -- but that's how writing Sci-Fi works: you just leave out one little detail.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I asked my boss about this too, as he has a degree in nuclear physics, and he said what Andy mentioned, that it would be red-shifted at the front. Any idea on what the difference means?
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If you are asking about the difference between red and blue shift. Red shifted light or energy waves have longer wavelengths, lower frequency and less energy than visible light. All the background radiation that has been around since the big bang is massivly red shifted because its been around so long. Blue Shifted light has a very high frequency, lower wavelength and a ton more energy than visible light.
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For the physics folks: If you wanted to create a cool animation of a ship with an FTL drive, specifically something like an Alcubierre drive[^], what visual cues might you use? Trying to keep things a little bit based in reality (yes, I'm aware the drive doesn't really exist, and due to certain annoying laws of physics probably never will) would the ship simply disappear? Would there be any weird light artifacts (i.e. GLows, streaks, distortions) from the POV of the camera viewing the departing ship?
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow
You could always invent a way to generate the staggering amount of energy required to run a drive like that and record it. In the more realistic approach if the camera wasnt going to follow the ship as it left. just for fun i'd do some form of light bending distortion ,roughly in the shape of the graph in the wikipedia article, of the ship and space around it. Then have the distination zip up to the front of the pocket or wherever it should be in relation to the ship then have the start point zip away. After the ship arrived just undo whatever distortion you did and all done. Some movement in the front and rear distortion as the dest approaches and orig point leaves may make it look better, but would probably be a pain to do.
Please remember to rate helpful or unhelpful answers, it lets us and people reading the forums know if our answers are any good.
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oh no not again
The only thing unpredictable about me is just how predictable I'm going to be.
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For the physics folks: If you wanted to create a cool animation of a ship with an FTL drive, specifically something like an Alcubierre drive[^], what visual cues might you use? Trying to keep things a little bit based in reality (yes, I'm aware the drive doesn't really exist, and due to certain annoying laws of physics probably never will) would the ship simply disappear? Would there be any weird light artifacts (i.e. GLows, streaks, distortions) from the POV of the camera viewing the departing ship?
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One option: I recommend breaking from the norm and make any tracer effects non-linear... Have a light trail (a la contrail) follow some bizarre looping curves. A released air balloon is kind of what I have in mind. Skip some frames like a strobe effect. Maybe there is some sort of quantam effect. Make loud "blatting" noises on each pulse. (I know sound does not travel in space!) If you are going faster than light, the chance that you will follow the same line as a light beam should be about zero. Another option: This fits more with the warp bubble. Just make a huge fish-eye view of the ship and accelerate it in a non linear path. *Have some "heat ripples" that distort the background star field but quickly dampen as normal space recovers. I like this idea, you could combine it with any other imagery. Just make sure you give us a sneak peek!
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For the physics folks: If you wanted to create a cool animation of a ship with an FTL drive, specifically something like an Alcubierre drive[^], what visual cues might you use? Trying to keep things a little bit based in reality (yes, I'm aware the drive doesn't really exist, and due to certain annoying laws of physics probably never will) would the ship simply disappear? Would there be any weird light artifacts (i.e. GLows, streaks, distortions) from the POV of the camera viewing the departing ship?
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Jim Crafton wrote:
create a cool animation of a ship with an FTL drive
Skip the physics, its probably going to be visually boring, and stick with the standard visual indicators of sub-light fast motion -- quick acceleration, light smears, sonic booms, forward skew. Maybe substitute a burst of Cherenkov radiation in place of the sonic boom. You want to make it look like its going fast, not try to actually show it going so fast the human eye can't actually see it :)
patbob
