Improve the starting cinematic

metaheavens commented

2026-08-24 07:46:08 +00:00

Owner

The introduction of the game is a bit too fast, everything happens seconds after the previous thing started. Slow things downs a bit. Improve the ship layout, space them a bit more and surround transporters by the default vessels. Improve the dialog windows with better futuristic contours. The wrap animation is also pretty poor, just a few lines turning around. Improve the VFX with potential shaders and growing black hole animation (you can reuse what you did for the black hole planet, which looks pretty good)

metaheavens commented

2026-08-24 11:25:31 +00:00

Author

Owner

Done in d455361.

Pacing. The root cause was that every beat's completion test could be
satisfied while the guide was still mid-sentence - that is why everything
landed seconds after the thing before it. Beats now have a FLOOR as well as a
deadline, and a beat whose point is the guide talking will not end while a line
is still on screen. One rule in one place rather than tuning each condition
separately. The opening run is 3400px instead of 1500 (about four seconds at
cruise), and a held line is 6.5s instead of 4.5.

Ship layout. Escorts at the four corners of a box, holds packed in the
middle, roughly three times the spread of the fleet's own wedge - it is freight
under guard, not a fighting formation. Measured on the last run: 794px across,
holds within 159px of centre, escorts out at 397. The test pins that every hold
sits further in than the furthest-out escort, so "surrounded" cannot quietly
stop being true.

Dialog contours. Cut corners, brackets holding the short edges open rather
than closing them, a tick strip along the bottom and a caret in the corner. All
geometry rather than art, so it scales with the banner.

The warp. Two halves now, driven by one number:

DimensionalBreach - a growing black hole in world space, built on
BlackHoleVisual's idiom since you liked that one: empty core,
counter-rotating arc segments hotter and thicker toward the centre. It adds
infalling streamers the planet does not have, because a planet's disc is
steady and this one has to read as happening now.
breach.gdshader - a screen-space lens over the top that bends the ACTUAL
SCENE around the hole. Ships, rocks and the starfield all get dragged in,
which is most of what makes a hole in space read as a hole rather than as a
decal drawn on one. Inside the horizon it samples nothing at all - same
decision the black-hole planet makes, and for the same reason.

It opens over the whole breach beat and closes again behind you during the
aftermath, so the last thing you see is the hole sealing rather than a cut.

Suite: 140/140 green.

Done in d455361. **Pacing.** The root cause was that every beat's completion test could be satisfied while the guide was still mid-sentence - that is why everything landed seconds after the thing before it. Beats now have a FLOOR as well as a deadline, and a beat whose point is the guide talking will not end while a line is still on screen. One rule in one place rather than tuning each condition separately. The opening run is 3400px instead of 1500 (about four seconds at cruise), and a held line is 6.5s instead of 4.5. **Ship layout.** Escorts at the four corners of a box, holds packed in the middle, roughly three times the spread of the fleet's own wedge - it is freight under guard, not a fighting formation. Measured on the last run: 794px across, holds within 159px of centre, escorts out at 397. The test pins that every hold sits further in than the furthest-out escort, so "surrounded" cannot quietly stop being true. **Dialog contours.** Cut corners, brackets holding the short edges open rather than closing them, a tick strip along the bottom and a caret in the corner. All geometry rather than art, so it scales with the banner. **The warp.** Two halves now, driven by one number: - `DimensionalBreach` - a growing black hole in world space, built on `BlackHoleVisual`'s idiom since you liked that one: empty core, counter-rotating arc segments hotter and thicker toward the centre. It adds infalling streamers the planet does not have, because a planet's disc is steady and this one has to read as happening now. - `breach.gdshader` - a screen-space lens over the top that bends the ACTUAL SCENE around the hole. Ships, rocks and the starfield all get dragged in, which is most of what makes a hole in space read as a hole rather than as a decal drawn on one. Inside the horizon it samples nothing at all - same decision the black-hole planet makes, and for the same reason. It opens over the whole breach beat and closes again behind you during the aftermath, so the last thing you see is the hole sealing rather than a cut. Suite: 140/140 green.