You are very observant 
It all looks much better in motion. And will be way way better with all re-done ships.
Looks beautiful and very atmospheric… could even see tiny specks in the debris that are the crews kicking as they float off into space when the ships come apart, but that’s probably a bit more grim than the general atmosphere of the game, huh?
just wondering: was that idea influenced in any way by SPAZ
There’s been no further lighting experiments that cliffski has chosen to share, so I’m closing this thread for now.
Brief speculations, questions and fond hopes for GSB2 may be posted here. It is not a suggestions thread, though – use the Suggestions forum for that. Thanks, folks!
Some new teasing experiments…
Enjoy 
Very shiny! I am really liking the way these lighting experiments are coming out. Some battles are best when the lighting is low, with only certain glowy parts of the ships standing out from the surrounding gloom (case in point, these newest teaser images).
And I dig the look of the new ships as well.
I’m also investigating a number of performance improvements, such as multithreading stuff which might allow for more particles, really dense asteroid fields and smoke etc. I can’t wait to get stuck into all that
Wonderful stuff! I can see a fight in a nebula where dark clouds obstruct the view, or near a black hole where the light is almost nonexistent. These shots make the ships look more and more like we are used to seeing in feature films these days… wonderful “glowies” on those models!
near a black hole the ships are more nonexistent than the light…
on topic: I SEE NEW RACE I WANT
Finally passed a milestone of getting an asteroid to cast a (not entirely accurate) shadow on a ship. This was a real nightmare…
Even if the shadow is “not entirely accurate”, I still like the way this has turned out. I can see asteroid shadows passing over ships as they glide by, giving the battlefield one more little 3D visual element. Bravo to you, Cliff, for persevering even through the nightmares!
I’m wondering how your engine handles the rendering. is it a 2D projection of a 3D space, or is it a cheated “3D view” of the 2D surface?
If it’s the former, how do you define camera angles? That is, could the 2.0 engine have the possibility for a side view? I rather doubt that would be the case, but figured it was worth asking given the last screenshot.
No it’s all faked: everything is 2D sprites, using magic to look much more 3D than before. One of the motivations for this is modding, as it makes modding much easier for people than would otherwise be the case.
Also happy to report it works in 2560x1440 res now, although annoyingly multi-monitor fullscreen 2560x1440 x 2 is now suddenly buggy. 
About what I expected, although the illusion of 3D got really fantastic.
On a semi-related note, what’s the timescale a project of this magnitude usually operates on? Not this one in particular, but one of about this level of complexity and scope.
As you have said so many times, Cliffski, I bet it will look even more fantastic when in motion. It looks plenty good NOW!
Now, let’s see you simulate some Z-axis stuff so ships can pass over and under each other, casting shadows on lower ships! It would change the game a lot if a ship could slip up or down around another vessel rather than “collide” with it until the two scrape off in different directions or one dies!
Ha! I actually do have shadows working. Although they are totally faked, and could do with some work, they do help with the whole feeling of depth.
I was wondering about the ability to produce different impact effects with different weapons. For instance:
Now, I’m not talking about every impact leaving a twisty scorch mark (although, if it worked in the end, that would be pretty cool), but what about a plume of appropriately colored particles spraying at some point where the beam crosses a model? Perhaps this could occur if the beam struck a turret, regardless if the turret were destroyed; the beam could assume it would trace across the ship model and would be temporarily shortened by the turret, generating a small spark or explosion.
And, of course, we have loads of missiles and torps flying around. Wouldn’t it be nice to see the occasional:
What thinkest thou?
Well indeed, this would be awesome. I’ve thought for ages about the whole ‘tracing a line of destruction over the hull’ meme. The main technical problem I have not solved yet is (quickly) working out what lines can be drawn on a ship that are solid, without a hole in the ship also being included. Theoretically this could all be pre-calculated, but that’s a very clunky way of doing it. I’m still thinking about it.
Oh, very nice! Personally, I like a combination of pic #2 for the ship and pic #5 for its lighting. It would be great if individual shots could have some sort of filter applied to them that made them appear to illuminate ships they fly over or impact (a sort of way to “punch through” the shading layer as the shot streaked across a model.
The idea of actually punching holes through ships with critical shots would be very, very cool. Say, if a particular weapon exceeded a set percentage of a ship’s overall HP it could simulate blowing a jagged hole through the hull. That ‘hole point’ could set off particle effects like sparks or smoke, looking like the wounded USS Reliant in The Wrath of Khan… though not as dramatic; I understand there is already a load on some processors with all of the elements currently at work here. The hole feature could also be used as a visual cue system for players as well; if you see a ship rocked by a single hit you know its hull integrity is now down by 10%, etc.
As a similar system, or as an expansion of the above, one of its gun emplacements could completely explode and tear a hole through the ship as well, making a ship become more pock-marked and jagged as it loses systems (even if striking weapons did not leave any marks).