A freeform space-based realtime strategy game where the player controls groups of starships and fighters. The game is built around a starmap which the player must rid of all enemy ships, while completing storyline and side missions. During this quest, stations around the map can be used to purchase ships, weapons and modules. The enemy will be trying to seize control of your stations, and take the sector for themselves. Through a variety of missions, you must capture stations and push forward until the Dust Zone is safe once again.
Better engine glows have been on my to-do list for a while. I've always been a fan of "clean" engine effects like this - no trails, no smoke. It looks futuristic but also harkens back to pre-CGI sci-fi visual effects, where bright engine glows were created with big light bulbs. In addition, it mirrors the effect of the space shuttle orbiter main engines. Once the orbiter is out of the atmosphere, the engines have a similar clean white glow until they shut off.
If I remember correctly, the flame goes completely dark and transparent once you're actually out of the atmosphere.
Not trying to rain on any parades, just a little tidbit I find interesting.
If you look at footage when the SRBs disconnect, there is a harsh white light from the engines. Not sure how much atmosphere there is at that point, I guess it's not quite hard vacuum, but it's the last view any camera has of the engines before they cut out.
Altitude I got for the SRB is 44.5km, so just under halfway there, going by altitude. Orbital insertion is finished using liquid fuel, and I doubt that the videos showed the fuel tank detaching since the boosters go at 165 seconds* and the tank goes at 8 minutes, and by that point, the thing is definitely over the horizon.
*Grumblegrubmle, you made me look up the SPESS SHATTLE! on the Wiki.
What I did find was some talk over the Moon landing hoaxers complaining over a lack of plume on the LM (I was wondering where I heard it for the first time), and the conversation expanded onto the Shuttle's engines and OMS being completely transparent, with the exception of the latter's ignition(s) because of imperfect fuel ratios at the very start.
The video cameras are mounted on the SRBs, tank and (I think) shuttle, so there are video images of it when it's well out of ground camera range. When the SRB's disconnect, you catch a glimpse of the SSMEs still running at full throttle. Once the tank disconnects, the SSMEs have already shut down, so I think the SRB feed is the last chance you get. Incidentally, once the SRBs are gone, it's apparently a "smooth as glass" ride, according to one astronaut.
Regarding the OMS, yeah, they're near invisible to see firing - they're a very different type of engine, built to allow them to be restarted multiple times and to be super ultra reliable - if they don't fire, there's no coming home.
Of course, none of my talk of cameras or engines actually answers the question as to what the SSMEs look like in a vacuum! :D With my science head on, knowing that the SSMEs are much more powerful than the OMS, I would say that a reaction of that magnitude would produce light, since that's a natural by-product of an energetic reaction. After all, the sun also gives off bright light, so a powerful enough reaction must be able to do it. I'm no scientist, so I could be well off the mark. Not that I'm building an accurate space simulator, but it's fun to think about these things and try to get them right. ;)
On the topic of moon landing hoaxers, it always bothers me that they seem to know nothing of the topic of space flight. My favourite is when they complain that the + marks on photos on the moon appear to be obscured by terrain. Aside from the rational explanation for that, I don't know why that must mean the landings were faked.
I can't blame Buzz Aldrin for punching one.
Yeah, solid fuel doesn't burn all that smoothly, so the Soyuz and Apollo win it over on the comfort side. Makes me wonder what kind of a ride an Ares would've been, come to think of it.
I'm practically certain it has to do with atmospheric interference, rather the actual power of the engine, and if you get it in a vacuum, it'd mean part of your fuel (or ox) isn't combusting, and when it's on a budget, that's kind of bad. The fuel tank still has a sub-orbital trajectory, or at least, an atmospheric one, and the sun is basically a nuclear explosion with an atmosphere. Scale's completely different.
I do damn wish I dug up anything conclusive. It's not like I care that much. If I couldn't suspend my disbelief over some cool engine plumes*, I'd have been forced to stop most of my gaming and TV as soon as I had a basic understanding of physics. *Yours probably some sort of nuclear propulsion anyway, and I'm guessing those would work differently again.
Mine's the flag. Had a classmate who said it was waving. Responding to my question about her actually watching the video with an unsurprising "No."
Given the circumstances, he was surprisingly calm up until the guy got far too close. I'd have decked him in about half a minute.