Reverse thrust?

[dmikesell]

I'm working on a thruster animation for the user controlled starship in my game. The ship, however, can travel backward as well as forward and I'm not sure how to animate (if at all) the reverse thrust. You can see a shot of the starship here without any thrust:

http://medievalelks.com/images/screenshot2.png

The forward thrust emits from the back, opposite the gun. Fairly standard, I guess. How would you animate reverse thrust? Invert the thrust cone? Don't show anything? Smaller thrust graphic and perhaps a different color?

Thanks...

[Indiepath]

Well strictly speaking an object can not emit a reverse thrust (or a negative thrust). To reverse the direction of the object you must thrust in the opposite direction of travel. Think about the ship control on the old asteroids game.

[PeterM]

Maybe two little jets at the front? Or a small jet on each of the wing tips? That could handle turning and suchlike too.

Sounds like more work than is really necessary though.

[dmikesell]

Come to think of it, I rarely use the reverse option when I'm play-testing. It just doesn't seem intuitive, especially since the ship can cross over from top to bottom and left to right. Maybe I'll remove that and see if I notice.

[svero]

Well it is actually possible to "reverse thrust" if the medium is thick. (ie suction in water)... so while it's not really physically correct perhaps it woudl be ok for a game to show some kind of psuedo suction effect if there's no room to put front thrusters on.

[Fost]

We have little reverse thrusters on the nose of the ships in Starscape (http://www.moonpod.com/starscape):

http://www.moonpod.com/board/images/misc/Starscape-Thrusters.jpg

(sorry, it's not easy to see the red reverse thrusters on the red background in a static image, but hopefully you can just make it out)

[Pyabo]

Haven't you ever flown in a commercial airliner? :)

Reverse Thrust (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_thrust)

[Applewood]

hehe, that's just the same thrust revectored. I don't reckon his little sprite has room for thrust reversers like on a jet liner though :)

I love the graphics in starscape!

[Indiepath]

Haven't you ever flown in a commercial airliner?
Heh, but there is no air in the vacuum of space :P

[Edtharan]

Heh, but there is no air in the vacuum of space :P
But there are still exhause gasses and it is these that determine the direction of travel.