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As we recently saw in PIC Season 3, older ships like the Enterprise-D apparently still have the "streaking stars" (for the lack of a better word), instead of the newer "hyperspace" like effect.
What exactly is responsible for the warp field causing the different visual effects?
Could be that SPEED is what is affecting it.
In 90-ies Trek, the closer you got to the TW threshold the Warp field streaks moved faster and were more luminous.
So, my guess is that Warp drive is much faster in the early 25th century than it was in the mid/late 24th... hence the change in effects.
It could also be a difference in Warp engines what would explain the differential between Discovery Warp and what we know - it WAS a science vessel that was experimenting in propulsion technology, so it wouldn't be anything too problematic
Although, I have to say that making the Warp effect more like Hyperspace was something I didn't particularly like.
They could have retained streaking stars and just enhanced the effect.
Could be that SPEED is what is affecting it.
In 90-ies Trek, the closer you got to the TW threshold the Warp field streaks moved faster and were more luminous.
So, my guess is that Warp drive is much faster in the early 25th century than it was in the mid/late 24th... hence the change in effects.
The major thing that would change is how fast those Warp Field streaks fly by / the rate of animation.
I don't think there's a "TW Threshold" so much of a energy requirement issue to get up to higher speeds with vanilla Warp Drive.
This version is based off of my Warp Factor 3.0 scale where I ignored the hand drawn curve to infinity after Wf 9.0 and just continued the TNG era formula inputs until infinity for Wf #'s.
As you can see, with linear scaling of Wf #'s, the power consumption requirements starts getting pretty silly.
And remember what Geordi La Forge stated when they were testing the Soliton Wave Rider.
That it had a 98% Energy Conversion Efficiency from Soliton Energy to the Warp Field Generation portion of the Soliton Wave Rider. That converting Soliton Energy to Warp Field was 450% more efficient than converting EPS to Warp Field.
And we both know that the reactor for the Galaxy-class in TNG can already generates a ridiculous amount of energy.
12.75 EW = 12.75x10^12 MW
So the bigger issue is how to efficiently convert Electro-Plasma to Warp Field Generation is the bigger problem, not the generating of energy part.
That leaves TNG era EPS -> Warp Field at ~21.7…% efficient. That's highly inefficient. Similar to what a 2000's 4-cylinder ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) with it's ~ 20-25% Thermal Efficiency. When the Carnot Theory allows for a Theoretical maximum of 83%. And Toyota's current engines are at ~40% Thermal Efficiency. Next Gen Engine developments will sky-rocket those #'s. But that's a different thing all together. Back to Star Trek.
Remember, at the end of DISCO season 4, the Retro-Fitted USS Discovery-A was traveling at about Wf 57-58 on my Warp Factor Scale 3.0. That's on a Retro-Fitted ancient StarFleet StarShip.
At those speeds, the power consumption requirements would be crazy if you were only using ~21.7…% conversion efficiency. So they must've solved the conversion efficiency issues. Because if Discovery is able to cruise at Wf 57-58, they would be able to reach the Earth by crossing the entire Galaxy following Voyagers path in ~1 Gregorian Year. A far cry from what Voyager would've had to endure for a 75 year journey with average speeds of Warp 8.
So eventually, StarFleet does seemingly solve the Power Requirements to travel at Warp at faster speeds through a combination of lowering the power requirements to get to those Warp Speeds and more efficiently convert the energy needed to power the Warp Nacelles.
We never even get to see how fast a 32nd Century ship can travel at Warp Speeds, we mostly see what Discovery-A can do, and that's retro-fitted. So there are bound to be inefficiencies there.
It could also be a difference in Warp engines what would explain the differential between Discovery Warp and what we know - it WAS a science vessel that was experimenting in propulsion technology, so it wouldn't be anything too problematic
That's quite the difference if you factor in every variant of the Warp Speed Animation, especially if you compare the primitive VFX animation from the TOS era ships to TNG-era to the Hyper-Space Star Wars copying style that they seemingly love to do.
Although, I have to say that making the Warp effect more like Hyperspace was something I didn't particularly like.
They could have retained streaking stars and just enhanced the effect.
I agree, it feels like copying another popular franchise, we should stick with the TNG era's VFX for warp speed travel.
It's simple, it's beautiful, it's classic, and well known.
They showed that it can look REALLY good if you are given the ability pan around and see more than one angle as with what we saw in the Final Episode of ST:PIC S3.E10.
We already have Transwarp Corridors & Quantum SlipStream which looks like the Hyper-Space Tunnel to some degree, but with a bit more of 70's Lava-Lamp vibes.
We don't need to always use the StarWars Hyper-Space Tunnel VFX, especially if ST already has analogous FTL drives that show it, that would be needlessly confusing to the more casual Trekkie and normies.
CBSALLCCESS + Trek showrunners are known to be Star Wars fans, KamenRiderBlade, I think your explanation is good enough for me. A part of me wish they would've borrowed what JJ Abram's Warp Speed was in "Into Darkness" by far - for me - the best Warp Speed special effects I'd ever seen for Star Trek.
CBSALLCCESS + Trek showrunners are known to be Star Wars fans, KamenRiderBlade, I think your explanation is good enough for me. A part of me wish they would've borrowed what JJ Abram's Warp Speed was in "Into Darkness" by far - for me - the best Warp Speed special effects I'd ever seen for Star Trek.
But JJ Abrams Warp Speed looks too much like a Fluid Dynamics Simulation for flying through the air.
I'm referencing Star Trek: Beyond's Warp VFX.
For ST:ID (Into Darkness), that Blue Tunnel is better used for Quantum SlipStream actually.
Instead of the original QSS VFX animation being a color modified TransWarp Corridor, it can actually have a different animation.
Look at what this guy does with the Warp Drive Animation.
That Distortion Bubble, right before they go off into Warp Speed and vanish into the Horizon.
That would work well with the TNG era VFX and is based off a more modern paper on Warp Drive.
Navigational deflector variances based upon the computers ability to process and feed data directly to the main viewer. Adjustments are made at the local level for personal preference of the display.
