Now that time - slow is more visible due to its presence in the item and device menus, it may be worth looking into ways of making it look more aesthetically pleasing. I thought I was lagging when I first saw it.
Assuming you've got a common class for everything that can move/be rendered, this could actually be done with reasonable ease - just calculate where things are going to move at the start of each 'update tick', and gradually adjust the rendered position during the currently unused ticks.
Transcendence runs at 30fps and many critical functions are tied to this framerate. To increase the framerate, even just for dockscreens and menus, would mean a massive, massive overhaul.
I have to think about this. @xephyr is right that the update event is tied to the framerate (e.g., every object assumes that one update = one frame). But the move event is separate from update. I might be able to call move multiple times while only calling update once.
This might make motion smoother, but animation (e.g., stargate) will still be jumpy.
That could work. I didn't know that move/update were separated - good to know.
How about adding a slight blurring effect to the graphics when time-slow is active?
Motion blur just makes folks feel sick.
I'd have to see the motion blur to judge anything.
PR#100 separates the update into behavior and physics, allowing the movement/physics to be updated every frame. So motion can be updated at 30fps (or 60fps) regardless of the tick update.
Particle effects are not quite working, but I haven't been able to track down where the particle update occurs.