Aaaand:
https://twitter.com/amosolov/status/1577753728223936512
This'll be the default setting, though both the whiteout and the old explosion graphics will be available in settings.json. The old explosion graphics in particular seem like they'd be useful for GraphicsLib which I believe adds its custom explosion visuals on top of those.
Thank you, it's significantly less blinding as far as I can tell. How safe will it be for the eyes, however, can only be tested in-game, as zoom can be important, like when you attack a capital ship while piloting a frigate.
It is also extremely beautiful and very thematic with the fuel the ships use, although personally I value the safety improvement even more.
I finally reinstalled Empire Earth and tested a nuke. I guess they did not actually do a full whiteout and it does cover the UI elements around the units, but still way better than Starsector.
I'll mention that their bright flash fades in/out as you move towards/away from the explosion, which was always a nice touch.
The important difference is that in both Empire Earth and Supreme Commander nukes are detonated on already brightly illuminated battlefield. The space in Starsector, however, is black, and ships are not all that much of a contrast to this blackness. That's the main reason the whole screen suddenly going from completely black to completely white is a problem. New solution presented by Alex will probably solve the "whole screen" part, and tone down the white to bright blue. All that's left is check for zoom and maybe make ships on the verge of exploding (less than 40% hull or something) to start glowing even before the explosion, so it isn't as sudden to the iris. Though the latter part would most likely take too much time and effort to implement (though the idea of fuel/other volatile substances leaking out of the damaged ship would look extremely cool and would expand the new explosion animation, as well as add that multi-stage boss fight feel), so the former is much more likely to be the balancing venue.
