What's with that cloak? [EOTE]

[Frungi]

Is there any kind of in-universe reason that the Stranger turns only the sun black? Other stars and planets are plainly visible through the cloak, and in fact you can see the Sun Station orbiting the black circle of the sun.

[choongmyoung]

It doesn't make sence physically. Because, once a photon get inside the real universe's Sun, it gets reflected thouroughly inside it and lost its past direction. Therefore you are not able to see through the Sun. And in this game, the cloak allows us to see through the Sun.

Aside from that, I'm pretty sure the OwlDeers had set the cloak to absorb only the Sun's light. If they didn't, the cloak should have been observed by Nomai or other species because of the starlights. I don't think that is technically possible in the real universe, but after all that's a super alien technology.

[Quillithe]

I don't remember, can you see non-sun planets from the inside? Maybe they somehow bend the light around from most sources but they need the sunlight for power/solar sails, and just assumed being off-axis and only visible against the sun was hidden well enough.

[Frungi]

Originally posted by choongmyoung:

IAnd in this game, the cloak allows us to see through the Sun.

No, it doesn't; it just turns it into an opaque black clrcle. A starless void. You can see the Sun Station cross the black and disappear behind it.

Originally posted by Quillithe:

I don't remember, can you see non-sun planets from the inside? Maybe they somehow bend the light around from most sources but they need the sunlight for power/solar sails, and just assumed being off-axis and only visible against the sun was hidden well enough.

That sounds very reasonable. Assuming it wasn't just due to real-world technical limitations.

Still bugs me that momentum isn't maintained when passing through the cloak or navigating the Bramble, and how flight in space and atmo seem to be two distinct things, I assume due to technical limitations. Still love the game.

[Killer Queen Gray]

My guess is it's a limitation on the cloaking tech where instead of bending light it just creates a projection of what exists beyond itself but it's not able to produce an image as bright as the sun so it just projects nothing?

[red_glass_shoe]

Originally posted by Killer Queen Gray:

My guess is it's a limitation on the cloaking tech where instead of bending light it just creates a projection of what exists beyond itself but it's not able to produce an image as bright as the sun so it just projects nothing?

I like this.

It is also possible that the Owls considered the plane of the solar system and the orbits of its planets, and assumed that being "above" the plane of the system, alongside the cloak, would work well for them for a very, very long time.

And they turned out to be correct.

[YellowAfterlife]

Originally posted by Frungi:

Still bugs me that momentum isn't maintained when passing through the cloak or navigating the Bramble, and how flight in space and atmo seem to be two distinct things, I assume due to technical limitations. Still love the game.

With the game preserving momentum on other occasions (such as in virtual world transitions), I'm assuming that this is primarily to prevent smashing your ship into pieces too easily (especially with Stranger) and is utilized in speedruns (you'll often see people flying into the Bramble entrance full-speed)

[Cosmic]

My assumption was that the Stranger's cloak field absorbs only the sun's light wavelength so that it can power the solar sails and other electronic systems. Thus, the light from other stars gets bent around the field and the station appears invisible, but when it passes in front of that particular sun as the only light source, it absorbs all the light and becomes a black circle. Evidently it can be programmed to accept other wavelengths, since the owlks used their home star to accelerate and the Outer Wilds star to brake.

Also interesting to note: while inside the cloak field it appears to work in reverse, blocking all external light and producing a starless void, but doesn't do this when the player is on the station - only when they're outside it. This suggests the field is a light-absorbing volume that surrounds the Stranger like a fluid bubble, soaking up the sun's energy while deflecting every other wavelength around it like a 'conventional' cloaking device.

Light is weird.

[Quillithe]

Originally posted by Cosmic:

Also interesting to note: while inside the cloak field it appears to work in reverse, blocking all external light and producing a starless void, but doesn't do this when the player is on the station - only when they're outside it.

The inside isn't actually you 'seeing' the outside, it's a big RGB screen

[Cosmic]

Originally posted by Quillithe:

The inside isn't actually you 'seeing' the outside, it's a big RGB screen

Oh ♥♥♥♥, that's what that was? I never figured out what's what was going on. I guess in that case the cloak routes all the energy it absorbs to internal systems and doesn't let a thing in. That'd also explain why the screens briefly cut out when it adjusts the cloak to use the solar sail. Never pieced that together, well spotted.