When jumping from realspace into the Warp, how quickly does the translation take? I had assumed it was like flipping a switch and popping out of reality into the Warp - and vice versa. Either you're in realspace, or you're in the Warp - I can't wrap my mind around there being some sort of in between.

But I'm currently having a discussion with someone who believes my description of Warp translation had things happening too quickly. I think his idea is more like taking off in an airplane and climbing to reach cruising altitude. (My words, not his.)

Basically, I had the captain of the ship sound a bell that alerts everyone that they were about to translate into the Warp, and several minutes later, the jump happened... The lights flickered, and everyone doubled over with nausea at a translation that didn't go very well. (They don't know that the Gellar field flickered along with the lights, and they're about to have to kill some Warp beasts.) The lights came on within a few seconds, and people started standing up after falling to their knees in a wave of nausea.

Would that have happened so quickly, or should the translation have been drawn out more? I can always go back and edit!

Perhaps the intro movie to Final Liberation might be of use to you? Dramatic license should be assumed in effect, of course, so make of this what you will.

-Kirov

I'm not sure what I was supposed to see there. I'm not sure if I should blame the video quality or the poor lighting at my desk that messed with the contrast when trying to watch it. Did the ship just sort of appear out of nowhere, aka translating out of the Warp?

Looked like the ship flew through a hole in space if you ask me. In others words, the "translation" depends on how fast the ship itself was moving. In the video, the ship apparently was moving fast enough to clear the hole in about two to three seconds. Apparently, the way a warp drive works is that it punches a temporary hole in reality to the warp, and then the ship moves in on its own power. I guess this makes sense . . . the Warp Drive Explosion critical hit from the ship critical table in Rogue Trader describes a hole being torn in space and then ships within a certain distance getting sucked in if they fail a piloting check. I also want to say that I've seen other depictions of this where the ship opens a rift to enter the warp, but right now, I can't seem to remember what other picture or video showed things that way.

-Kirov

Okay thanks. So I do have a basis in "reality" for my interpretation.

Kirov said:

Dawn of War 2 has images of large warp rifts being opened by a ship, and it flies through it into the warp. From the video shown, I reckon it'd take a few minutes at least, probably about 10, to fully pass through the rift and have it shut behind you.

Hmm. That would change things.

There really isn't a cannon description of this. It's been described in a number of ways. Heck one could even suppose that different warp drives work differently.

Dalnor Surloc said:

I can go with that. :-)

My view is that since it's the Warp, where Chaos holds sway, no two translations are the same. Sometimes it's easy, and the ship pops out like a bar of soap in a wet hand, sometimes it's so hard that the crew have to wrench the ship back into real space, leaving a tear in reality.

So I'd say that it's completely up to you.

I've been describing it (like the Dawn of War video) as 5 mile wide multi-coloured portal at the front of the ship acompanied by shipwide shaking.

Of course the window shutters should be closed at this point as you don't want the whole crew staring at the warp so it's likely to only be crew that see it, and have the risk of a bit of corruption the first time they do).

For what it's worth, I don't think of it as a portal, but more along the lines of the ship pushing through the "surface" of space, almost like a submarine coming up out of the ocean, only in four dimensions. Whether or not a "splash" is made, and the scale of it if so, depends on how the trip through the Warp went.

I tend to think of emergence a little like that as well (there is a spectacular picture on Renderosity of a Lunar-class leaving warp, although you will need a membership to see it), possibly mixed with Farscape-style starburst.

There is actually a little canon on this: there's a description of an actual warp transit in either Lacrymata (whose author escapes me) or Rogue Trader (Bill King), from the point of view of the Navigator. Apparently there is a portal opened in front of the ship, although what it looks like is up to the Navigator(s) that use it. Apparently some of the most well-used jump points have a well-established "shape" visible to every Navigator, whether that's a set of enormous cathedral doors (complete with angelic choir), a leafy glade, a DS9 style wormhole, a multi-kilometer mouth, sphincter or other orifice. It's pretty much down to the willpower and imagination of the Navigator.

kelvingreen said:

Even in my mind I was sure it was actually a portal based on how the tech is supposed to work. I though that it might be an effect of the leading edge of the warp field breaking through, the rest of the portal might just be the ripples across the 'surface' or something like that.

As mentioned, Dawn of War II has the following depiction of it. Although the idea of each translation being different is very in flavor with traveling through the eddies of chaos.

6Kilgs said:

Thank you for that. Very helpful!

6Kilgs said:

I was looking for that but couldn't find it. It's sweet although in Chaos Rising:

SPOILERSSTOPLOOKINGHERESPOILERSSTOPLOOKINGHERESPOILERS

When the space hulk turns up it's way more awsome.

Face Eater said:

Spoilers in the vid, but check at 1:55 for the space hulk transition.