movement - How can I convey a sensation of speed in space?

I'm making a game where you see a spaceship (in 3rd person) travelling at high-speed between planets (it takes 2-3 seconds move between them).

What effect could I use to convey the effect of extreme speed? I already know about the usual effects, change in FOV, white lines around the subjects, etc..

I'm asking about some things that are more space-like, I mean even if it's not how it would be perceived in real physics, I need it to look like it's fast and it's in space.

Don't hesitate to ask for clarification, my English is nowhere near being perfect, maybe I didn't convey my thought perfectly.

Answer

The thing is, in space nearly everything is so far away so will naturally look stationary. The things you could do to imply speed are

1. Use loud engine noise to simulate thrusters working extra hard.


2. Shake the cockpit to simulate thruster stress on the ship.


3. Have visual indicators of some kind of rate of acceleration (not speed, speed is relative so there is no absolute speed in space).


4. Make sure you have a suitable deceleration phase, to instil the idea that the built up velocity is very powerful and needs a lot of effort to counter (perhaps with visible exhaust matter exiting from the front of the ship)

I think though that the best way to simulate speed is to make your game unnatural. You can't hear far away explosions through space, but movies will put them in because humans expect to hear the explosion as that is what life on Earth has taught us to be excited by. So, ignore the fact that in real life the sky would look stationary and go for an effect like one of these

1. Star field streaking in Star Wars when the Millennium Falcon hits top speed.


2. The tunnel effect on Star Gate or the start of an episode of Dr Who.

Having the ship have to make very slight and very fast course corrections to avoid obstacles like planets would be good too. Perhaps some kind of visible + audible alert to the captain, with some little screen calculating impact etc. You could even show the occasional planet shoot past really close in your field of view (obviously motion blurred).

Finally, why not go for the Futurama approach? A spaceship can't move that quickly through space, so move space instead :) Press the warp button, the entire universe (except your ship) squishes down really small, then expands back to its normal size with you in a different place :)