Astral Chain, Mass Effect, Halo 4 (with the Forerunner technology and weapons) and Black Panther are all examples of Science Fiction that make use of floating, illuminated elements in their technology. It gives the technology a futuristic, almost magical vibe. Is their a term for this style of technology or genre of Science Fiction?

  • Why was this down voted? – StarHawk Jul 23 at 21:56
  • @StarHawk Probably for the last sentence; depending how you look at it, it can be read to stray into a list question, or a request for recommendations. – DavidW Jul 23 at 22:01
  • How can I rephrase the question so as to make Harabeck's answer seem appropriate and correct (which it is)? – SeeDerekEngineer Jul 23 at 22:20
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    By removing the "I'm looking for [blah blah recommendations]" part, which I did for you. :) Those are off-topic but you can ask in chat – Jenayah Jul 23 at 22:50
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    Jenayah took care of it. Asking for the name of something - in this case the trope name - is a question with a specific, and objectively correct, answer, so that should be the question. Once you have the trope, TVTropes will give you more examples than you can possibly need. – DavidW Jul 23 at 22:50

Tron Lines

From TVTropes:

When your technology isn't just bleeding-edge, but laser-edged, disruption-fielded-with-motorized-teeth high-tech. Power Glows, and now so does your tech. A common design scheme used for this glow is a series of lines along the edges or between panels of the machine. Others will have flat surfaces crossed by circuit-like lines that glow when activated, or have occasional pulses of light race down their length in tandem. Others have glowing components such as engines, weapon barrels, forcefield projectors and the like.

The examples at the bottom include Mass Effect and Halo Forerunners, which tells me that we're on the right track.

Other example IPs that I'm familiar with include: Tron (of course), Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Treasure Planet, Zone of the Enders, Metroid, and Phantasy Star.

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    And of course the eponymous Tron. – Spencer Jul 23 at 21:42
  • @Spencer Ha, guess I wasn't very clear. I just meant to point out that the OP's examples being included was a good sign. I'll edit in some examples into the actual answer in case that link ever dies. – Harabeck Jul 23 at 21:51
  • Just want to do an extra shout out to Harabeck for absolutely nailing what was a slightly ineffable question. Well done. – SeeDerekEngineer Jul 23 at 22:23

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