CCP Basement Ben has mentioned about changing the warp animation in one of the video dev blogs, but no one expected it was going to look this good. The warp tunnel has received a fractal kind of shader with two effects: a geometric displacement and chromatic distortion. It looks as if the space around the ship was like a liquid, constantly fluctuating and undulating while the ship is passing through. New effect has even more than that: if there is a solid body (planet or moon) on the way, the tunnel becomes dark while flying through.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft_MdVbnG9E]
The end result is simply jaw dropping, and could easily replace the tunnel effect in Stargate or Sliders. The new warp effect in EVE beats such well known sci-fi icons like Star Trek or Star Wars. Oh and by the way, the old-new engine trails which show when entering or exiting warp add even more spice to it. Very, very good job CCP!!
You can also notice the nearby star systems on the sky now, their light is dispersed by the warp tunnel, so they look more like red-to-violet streaks during faster-than-light travel.
See the new warp effect on YouTube.
Or see this one if you want to see how warping through a planet looks like.
