I was hoping to get into shaders a bit to do the shields but I went with a sprite approach. I simply draw 50+ sprites in a circle around the planet. It works, and I can control their vertical size to reflect the shield capacity. Worked like a charm.

I'm Ryan, a 30-something engineer. This is my blog about my geekdom, my family and my life. Come with me on my journey to becoming a game developer and other nerdy endeavors.