What form does shields take in the SW universe? I've never really found a clear cut answer to that question. Frankly, I don't remember seeing much in the form of shielding in any SW movies or games. They talk about it, but I don't remember any visual representation of it. In Stargate series, the shields form a bubble like shape around the ship with uniform strength throughout, and nothing, physical or energy weapons can get through. But In the star Wars universe, assuming my memory serves, weapons can get fairly close to shielded objects. and in EAW, shields actually have no effect on explosive weapons. Which leads me to guess that in SW universe, the shields take the shape of the object with a given distance from it, closer on a Tie than SD? So, anyone know...?

my belief has always been that the shields formed an energy 'skin' on the vessel. it was millimeters above the solid surface and would repel energy weapons.

Thanks guys that cleared things up.

Here's what I've gotten from the books (X-Wing series and various stand alone SW books with good space combat.):

Particle shields: Necessary on all spacecraft, to defend against dust and other small debris in space. Military grade particle shields provide extra protection in order to defend against shrapnel, larger debris, and the occasionaly ballistic weaponry.

Energy Shields: Not strictly necessary, but they help defend against energy based attacks such as laser cannon bursts, ion cannon bursts, and EMP weapons.

From what I've read, particle shields tend to be limited to one shield generator that more or less covers the ship equally on all sides. However, they can/may be more like energy shields, which have emitters scattered over the surface of the ship. Energy shields' power can be redirected and changed by controlling the amount of energy poured into individual emitters.

I'm with Driver in the opinion that they cover ships like a skin, close over the surface...at least on most small craft. Larger ships, like SDs, have them further out. There are instances of starfighters flying between SDs and their shields, so at least Imperial craft work that way.

/geek-out

-Drac