Perfect World's Star Trek Online is still going strong, and as a way to help promote the latest expansion for the game, the publisher brought on the cast and crew from the original Deep Space Nine television show to get a glimpse at what the DS9 station looks like in the MMO.
The six-minute video was posted up to the official _Star Trek Online _YouTube channel. The video features J.G. Hertzler, who played Klingon General Martok on the show, along with Chase Masterson, who played Leeta on the original series. They're also joined by Max Grodenchik, who played Rom.
The actors were given a tour of the DS9 station as they were coming in to provide voiceovers for the Star Trek Online expansion called Victory is Life.
The tour was given to them by environment artist Nick Duguid. Grodenchik and Masterson were both amazed at the level of detail that the artists put into the game, bringing the space station from Deep Space Nine to life. In fact, Masterson remarked often how phenomenal it all looked, while Grodenchik was able to quickly rekindle fond memories of moving through the corridors of the main promenade. Grodenchik also praised the advancements in today's technology, which allowed the art team to bring the fan-favorite space station into the world of Star Trek Online.
Initially, the team had a rough design of how the station looked, along with the various interiors that would appear in the expansion pack. Grodenchik was curious how they were able to get such a detailed representation of the interior of the space station, and Duguid explained that there are blueprints for all the major sets that were used in Deep Space Nine. This allowed the art team to properly map out the geometry of the space for the rooms, and ensure that everything appears in-game as it appeared on the sci-fi television show from 20 years ago.
Duguid goes just a bit further in his explanation, detailing that they managed to get printouts of the blueprints for the level designers to work from, and thanks to help from Paramount Pictures, they were also able to gain access to maps of the ship that contains all the detailed dimensions for every room in the station. This was what allowed the level design team to properly map the height, width, and breadth of the rooms to their exact dimensions on how it all appeared in the television show.
One the other neat things about the tour with the cast, is that while they were all excited to see the sets come to life in the 3D MMO, they were also impressed with the fact that the team had built out the entire circular promenade and causeway for the space station, even the parts that originally weren't built into the sets.
All of the actors had high praise for the development team for making the in-game interior look exactly like the way it did on the show from 20 years ago. A lot of fans are also excited to finally get their hands on the upcoming Victory is Life expansion when it finally goes live for Star Trek Online.
