To fans of Star Trek, space will always be ‘the Final Frontier’, but I wouldn’t be so sure that VR can’t also make that claim. Enterprises, a project headed by indie dev William Palmer, shows off a 1:1 scale of eight different Enterprise Starships, spanning the Star Trek franchise from 1966 to present day.
There’s something satisfying about playing Captain Kirk and sitting in the conference room of the NCC-1701-A, the ship used in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), or on the hull of the NCC-1701-E where the TNG crew jettisons the main deflector dish in Star Trek: First Contact (1996) to prevent the Borg from calling in reinforcements.
And if you didn’t understand any of that, you can still enjoy the many intricate models which were designed to a 1:1 scale so you can see the enormity of each of the eight Enterprise ships in VR taken from the Star Trek franchise films and various television series.
As an experience, Enterprises shows off the exteriors (and some hidden interiors) of a number of ships to carry the name Enterprise which spans the series by In-Universe chronological order. By no means an exhaustive list, excluding some minor variations and one-off Enterprise ships, Enterprises stays true on design.
- NX-01 – Star Trek: Enterprise (2001)
- NCC-1701 – Star Trek: The Original Series (1966-1969)
- NCC-1701-A – Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
- NCC-1701-B – Star Trek: Generations (1994)
- NCC-1701-C – Next Generation episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise” (1990)
- NCC-1701-D – Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994)
- NCC-1701-E – Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
- NCC-1701JJ – Star Trek (2009)
The ships are faithfully reproduced, and seemingly match both fan and official blueprints available online which have driven enthusiasts to build their own Enterprise models, both in and outside of virtual spaces.
Palmer says that Enterprises, a demo made in Unity, “… is just a fun little project thrown together by a Star Trek fan,” but it’s easy to see where little projects can go when created by a group of fans that clearly know what they’re doing.
See Also: Star Trek Voyager VR is The first Indie Oculus Rift Demo to Use Unreal Engine 4 (Download)
Considering this is a demo put together by a few fans on their time off, you can only really complain so much. I would personally love to see more interiors and the removal of noclip mode so that I can get more into the ‘Trek’ vibe and drinking my Earl Grey, hot—but I guess there’s that whole beggars and choosers thing to take into account.
Enterprises also works on traditional monitors, so you can download and inspect all of your favorite Starship Enterprises without the need of a VR headset.
