Enterprise D Virtual Tour

[Mytran]

I mean, how often do they really even use the shuttles?

I imagine that off screen there's a lot of activity we don't see or hear about.

Someone coming or going. A new crew rotation happening.

It is the flagship.

True, but it still seems like a lot. I mean, it's a exploration ship overlooking a star or someother, it's not freaking O'Hare International Airport!

A shuttlebay this massive would be useful if the E-D were performing the role of "mobile starbase" or somesuch. Otherwise, staff transfer and resupply would probably be handled by the Transporter instead.

 

[JesterFace]

Massive shuttle bays may come handy if there is an emergency evacuation going on and transporters can't be used for some [enter trekbable] reason.

 

[Corran Horn]

I imagine that off screen there's a lot of activity we don't see or hear about.

Someone coming or going. A new crew rotation happening.

It is the flagship.

True, but it still seems like a lot. I mean, it's a exploration ship overlooking a star or someother, it's not freaking O'Hare International Airport!

A shuttlebay this massive would be useful if the E-D were performing the role of "mobile starbase" or somesuch. Otherwise, staff transfer and resupply would probably be handled by the Transporter instead.

I'm sure this is in the TNG tech manual somewhere--but certainly there are materials (and people) that are too volatile for transporter use.

Also, in cases of mass evacuation the shuttles would be used pretty often.

 

[tharpdevenport]

I'm sure this is in the TNG tech manual somewhere--but certainly there are materials (and people) that are too volatile for transporter use.

"The Most Toys" featured such a substance. It was so volatile that even shuttle transport was risky.

 

[Trekker4747]

This is sweet. What I wouldn't give for a new Trek game using this!

I'm totally getting an Oculus Rift if this happens.

You and me both.

Indeed. When (if) the complete ship is built I'm buying OR and this in a heartbeat. It'd be wicked fun and cool.

 

[Jedman67]

In the bridge head, next to the toilet there were (of course) the three sea shells.

I've seen this comment on facebook. What's so special about 3 sea shells?

 

[tharpdevenport]

In the bridge head, next to the toilet there were (of course) the three sea shells.

I've seen this comment on facebook. What's so special about 3 sea shells?

It's an in-joke to some weird and unexplained thing in another film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtXfz19_M4g (8:30 in)

Though I'd watch the whole review just so you know to avoid the film.

 

[sttngfan1701d]

God I hope this is completed and released. Or even released halfway complete. I would die geeking-out over this. If he releases another video, I'd love to see some recreational areas, the dolphin tanks, a science lab...

This is just beautiful. I'd pay full "game" price for this even if there's no "game" elements. Just to walk around the ship and do stuff.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Incredible. Four decks down, thirty-eight to go!

Mark

 

[Amaris]

It is fantastic. I loved seeing the main shuttlebay alone, but it was when he stepped onto the bridge that the fan squeeing didn't stop until it was over.

I have a feeling he will have no issue funding this project.

 

[Gaith]

​

Interesting; I've walked the inner loop of the Pentagon, so that's a cool size comparison. That's a big-ass ship.

As for the digital model project, I'm frankly surprised it's taken this long for fan builds of the TOS and TNG Enterprises, given the dedication of a certain subset of Trek and gaming fans, and the small but no doubt super-dedicated overlap between them. Has the problem been a wait for a rendering engine that can handle such a large project by selectively loading as it goes? I mean, I remember exploring Voyager in the Elite Force game well over a decade ago...

 

[Retu]

As for the digital model project, I'm frankly surprised it's taken this long for fan builds of the TOS and TNG Enterprises, given the dedication of a certain subset of Trek and gaming fans, and the small but no doubt super-dedicated overlap between them. Has the problem been a wait for a rendering engine that can handle such a large project by selectively loading as it goes? I mean, I remember exploring Voyager in the Elite Force game well over a decade ago...

I think the real reason is that, until recently, there haven't been any free development environments available for that sort of thing. All the development tools that were used to create games like Elite Force were, either for game studio's internal use only, or cost an arm and leg to get a license for it.

 

[Gaith]

^ Interesting; thanks. I guess the problem with using game mods was that they were tied to specific games, so unless it was a game absolutely everyone owned, like Half-Life, the environments would become obsolete as soon as the games were no longer played?

 

[Marc]

True, but it still seems like a lot. I mean, it's a exploration ship overlooking a star or someother, it's not freaking O'Hare International Airport!

A shuttlebay this massive would be useful if the E-D were performing the role of "mobile starbase" or somesuch. Otherwise, staff transfer and resupply would probably be handled by the Transporter instead.

I'm sure this is in the TNG tech manual somewhere--but certainly there are materials (and people) that are too volatile for transporter use.

Also, in cases of mass evacuation the shuttles would be used pretty often.

and when they aren't flying shuttles out of them, the bays become evac shelters (which iirc from the technical manual can also be set up for non-standard atmospheres).

 

[tharpdevenport]

In "Up the Long Ladder" they have refugees with some livesotck, held in Cargo Hold 7. According Memory Alpha, there were 223 beamed aboard.

It seems to me in an extreme emergency, like a planetary evacuation, if they forego rooms and have people stand next to each other and in the cargo bays, shuttle bays, and 10-Forward, the Enterprise could rescue a significant number of people, assuming they make immediately and speedy haste to the nearest Starbase or outpost or inhabitable planet.

 

[Retu]

In "Up the Long Ladder" they have refugees with some livesotck, held in Cargo Hold 7. According Memory Alpha, there were 223 beamed aboard.

It seems to me in an extreme emergency, like a planetary evacuation, if they forego rooms and have people stand next to each other and in the cargo bays, shuttle bays, and 10-Forward, the Enterprise could rescue a significant number of people, assuming they make immediately and speedy haste to the nearest Starbase or outpost or inhabitable planet.

I don't think the issue is actually the available space, but the capacity of the life support system. CO2 build up might become an issue sooner than running out of space would.

 

[Ember]

This is amazing. Very much along the lines of what I think Donny is trying to do as well.

Downside is there's no way the entire ship would be able to be rendered in full scale as one unit that's entirely traversable. You'd need the Enterprise computer itself to pull that off!

Not so, 3d environments often work with levels of detail. Whatever is far away is replaced by really low detail models. Depth of field blurring further masks this. You'd be fooled by the game/program to think the entire ship is rendered out, but what's out of sight is low detailed or gone. Quite literally smoke and mirrors, albeit digitally. Even with multiple players onboard, only the parts where they wander would be rendered and it'd be on their own PC, not the server, thus other players won't be impacted or hindered.

 

[Trekker4747]

In "Up the Long Ladder" they have refugees with some livesotck, held in Cargo Hold 7. According Memory Alpha, there were 223 beamed aboard.

It seems to me in an extreme emergency, like a planetary evacuation, if they forego rooms and have people stand next to each other and in the cargo bays, shuttle bays, and 10-Forward, the Enterprise could rescue a significant number of people, assuming they make immediately and speedy haste to the nearest Starbase or outpost or inhabitable planet.

I don't think the issue is actually the available space, but the capacity of the life support system. CO2 build up might become an issue sooner than running out of space would.

We're talking about a ship capable of generating untold amounts of power and has the ability to bend and manipulate space in a way that allows it to travel at 2000 times the speed of light. I think the CO2 scrubbers can handle it.


I never fully understood the "need" for there to be three shuttlebays. From a TV stand-point I understand "needing" a smaller shuttlebay that could be shown on screen (because there's no way they could have shown the main shuttlebay as a set and do it any kind of justice given how big it looks on the model alone) and to that extent the Stardrive/Battle section needing it's own shuttlebay for separated-flight mode, but why 3?

Was that much gained by having a medium-sized and a small shuttlebay right next to one another? Why not combine the two into one? Now, sure, this would bring us back to the problem of not being able to build a set on a TV-budget that'd do the shuttlebay justice, but I think the 2/3 combined bay could better "cheat" with than they could the Main Shuttlebay.

 

[Phantom]

So many bars. Who knew?

They were there in the earliest versions of the ship. The Sternbach plans have them, the even earlier Whitefire plans do too. Probert has mentioned the lounges/observation rooms many times in interviews.

Breathtaking - we only tramp through a part of the top 4 decks of the ship and it feels H_U_G_E!!!

The earlier poster was right about there being a lot of lounges - but then again, this is a ship of leisure, right?

Having lounges in more than one place makes sense on a ship that big. Keeping some close to operational areas cuts down on the "commute" between the main Residential/Recreational areas and work stations. "Two Forward" would be ideal for Bridge crew to take lunch, for example, while being less than a minute or two away from their duty stations should an emergency arise. The lounges in the shuttlebay would be for flight crews and shuttle maintenance crews when not working, and for any transient passengers/shuttlecrews that might be on board.

*Thousand* people. The ship only had 1,014 people on board. Never "thousands."

Order of magnitude. It's a lot of people who could benefit from a stairwell, instead of a turbolift with a maximum load of 5.

The normal complement was just over a thousand. The ship was designed to carry a much larger complement if needed (IIRC, the E-D "battleship" in "Yesterday's Enterprise had a crew of several thousand), and in an evacuation scenario the ship could hold even more. The designers built her (as they should have) keeping maximum complements in mind.

I like the stairs, too. While the ship may only have had 1,014 people, it has (as I see online and I also remembered this from elsewhere) a possible total limit of 3,000 people (say exvacuation from other ships, colonies, a planet). Cramming turbolifts and lying up transporters with 1,000 to 3,000 people depending on the situation, just isn't feasible.

Especially in situations where the ifts may go down or even deck/ship wide power failures.

See above about crew/complement sizes.

By the way, I seem to be a "bit late to the party", as it were...I've been promoting this vid in a couple of other sub-fora...

 

[Squiggy]

[
Having lounges in more than one place makes sense on a ship that big. Keeping some close to operational areas cuts down on the "commute" between the main Residential/Recreational areas and work stations. "Two Forward" would be ideal for Bridge crew to take lunch, for example, while being less than a minute or two away from their duty stations should an emergency arise. The lounges in the shuttlebay would be for flight crews and shuttle maintenance crews when not working, and for any transient passengers/shuttlecrews that might be on board.\

Oh, I agree. The D was too big for Ten Forward to be the only bar on the ship. It had seating for what...30 people?

And I knew there were other lounges/bars around - it's just funny that those were pretty much the only "extra" rooms featured in the video.