Last week Apple released its highly anticipated Vision Pro “Spatial Computing” AR/VR headset and there is already a way for you to explore the Star Trek universe with it thanks to the Roddenberry Entertainment.
The Archive arrives with Vision Pro
Roddenberry Entertainment first began working on a virtual archive of Star Trek content back in 2018 which eventually became the “Roddenberry Archive” which was previewed as a web portal last spring with over 4 million visitors in just 3 weeks. Now Roddenberry and their technology partner OTOY along with Paramount Game Studios have launched “The Archive” for the Apple Vision Pro, available now in the App Store.
Here is how they describe it…
The new Archive app immerses fans in nearly 2-hours of Star Trek spatial experiences built exclusively for Apple Vision Pro, allowing them to explore hundreds of fully realized locations, artifacts and unique items – spanning every Star Trek TV show and film across the franchise’s nearly 60-year history. With only gaze and touch, Apple Vision Pro users can transport themselves instantly through gorgeous immersive 3D environments traversing between different eras of Star Trek from The Cage pilot to Star Trek: Lower Decks. They can inspect each item on Captain Kirk’s shelf, take a seat at Quark’s bar on the Deep Space Nine Promenade, or launch a shuttle from the U.S.S. Enterprise-D’s hangar bay. With Apple SharePlay, a visit through the world of Star Trek can also become a shared social experience that can be live streamed with friends and family over FaceTime.
This walkthrough gives you an idea of The Archive experience…
“Through our multi-decade collaboration with OTOY, we have been working to push the frontiers of immersive technology to fulfill my father’s legacy, creative intent, and ideas in ways that can be experienced today and by generations yet to come.” said Eugene Roddenberry, President of Roddenberry Entertainment. “The Roddenberry Archive, as an immersive experience on Apple Vision Pro, is a remarkable milestone in realizing my father’s vision for the Holodeck. This release also fulfills one of my mother’s greatest wishes. She recorded her phenoms in 2008 before her passing, to have her voice live on in posterity. It is deeply moving for me to be able to have her voice now narrate portions of the archive” added Roddenberry. “I am also pleased that the archive can bring to life both published and unrealized influential narrative works from Star Trek’s rich literary history, covering my father’s one and only Star Trek novel for Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979 through the decades of books and comics that subsequently followed.”
Screenshot from The Archive (OTOY)
With The Archive there are several downloadable holographic Star Trek objects that users can place in their home environment using the augmented reality functions of the Apple Vision Pro. The various models can be “shrunk or expanded from life-size to dollhouse scales while rendering at a fidelity and quiescence never before possible on consumer hardware.”
Here is an example of the USS Enterprise D model…
“Today’s release of the Archive app for Apple Vision Pro marks a major step towards realizing Gene Roddenberry’s Holodeck” said CEO of OTOY, Jules Urbach. “Through Apple’s breakthrough Vision Pro spatial computing platform, we can bring audiences back in time as if they were there on set during the making of Star Trek for the first time, with full visual immersion and historical accuracy” added Urbach.
These two short videos show off OTOY’s technology at work with The Archive…
The Archive also includes concept videos and documentary films from recent Roddenberry Archive releases remastered specifically for Apple Vision Pro. These include previews of the unabridged interviews with George Lucas and Stan Lee exploring Gene Roddenberry’s influence on Star Wars and Marvel.
Screenshot from The Archive (OTOY)
The Archive’s latest release of navigable spatial content can also be viewed as a live 2D stream on the web at roddenbery.x.io. For a limited time, the complete experience is available for free on both the web and Apple Vision Pro. Later this year, OTOY and Paramount will offer users unlimited viewing time and a-la-carte access to all current and future immersive Star Trek 3D experiences released through The Archive.
Apple Vision Pro
The Apple Vision Pro is available now, starting at $3499.
