Star Trek is a popular sci-fi series, so making visual effects for one of the biggest franchises of all time can be quite a challenge for the development team. This week Cryptic sent us a new ...

Star Trek is a popular sci-fi series, so making visual effects for one of the biggest franchises of all time can be quite a challenge for the development team. This week Cryptic sent us a new developer diary by VFX Lead Michael Cavallaro discussing what challenges the team faced in creating the stunning visuals for Star Trek Online. Along with the diary, the team also sent over the latest batch of screenshots for the game.

There are many occasions where we need to create an effect for an old IP element, and the only reference we have is from TOS Star Trek. We all know the budget they had for visual effects back then was small, so ours has to look better, but fans still know and love the original. Our job is to modernize the look but still keep the original feel so fans will immediately recognize the IP and be impressed by the updated look.

• Read the full diary here.