November 1, 2026
Every so often Star Trek Online gives us something that makes a long-time player stop and say, "Wait, they're doing what?" This time it was graphics. On October 22, alongside this year's Fall of the Old Ones event, Cryptic rolled out a batch of new graphical features on PC for players to try. This is a first look at what's new, based on Cryptic's announcement, its before and after screenshots, and my own time with them.
The first thing I liked was how Cryptic handled the rollout. The features launched in an experimental state, which meant they were opt-in and turned off by default. If you left them off, you wouldn't notice any difference. Some of them also only showed up on maps that had been updated to use them, so there was no need to panic if a particular map looked the same.
They debuted on PC, and Cryptic said some may come to console once they're confident in their stability.
To turn them on, I opened the Options menu, headed to the Advanced tab, and scrolled down to the Experimental section. From there I picked the features I wanted. The menu itself included a note that these were early previews that hadn't been fully optimized or tested, so I went in with the right expectations.
I always say everything in STO comes in threes. This time we got more than that.
Volumetric Lighting: Adds sun rays, light shafts, and lit fog when there are particles in the air. Castle Pyris maps.
Parallax Occlusion Mapping: Changes how textures are sampled so flat surfaces look like they have real depth, on select materials. Castle Pyris maps.
Space Soft Shadows: Gives shadows softer, more natural edges. Most space maps.
Foot to Ground IK: Adjusts humanoid animation so feet land on the actual ground. Most ground maps.
Screen Space Reflections: Adds real-time reflections in some situations. Most ground maps.
Volumetric Cloud: Adds 3D clouds that catch sunlight and change with the weather. Listed as coming soon.
Volumetric Cloud Shadow: Lets those clouds cast shadows on the ground; requires Volumetric Cloud. Listed as coming soon.
Cryptic included before and after screenshots for five of these, so I had a little to go on.
Castle Pyris. Cryptic said it updated all the Castle Pyris maps to use several of these features, and Volumetric Lighting was the star. In the screenshot, a plain castle hall turned into one with a beam of light pouring through the window and a warm haze hanging in the air. That was exactly the kind of mood a Halloween-season event needed. Parallax Occlusion Mapping looked much more subtle in its stone wall comparison, but depth on bricks was probably something you'd feel more when moving past them.
Foot to Ground IK. It was a small detail, but I'm a sucker for those. It reminded me of Ezri standing with her hands behind her back in Kings & Queens. The screenshot showed a group of characters standing on a staircase, which was exactly where feet meeting the ground mattered. Since it covered most ground maps, it was something we'd see a lot. I tested it by walking up the stairs in Earth Space Dock (ESD), and it looked great.
Space Soft Shadows. I spend a lot of my time in space, and this one got plenty of use on my Escort. The ship comparison in Cryptic's screenshots was subtle, which fit with my overall take below.
Reflections. The water reflecting a building in the Screen Space Reflections screenshots was the easiest difference to spot of the bunch. Cryptic said they only worked "in some circumstances," so they wouldn't show up everywhere. I saw the reflections in the water at Starfleet Academy, which looked amazing.
Clouds. Volumetric Cloud and Volumetric Cloud Shadow were both marked as coming soon, which felt like a bit of a tease. Clouds that catch the sun and change with the weather sounded fantastic, and shadows from those clouds on the ground could make maps feel much more alive. Funny enough, both already had a spot in the Experimental menu.
I tried them for myself, and here's my honest take. If you just enabled them and kept playing, you barely noticed. It was when you toggled them on and off that the difference showed up. I loved them anyway. The changes were minor, but they made the game feel more complete.
Which maps get updated next? Cryptic expects to update other maps down the road and build them into new maps going forward, and I'd love to see some older favorites get the treatment.
When do the clouds arrive, and which of these will make it to console?
This was a nice way to keep a game that launched in 2010 looking fresh, and the opt-in approach let everyone decide how much they wanted to push their system. If you try them out, my advice is to toggle them on and off one at a time so you can see what each one does. Cryptic was also asking for feedback on the official Discord, so if you find something interesting, let them know.
I kept the features on. See you out there, Captains.