How Wright used Mendel Mandal Ryan’s tech to create the world’s amazing mixed reality stage

After the Korean team won a tough fight over General G, all five members of Europe’s G2 Esports stood on the shores of a clear, sparkling lake to take a bow and celebrate their victory. The two members then picked up their star companion, Rams “Caps” Boreguard Winter, and held him over the water, as if he had thrown him overboard. That’s a good thing they didn’t do – no matter how real the water the viewer could see, it was nothing but pixels.

Annual League of Legends The World Championships are currently underway in Shanghai, and like most major events, our new epidemic-dominated reality has to be re-imagined to make it possible. In particular, the opening phase of the tournament is a one-way street, with different rounds taking place in different cities. In 2020, things had to change.

Travel is prohibited and fans will no longer be able to participate in the match, it is the team League Developer Riot tried something different. They built a set of giant LED screens in the same technology setup as Disney did. The MandlorianNo scientific landscapes. It is used for shocking effect. Matching looks like they happened in a cloudy, cyberpunk Shanghai skyline or between a flooded landscape. In the absence of fans something that could have been a vague contest has turned into perhaps the most influential world in recent memory.

“There are some days when we come on set and say, ‘Wait, I don’t think this has ever happened before.’ “After a while you’ll get used to it,” says Michael Fig, creative director of Potential Productions, who partnered with Riot on the occasion.

This achievement is even more impressive when you consider a compressed schedule. Typically, the riots and potential producers have spent more on one-year planning for the worlds, but this year it was not possible. The decision to use this technology in the studio without fans was not made until May.

The setup is a powerhouse, and Riot says the LED screens – there are more than 900 LED tiles in total – display at 32K resolution and 60 seconds per second. Those scenes were created using a modified version of the Unreal Engine, and in total, the team is made up of 40 artists and technicians. Nick Troupe, executive producer of Worlds 2020 at Riot, described it as “an effective infinite power to unleash a creative tool that fuels our collective imagination.” And he says one of the most important components of the whole setup is that the things that are shot are powered by four special cross-reality cameras.

“Instead of staying in the perspective of the explained camera, we actually run two together, effectively all the time,” he explains. This allows the broadcast team to operate in a more traditional way; They can switch between two simulated perspectives at will, using four cameras, to shoot action on set. “It means what the broadcast team can do to them that sounds like a‘ normal television show, ’but this is in a curated, and beautiful range of atmosphere,’ Troop says.

For viewers watching on Twitch or YouTube, LED soundstage has transformed into a pervasive fantasy world with the help of AR technology used to enlarge images. You will still see players sitting at the desk and playing, but the area around them is very wide. In a nod to the current state of League of Legends, Where the four elemental dragons are of paramount importance in the game, each of the four early rounds of the Worlds was styled with a different element.

Initially, there were many broken rocks and mountains to represent the dragon of the earth; This was followed by a cloudy Shanghai skyline for air dragons; Afterwards, the mass was flooded with water that stretched forever. This weekend, during two semi-final games, things will turn to fire.

Especially when this technique has been used before The Mandlorian, This is the first time this has been done live. “Pretty much everyone [cross-reality] The expression that has been broadcast at this point is not alive, ”explains Possible Figs, whose company works on everything from the Super Bowl halftime show to the Justin Bieber concert. “It simply came to our notice then. It is dangerous to live. We have been doing live television on this stage for 10 hours a day. There is no other chance at it. “

One challenge was to balance the desire to make things look good without interfering with the players. Everyone on stage – teams, coaches and support staff – has a slightly different visual experience than the home audience, as the AR elements are only visible to the home audience. This turned out to be a matter of advantage for the broadcast team.

“When we play these games, it’s really important for the competitive integrity of the game for the players not to be able to see a jumbrotron or anything like that. It’s a really difficult design problem, “says Fig.” At this point, everything above a certain level of height on stage is completely virtual. It’s an augmented reality. So we have the game in the background and the players can’t see it. “

Photo: Riot games

That said, while the players don’t give the audience a full experience, it was still important to have a special stage. This is the World Championship, after all, some teams from around the world have been trying all year. Without the roar of the crowd to hype up players, the grandeur of vibrant fantasy backgrounds is a solid second option. They can’t see the stunt AR elements, but they can see the graphics on the screens around them. “It helps ground the player,” says Troop. “They can still make a sense [game] The world’s reaction, in a way that I think helps their world experience. There is a certain mindset that comes from being on stage, and we want to maintain that. “

For most of the year, the World’s technical showcase is reserved for the opening ceremony in the final. In the past, it has included an AR K-pop concert and a holographic hip-hop performance. It’s not yet clear what this year’s big show will look like (although it will include K-pop again), but you could argue that the early rounds already show thanks to this new technology. Each round also opens with its own mini-ceremony, featured by dance directions set in the fantasy realm; Performers jumped as the stone bridge crumbled and twisted around with magical spells. Despite the circumstances, the riot became surprisingly memorable, which may have been a low-key version of Worlds.

“It’s been more academic than disappointing,” says Troop of Experience so far.