World’s Largest Video Game Screen – Record Breaking Show at the Tropicana in Las Vegas

L&F was tapped for a collaboration with a creative agency based in Los Angeles that specializes in the development and production of content and events specifically for the gaming industry. This collaboration brought together technology, artistry, and ample creativity to crush the record for the world’s largest video game screen at this projection mapping event. Attendees were left saying, “Go big, or go home!” after the awe-inspiring display that featured the largest projected videogame display projected onto the façade of the Tropicana Resort in Las Vegas just beyond The Strip. This massive installation covered more than 68,000 square feet and illuminated the resort with more than 1,140,000 lumens of light during its debut on a star-studded one-night event extravaganza

The L&F team used a large number of Barco projectors to span the façade of the Tropicana. This is a massive installation that required 38 projectors, and quite a few spares on hand (a total of 50 units), to seamlessly blend, warp, and map the desired content for our clients. We used Barco’s E2 Switcher System to capture the content from the broadcast and distribute the signal to the array of projectors. The E2 offered us the ability to capture and coordinate the mapping regions. The fine tuning was done with Barco’s Projector Toolset, which was very meticulous but also a very stable and secure method of mapping onto the Tropicana Resort.

The sheer scale of any projection mapping project can be awe-inspiring, but the colossal projection mapping that L&F did along the Vegas skyline was nothing short of spectacular. Fans watched the 3D animated record-breaking projection mapping video game display as it lit up the resort with special effects that brought together the building’s architecture and a mix of vibrant colors and texture in a dazzling synergy.

The content featured a video game that athletes and celebrities on hand could play as a multiplayer game. The creative designers at L&F were entrusted with executing the gaming imagery and live feeding the content so that the game could be played in real-time. The team had to work long evening shifts to achieve the grand scale of the game as well as set a record-breaking attempt for the world’s largest video game display. We achieved all those project goals and are really pleased by the stunning results.

The L&F team worked diligently to beat a previously held record set only a year earlier. Their efforts paid off on February 1st 2022, as their attempt was made, surveyed, recorded, and awarded successfully as the world’s largest video game screen. By adding an extra 5 feet to extend the top of the Tropicana’s Club Tower and wrapping the corners as well, our team was able to break the record by more than 8,000 square feet. The new record for the colossal video game display was recorded as 47,397 square feet with a native aspect ratio of 16:9. This successful attempt was recorded live and streamed out to tens of thousands of viewers across the globe as the L&F team digitally painted the Tropicana with an extravagant light show that dazzled the audience.

The popularity of projection mapping buildings, interior spaces, and objects is nothing new. Almost any surface can be masked with visuals to transform a space into an illusion of fantasy.

A project like this requires extremely precise content mapping and measurements and should always be approached by a professional service. If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to accurately map all angles and nuances of an object, like the Tropicana here, let us break it down a bit more. The L&F team took more than 700 photos during a site survey and used special software to stitch them together to create a 3D model of the building. This process is called photogrammetry and is a unique process L&F uses to seamlessly map the architecture of the object, in this case, the resort. This process allows them to treat the projection surface like a 3D canvas and allows for maximum artistry of the 4K content. It also allows them to review the content and enhance aspects to digitally paint the canvas with animations, movement, and brilliant colors.

Logistically, this project meant taking over a large part of the Tropicana’s parking lot to garner the necessary throw distance for the projections to work properly. Las Vegas is known for being the shiniest place on Earth, and for projection, we typically prefer it to be a bit darker. During our site surveys, we studied and took several light readings for just this purpose. The Tropicana is in a unique place just off the Strip, and that worked towards our benefit as the direction of the ambient Vegas lights were behind our canvas. That darkness helped us increase the contrast and helped with the light bleed that is typical of projection mapping projects. The Las Vegas Strip behind our canvas made for a cool effect with the bright LED lights as our backdrop in pictures and videos of the event.

L&F’s custom built FORGE ANVIL server was also used to assist in manipulating the content feed to adapt to the forced perspective of the building so that the content did not appear mismatched with the parallax effect of the different layers of the building’s architecture. Turning The Tropicana into a moving 3D canvas and transformative feature for the night is pure artistry and vision. The FORGE ANVIL tackled the content like a champ and made simple work of masking.