It’s something Yu-Gi-Oh! fans have been dreaming of ever since they watched the anime as kids—being able to summon the monsters on cards in real life after playing a card in battle.
French Twitch streamer SuperZouloux turned that childhood dream into an awesome reality during his stream on Monday, Oct. 31, unveiling the result of an augmented reality project that took him seven months to complete.
SuperZouloux explained how the fascinating technology works in a YouTube video. “I managed to create a Yu-Gi-Oh! connected mat that recognizes all the cards I put on the mat and is connected to several applications that are directly linked to the live event.”
“Everything works live, without any technicians, and it allows me to do several things,” he added.
“One: To display 3D models that come out of my cards, to be able to attack and shout like a donkey and see the monster attack. Two: It allows me to have an assistant director. Every time I put a card down, the card is displayed in the upper right corner. If it has a 3D model, the 3D model comes out of the card. And finally… it handles the live production automatically.”
What he means by the third point is that, when a Yu-Gi-Oh! card is placed on the proper mat, it changes the scene to show the monster coming out of the card, and then once it’s out, it switches back to show the entire board.
“This allows me to have a mat that at the same time, displays cards in 2D for you to see, at the same time summons monsters in 3D, and manages my stream software, making the production for me,” he added.
SuperZouloux created the AR models of the monsters on software that uses the Unreal Engine. As for the mat, he said two other YouTubers, Sutivu and Neodymium, helped him make it.
Considering how difficult it is to set up, SuperZouloux is only planning to stream AR battles once a month. But he and other Yu-Gi-Oh! fans hope it becomes more accessible.
