What changed
1 fix1 addition4 changes0 removals
- Events
- UI and audio
- Gameplay
- Fixes
changedWelcome back to Between the Lanes, a blog feature where we let members of our development team walk through some of the challenges, bugfixes, and occasional happy accidents we encounter while working on a game as unique as Dota, and an event as unique as The International.
changedThe International is an unbelievably huge endeavor, watched by millions of people around the world. It’s easy to forget that the first ever TI was a modest, honestly pretty unrecognizable event held at Gamescom 2011 in Cologne, Germany, and took place in a trade show booth. In honor of TI’s humble beginnings, we decided to dedicate this installment of Between the Lanes to an often forgotten, rarely celebrated (and occasionally very poorly ventilated) piece of equipment that’s been with us since the very beginning, and ever since (except last year): the soundproof booth.
changedFrom TI1, we knew we’d need booths with sufficient insulation so the players wouldn't overhear anything from the crowd or casters that’d give them an unfair advantage during the match. Back then, that was the only requirement of the soundproof booths: They needed to be soundproof. And because the first TI was so small, there wasn’t that much audio slamming the booth at any given time. But those early booths fulfilled their one requirement: none of the pros could hear anything. Of course, they failed utterly in every other area, which meant that, by the time future TIs rolled around, we needed them to do a lot more.
addedAnother new requirement we’d never considered: Reflection. The very original booths were rectangular pods that abutted each other, face-to-face. The glass surfaces were flat on the front and the back. So when players were sitting in the playing position, their screens would reflect off of the glass behind them, and the opponent directly opposite them could pretty clearly see the reflection of their screen. We discovered that problem very quickly. Our immediate high tech solution: tape a bunch of promotional T-shirts to the glass between the players to block the reflections.
fixedGoing forward into the next decade of TIs, we abandoned the T-Shirt solution and fixed the problem with booth design and positioning.
changedBy the time TI5 rolled around, and with no false modesty, we’d gotten pretty good at the basics. Sound-dampening: check. Better lighting: check. Ventilation: check. Pink noise
Dota 2 changes
changedWelcome back to Between the Lanes, a blog feature where we let members of our development team walk through some of the challenges, bugfixes, and occasional happy accidents we encounter while working on a game as unique as Dota, and an event as unique as The International.
changedThe International is an unbelievably huge endeavor, watched by millions of people around the world. It’s easy to forget that the first ever TI was a modest, honestly pretty unrecognizable event held at Gamescom 2011 in Cologne, Germany, and took place in a trade show booth. In honor of TI’s humble beginnings, we decided to dedicate this installment of Between the Lanes to an often forgotten, rarely celebrated (and occasionally very poorly ventilated) piece of equipment that’s been with us since the very beginning, and ever since (except last year): the soundproof booth.
changedFrom TI1, we knew we’d need booths with sufficient insulation so the players wouldn't overhear anything from the crowd or casters that’d give them an unfair advantage during the match. Back then, that was the only requirement of the soundproof booths: They needed to be soundproof. And because the first TI was so small, there wasn’t that much audio slamming the booth at any given time. But those early booths fulfilled their one requirement: none of the pros could hear anything. Of course, they failed utterly in every other area, which meant that, by the time future TIs rolled around, we needed them to do a lot more.
addedAnother new requirement we’d never considered: Reflection. The very original booths were rectangular pods that abutted each other, face-to-face. The glass surfaces were flat on the front and the back. So when players were sitting in the playing position, their screens would reflect off of the glass behind them, and the opponent directly opposite them could pretty clearly see the reflection of their screen. We discovered that problem very quickly. Our immediate high tech solution: tape a bunch of promotional T-shirts to the glass between the players to block the reflections.
fixedGoing forward into the next decade of TIs, we abandoned the T-Shirt solution and fixed the problem with booth design and positioning.
Welcome back to Between the Lanes, a blog feature where we let members of our development team walk through some of the challenges, bugfixes, and occasional happy accidents we encounter while working on a game as unique as Dota, and an event as unique as The International.
The International is an unbelievably huge endeavor, watched by millions of people around the world. It’s easy to forget that the first ever TI was a modest, honestly pretty unrecognizable event held at Gamescom 2011 in Cologne, Germany, and took place in a trade show booth. In honor of TI’s humble beginnings, we decided to dedicate this installment of Between the Lanes to an often forgotten, rarely celebrated (and occasionally very poorly ventilated) piece of equipment that’s been with us since the very beginning, and ever since (except last year): the soundproof booth.
From TI1, we knew we’d need booths with sufficient insulation so the players wouldn't overhear anything from the crowd or casters that’d give them an unfair advantage during the match. Back then, that was the only requirement of the soundproof booths: They needed to be soundproof. And because the first TI was so small, there wasn’t that much audio slamming the booth at any given time. But those early booths fulfilled their one requirement: none of the pros could hear anything. Of course, they failed utterly in every other area, which meant that, by the time future TIs rolled around, we needed them to do a lot more.
The first TI was a real learning experience in general for us. The desks the pros were playing on ended up being too narrow and too high. So the players had to sit on stools with their elbows hanging off the edge of the desk, which it turns out is just about the worst way to play DOTA. We also had these enormous PCs that Nvidia had lent us, and we’d placed them into a series of cabinets under the players. These cabinets, it turned out, were unventilated. The Nvidia PCs ran unventilated for seven days straight. It was so hot in those cabinets, when you opened the doors you could smell the insulation on the wires melting. Amazingly, they never stopped working all week. (It's entirely possible the only reason they didn't overheat was because one of the players accidentally spilled some ice water into the cabinets.)
So now we had a second booth requirement for subsequent TIs: Air conditioning. It turned out that five PCs, five monitors, five humans and various lighting rigs, all sealed in an insulated unventilated box, generates a LOT of heat. Being able to reduce that heat was both essential and non-trivial.
Another new requirement we’d never considered
Reflection. The very original booths were rectangular pods that abutted each other, face-to-face. The glass surfaces were flat on the front and the back. So when players were sitting in the playing position, their screens would reflect off of the glass behind them, and the opponent directly opposite them could pretty clearly see the reflection of their screen. We discovered that problem very quickly.
Our immediate high tech solution
tape a bunch of promotional T-shirts to the glass between the players to block the reflections.
Going forward into the next decade of TIs, we abandoned the T-Shirt solution and fixed the problem with booth design and positioning.
By the time TI5 rolled around, and with no false modesty, we’d gotten pretty good at the basics.
Sound-dampening
check.
Better lighting
check.
Ventilation
check. Pink noise
