Maincast and Ventuz are transforming esports broadcasting

Maincast is a leading European company specialized in esports content production and live broadcasting of DOTA 2 (Defense of the Ancients 2), Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, FIFA, Overwatch and other competitive games. Maincast is the official ESL representative in Eastern Europe and obtain exclusive media rights for over 75% of top-tier events in DOTA 2 and CS:GO.

Recently Maincast faced the need to update their overlay system entirely. The requirements were as follows: 3D space, support of various data transfer protocols for receiving and parsing in-game statistics, ease of creating motion graphics for the overlay, as well as the ability to customize an overlay system controller.

Unreal Engine is one of the most popular game engines in the world, which has proven its potential far beyond the video gaming industry. Thus, Maincast wanted to try and rebuild their in-house products, using UE, and it was a real surprise for them how quickly one can create a truly eye-catching environment. Furthermore, these tools were easy to learn, contain a vast collection of assets for creating content, and were convenient for both artists and developers.

While Unreal Engine is a powerful real-time solution, it didn’t meet all of the requirements for this deployment. Therefore, the Maincast team came to the conclusion that it would be great to use Unreal Engine for creating 3D environments, while the overlay system and its controls should be implemented via third-party software.

In the fall of 2020 Maincast joined the Ventuz beta testing program, and began working with the Engine to Engine integration development created by Ventuz.Even though it was an early alpha build, Maincast artists and developers were extremely satisfied with its performance.