Razer's Ariana Projection Concept Takes Gaming Beyond the TV

LAS VEGAS-Monitors and TVs keep getting bigger, but not fast enough for Razer. Not content with limiting games to LCD screens, the company today showed off its Project Ariana technical concept at CES, which pushes games past the TV, using a projection system to flood your entire wall with whatever you're playing.

In a demo here, I saw Shadow Warrior 2 played on a TV and a projector at the same eye-blasting time. A few minutes of live Shadow Warrior 2 gameplay displayed on a 4K TV, while a prototype projector expanded the picture to fill the entire wall upon which the TV was mounted.

The effect was surreal, and certainly immersive. The important details of the game, including all of the interface elements, stayed on the TV, which remains the clear center of attention. Outside of that crisp window of gameplay, however, the rest of the game world was blazing. The garish neon lights of Shadow Warrior 2 burned across the wall, and flanking enemies could be clearly seen around the boundary of the TV.

It certainly filled up my field of view, but in the short time I saw it in action I couldn't tell if Project Ariana was enhancing the game or just making it more chaotic. The projected image was notably softer than the TV, creating a jarring contrast between the two displays. The projections on the wall helped me see threats beyond what the TV showed, but it created a lot of distracting movement in my peripheral vision. Though to be fair, I wasn't the one playing the game during the demo, and the experience might be different when you're actually in control in the middle of the light show.

Project Ariana pushed a 4K picture to the wall, split between the TV and the projector. The projector and TV are both 4K, but the TV only displays a 720p image while the projector blasted out the remaining pixels the connected computer was processing, automatically blocking out the center of the projection to keep the TV from getting swallowed by projector glare. While it still looked crisp from a couchbound position, a 720p resolution limit for the screen you'll be focusing most of your attention on seems to be a problematic limit.

This was clearly a proof of concept from Razer, but it was eye-catching if nothing else. Razer even showed off a mockup of a sleek, white projector mounted on the ceiling of the room, though the actual projector used was a larger, chunkier black box built into the big PC running everything.

Project Ariana won't hit homes any time soon, but Razer hopes to see some form of consumer version out by the end of the year. In the meantime, it's a pretty impressive light show that might or might not actually enhance the gaming experience. We'll see as Razer develops the idea more.

Razer is all about intriguing concepts here at CES. Earlier today, it showed off Project Valerie (video below), a gaming laptop with three 4K displays.

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.