AI features in this MSI monitor can give you an (unfair?) advantage in League of Legends

[midian182]

WTF?! We've seen monitors with AI features before, but these are usually related to the hardware. The MSI MEG 321URX QD-OLED's use of artificial intelligence extends to the games you play on it, apparently allowing people to 'cheat' in League of Legends.

The MSI MEG 321URX QD-OLED has plenty of appealing features. The 32-inch monitor features a 4K 240Hz QD-OLED panel and promises 1,000 nits brightness for HDR content, DisplayHDR True Black 400 certification, a 1,500,000:1 contrast ratio, and a 0.03ms grey-to-grey response time. It also has VESA ClearMR 13000 anti-blur certification, a measure of motion blur performance based on the ratio of clear pixels versus blurry pixels.

Another feature of the monitor is its inclusion of SkySight. As highlighted by Tom's Hardware, one of the many things this AI accelerator tech can do is give League of Legends players an advantage.

MSI says SkySight can analyze the MOBA's on-screen mini-map to detect which direction the enemies are approaching from and put an icon on the screen to show where they're going to appear.

Players can simply look at the mini-map, of course, but in the heat of a frantic LoL game, taking your eyes away from the action for just a second can give opponents the upper hand.

Another cool League of Legends integration is how the monitor can replicate your health bar along its RGB light bar at the bottom of its bezel. It's similar to how some keyboards' RGB lights change color based on how much life a character has left.

It's not just League of Legends that makes use of the MEG 321URX's AI smarts. MSI will release an application that lets it identify health bars, enemies, and other on-screen elements in various games. While the PC will do the initial training, the monitor will do all the work after that point, which means these 'cheating' techniques, if they can be classified as such, are unlikely to be detected by opponents.

Looking at the MEG 321URX's other specs, it features DisplayPort 1.4 with DSC, two HDMI 2.1 ports, and USB-C with DP-Alt mode and 90W of power delivery, all supporting the full 4K resolution at up to 240Hz. There's also a built-in KVM switch.

The MSI MEG 321URX is presumably a variant of the MSI MPG 321URX (above), which we have an in-depth preview of right here. The two monitors share many of the same specs, though they look slightly different and the AI features appear exclusive to the MEG version.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/101452-ai-features-msi-new-monitor-give-you-unfair.html

 

[Dreadcthulhu]

I don't play league, but that sounds like a clever little feature; I wonder what other monitor overlays companies could come up with to aid with games. I have a monitor that does a simple cross hair overlay on the center of the screen; handy for no-scope shooting in certain FPS games.

Edit: just thought of an idea that might work - some games have a features intended for the hearing impaired, that put small symbols on the screen that correlate with sounds in the game (I.e. will show foot prints on the left side, if someone is walking behind the wall to your left). I have found this can be really helpful in noticing other players, even without any hearing impairment. If you piped the sound signal to the monitor along with the video, perhaps an overlay could duplicate that feature for games that do not have a hearing impaired mode. Would be great for deaf gamers, and helpful to a lot of non-deaf ones.

 

[texasrattler]

It's 100% cheating if you gain ANY advantage over another player. In this case are, hard to say. If the monitor becomes mainstream or some high profile streamer is seen using it that's when the real debate will happen.

Razer has software that can use a macro. That is considered cheating by most online games.

 

[Sodalitas]

With some pixel peeping, I noticed that the MEG 321URX actually has DisplayPort 2.1 listed on the product info card next to the monitor. Given that the MEG range represents the most premium products in MSI's product stack (most premium MEG > MPG > MAG least premium), could it be that MSI have reserved DP 2.1 for their most premium MEG monitor, and left DP 1.4a on the MPG and below? Or is DP 2.1 on the MEG 321URX simply a typo?

 

[Mr Majestyk]

Can the game detect what sort of monitor you are using or the presence of AI monitoring. I hope so and the ban hammer drops.

 

[Think123]

It's 100% cheating if you gain ANY advantage over another player. In this case are, hard to say. If the monitor becomes mainstream or some high profile streamer is seen using it that's when the real debate will happen.

Razer has software that can use a macro. That is considered cheating by most online games.

Of course it is not cheating if you gain some advantage. Better hardware always gives you an advantage, so by your logic, anyone not playing with a potato is cheating.

Besides, there is zero they can do about it, as the monitor does it on the fly, based on what pixels appear in the monitor, independently of the operating system.

Macros are an integral part of gaming, especially MMOs. It is not cheating. It's just people who don't know how to use macros, or fail to gain advantage from using macros, who are salty.

The future is in AI powered monitors that users customize as they see fit. Some people will first consider it cheating, but seeing that they can do nothing about it, they, too, will join the bandwagon.

 

[EnTaroTzula]

Of course it is not cheating if you gain some advantage. Better hardware always gives you an advantage, so by your logic, anyone not playing with a potato is cheating.

Besides, there is zero they can do about it, as the monitor does it on the fly, based on what pixels appear in the monitor, independently of the operating system.

Macros are an integral part of gaming, especially MMOs. It is not cheating. It's just people who don't know how to use macros, or fail to gain advantage from using macros, who are salty.

The future is in AI powered monitors that users customize as they see fit. Some people will first consider it cheating, but seeing that they can do nothing about it, they, too, will join the bandwagon.

yeah I agree here its not cheating.

 

[texasrattler]

Of course it is not cheating if you gain some advantage. Better hardware always gives you an advantage, so by your logic, anyone not playing with a potato is cheating.

Besides, there is zero they can do about it, as the monitor does it on the fly, based on what pixels appear in the monitor, independently of the operating system.

Macros are an integral part of gaming, especially MMOs. It is not cheating. It's just people who don't know how to use macros, or fail to gain advantage from using macros, who are salty.

The future is in AI powered monitors that users customize as they see fit. Some people will first consider it cheating, but seeing that they can do nothing about it, they, too, will join the bandwagon.

Gaining any advantage over another player in any online game is written in ALL ToS of every game. Everyone agrees to it when playing games online.
Macros are classed as cheating as you can combine one button to do several things. Which isn't allowed in most games. If software or hardware gives you a advantage over another player, yes that is considered cheating. Example for hardware would be like using a cronus, xim etc... For software would be like a macro, unlocking tool, then there is the cheat providers, Engine Owning, who provide you with all kinds of various tools to cheat. This is just some of the known ways to cheat, likely is a ton of other ways to cheat in games. New ways will come up and developers will decide on if it's cheating. Maybe AI is legit, maybe it's not. We will see how that goes in the future.

Doesn't matter what a person thinks is or isn't cheating. It's literally written in the ToS and/or on a games website. It's been apart of gaming forever. Now, how it all get implemented or if someone is banned is a whole other story.