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What is your stance on AI assets in games?

Jubenhimer

Member
If an AI could produce a Super Mario Galaxy 3 that’s just as good as one Nintendo would be expected to produce I’d happily play it.
With a lot of devs jumping on the AI bandwagon lately (including Japanese devs), it'll be interesting to see if Nintendo is willing to use AI in development, if they aren't using it already. They have been historically known for priding itself on handcrafted work and we're somewhat resistant to emerging trends in the past (CDs, Online gaming, HD, Mobile).
 
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Jigsaah

Member
Kneejerk take, I feel AI in games will be made to seem as if it's necessary as a way for the industry to become sustainable again.

Please be aware that this is absolute bullshit. Elden Ring sold 20 million copies...that's in the neighborhood of 1.2 billion dollars in revenue, for one game split between the developer and platforms. At max, it cost like 150 million to make.

What will keep the industry sustainable are good ideas and quality games...not cost-cutting measures.

That being said, I am interested in seeing how AI is implemented in other ways. Generating NPC conversations in a realistic way. Creating 3d models.
 

LRKD

Member
I don't think it's as big deal as most people on social media make it out to be. I do kind of agree think in most cases it's 'wrong', but not like so wrong I'd boycott it or anything.

I just think unless you are a really small dev team, like <10 people, you shouldn't be using ai. Just hire someone or go take a photo or something. There are already so many alternatives like free assets, dirt-cheap assets, outsourcing to cheaper labor, that using ai seems entirely unnecessary and kinda sleezy.
 

R6Rider

Gold Member
Only game I've played with AI elements (too my knowledge and not counting procedural stuff) is The Finals.

They used AI for the voices and I hate it. Sound super generic and are annoying so I turned announcer dialogue off.
 

danklord

Gold Member
About the same level of thought I give accountants who use computers. Don't care, but I do appreciate handcrafted efforts more when I see them,
 
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Myths

Member
Makes sense if it’s more efficient, and we might start seeing artists work no differently than sites like SketchFab and cgtrader.
 

MiguelItUp

Member
As long as someone vets the quality, I don't really care personally. I feel like it wouldn't hurt to AI assets and then have people on teams to clean that up, add more flair, etc. to make it something more like their own. Essentially using AI as a starting point or something.

AI can be super helpful, and I can totally see why. But the idea of something being conjured and then implemented raw sounds worse to me than someone adding to it or some personal flair before implementing it.
 

IAmRei

Member
I dont boycott, but i dont like ai in general. Especially if it coming from big company, who actually can pay more people. And ai the idea that big company using ai not because they could help some process, but to minimize the cost to optimize more $$$$$$ is depressing for some workers in the industry. I dont like it could lead to more usages in the future and the souless company will be forgiven to cut the cost of real artist or programmer who are in my opinion are better than machine
 

Bkdk

Member
AI should be extremely awesome for gamers, in a few years unreal and unity will release a simplified game dev tools with $20 subscription fee monthly. Gamers can just input some commands and create infinite amount of basic games: visual novel, waking horror simulators with basic puzzles, or a Diablo lite loot rpg. Of course you can sell it too with unreal and unity taking 95% of your revenue generated. I think game developers will soon be the biggest enemy to gamers as they will do whatever it takes to stop these ai tools from releasing. For corps, automating jobs would be biggest use case for them, as for consumers, ai generated simple anime clips and games will be the biggest use case.
 

I_D

Member
One day, there will be a game (likely an RPG) with AI-generated, intricate levels based upon the player's actions.
Those same levels will have AI-generated, intricate gameplay, loot, music, maps, etc., all based upon the player's actions.
It will also feature AI-generated, intricate communication with NPCs. And, because it's all linked via AI, the decisions you make with the NPCs will drastically affect the rest of the storyline.
Even the graphics might be affected by, and change based upon, the player's actions.
The effects of the AI will affect the design of the levels and gameplay. It will be a different game every single time somebody plays, yet still intricately-designed and incredibly fun.

It will be one of the most-randomized, yet most-cohesive games of all time.
It will sell many, many, many, many copies, and it will be hailed for its innovation.





Unfortunately, until that game actually occurs, damn near every single implementation of AI-content will be horrendous and cliché.
 

Field

Member
If it can save some money for the poor mega corporations then that’s awesome. But I feel like if I know that some art is made by ai it automatically feels less impressive. Why should I be impressed by some art that basically anyone could make with the ai tech?
 
Mixed bag of emotions, honestly.

I feel terrible for artists this will negatively affect. People will lose jobs over this severely tempering excitement at any possibilities that might come from using this tech.

There's ambiguity. If it reaches a point where AI art is indistinguishable over handcrafted art - *shrug*. Hell, for most of the art for Foamstars is really kind of ewwwehhh ick anyways, so it's damn near impossible any AI art is worse than that.

And last is curiosity what can be done with it to perhaps speed up game development or possibly make it cheaper.
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
Kneejerk take, I feel AI in games will be made to seem as if it's necessary as a way for the industry to become sustainable again.

Please be aware that this is absolute bullshit. Elden Ring sold 20 million copies...that's in the neighborhood of 1.2 billion dollars in revenue, for one game split between the developer and platforms. At max, it cost like 150 million to make.

What will keep the industry sustainable are good ideas and quality games...not cost-cutting measures.

That being said, I am interested in seeing how AI is implemented in other ways. Generating NPC conversations in a realistic way. Creating 3d models.
News flash, a lot of big budget games don't go on to sell 20 million copies. Alan Wake 2 for example many speculate to be in the region of about 1mil copies sold and if true it will be a very slow crawl to get to 2mil.

"At Max it cost 150 million to make"

First we don't know this, secondly the tech in ER is based on PS4 era technology which borrowed a fair bit from the work on Dark Souls. At some point FROM will up the tech and will have to start from scratch, whether that's this gen or next gen I'm not sure.

The jury isn't out on AI yet the implmentation and tech is still very early for game development. But your take is distorted using one of the most successful games in recent times as an example to try and claim the industry doesn't need to reduce development costs - all whilst the expectations for AAA games keeps on increasing, as does visual quality.

Also, revenue does not equal profit lol. Out of a $30, $40, $50, $60, $70 revenue from a game sold you subtract the digital store/retail cut, platform holder cut, publisher cut, distribution and packaging expenses etc....
 
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I don’t mind actually…guaranteed it turns out better than 90% of what these game industry dweebs can come up with nowadays. To be truthful, AI might actually end saving the video game industry from its ultimate demise (many years from now of course lol).
 

bender

What time is it?
I think it will open up even more development opportunities for your average person. Helping generate code or assets can help turn someone's ideas that lacks some knowhow or artistic ability into something tangible and at the very least, allow someone to prototype and pitch ideas.
 

Pejo

Gold Member
For background textures and shit that doesn't matter, fine. Especially if it will speed up development/reduce development costs.

For character/enemy related art and assets, absolutely fucking not. They should be designed and paid for to the artists/modelers that create them. AI at its core is just ripping off an amalgamation of previous artists' work anyways, which I think is kinda shitty from the get-go.
 
Maybe game studios wouldn’t need 400-500 people to make a game. Personally, I’m all for it. The whole reason these companies use software suites is to save time and effort. AI is no different. You still need the artists giving these things their own touch or nuance.
 

mitch1971

Member
Steve Coogan Shrug GIF
 
Do not pull assets without consent, license or ownership.
copyright reform is needed, all assets should go into public domain after a decade or two at most.

As for ai in games, it is expected agi will be here before end of decade. If that happens entire AAA games will be easily creatable from anyone's living room. The biggest obstacle will be copyright. Copyright was meant to foster the arts but now it is a barrier for the arts, it is something from an old era. And realistically it has no basis, who is the government to tell what you can and cannot copy with your own hardware? No one is being harmed by you changing bits in your hard drive into a pattern of zeros and ones.
 

PsyEd

Member
A.I. is inevitable in everything. Like it or not most "creative" work will be challenged because of it. I'm sure in future there will be tags like "human creation" when selling physical art.

I like it since I've been using it to make fun mods for the games I play (for myself & friends). I am sure fine tuned a.i. will give even a richer experience in RPG style games and like voices to NPC's than some text "noises" that most games have...heck may even create unscripted matrix style outcome.

So yeah lets see...what the future holds...
 
I think there's a ton of potential for adding more dynamic elements to games. I'm thinking along the lines of generating new side quests, dialogue, areas.

For example, imagine being able to enter every single building in Night City from Cyberpunk 2077. Instead of one of a number of preset room/building layouts like in the Witcher 3, you have something that's completely generated on-the-fly while taking into account certain parameters (entrance and exit placement, number of floors, location, personnel type, etc.). The possibilities for increasing immersion are endless.

That said, a lot of the current usage of AI seems really uninspired and mostly as a cost-cutting measure. The technology and its application seem very immature at present.
 
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Robb

Gold Member
With a lot of devs jumping on the AI bandwagon lately (including Japanese devs), it'll be interesting to see if Nintendo is willing to use AI in development, if they aren't using it already. They have been historically known for priding itself on handcrafted work and we're somewhat resistant to emerging trends in the past (CDs, Online gaming, HD, Mobile).
I’m sure they’re testing the waters over there as well, although I’m also fairly sure they view it as a new tool in their toolbox more than anything else.

In any case I don’t really think it matters. If an AI can someday make a game that’s indistinguishable from what a human can make why would you enjoy that less? If someone told me Elden Ring was actually made by an AI and no human ever touched anything in the game it wouldn’t change the fact that it’s one of the best games released in recent times and well worth its price.

You price a product what you think customers are willing to pay for it, that’s all there is to it. If The Last of Us was developed for basically nothing by using cheap child labor it’d still be sold for $70 a pop.
 
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sachos

Member
As long as the generation is high quality and blends with the game style i welcome it. I understand people are afraid of losing their jobs but i think all of society has to come to terms with the fact that AI progress is not stopping, it will keep getting better and better and its not just artists, programmers are in real danger too.
Maybe we can use it to help us go back to shorter dev cycles and stop game budgets going out of control.
Also i don't quite agree with the argument that the AI is just copying other artists styles or that is copyright infringement, the AI trains by learning from images the same way a human artists does, every human trains by watching other peoples paintings or drawings at least at some point. The AI is just too good at it.

Im also thinking about how AI will help empower indie devs to new heights allowing them to produce much higher quality stuff. There is a lot of potential.
 
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