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| "Sword Art Online" is really coming? |
Some time ago, a company called "When AI gives NPCs souls, conscientious NPCs actually began to fall in love?" (hereinafter referred to as "Living Chang'an City") appeared in my field of vision, and since the AI boom is at the moment, I also clicked into the video with curiosity to understand the technology.
But I was disappointed by the content of the video, which is 4 minutes and 02 seconds long, and the main content is: the makers created a virtual Chang'an City space, generated a large number of NPCs, claimed to use AI to give these NPCs souls, and then showed the audience the daily life of NPCs - it seems that people with autonomous consciousness are spontaneously interacting with other NPCs, and, the developers said: each NPC has a unique setting.
This kind of content seems very innovative, but as a game, the content of the video does not go beyond the elements of previous works, and the various design features that the video narrator enthusiastically introduces have long existed in the Chinese and foreign game industry, dating back to 5, 10 or even 20 years. From the perspective of 2023, the modeling level, character actions, and interaction shown in the video can hardly reach the passing line of this generation, but if it is regarded as a conceptual demo, then these problems are understandable.
(The famous cat death in "Dwarf Fortress", the game was released in 2002)
The publisher of the video is Hyperparameter Technology, a new team founded in 2019, with a background spanning the AI field and the game field, claiming to have the full-stack capability of "AI research + AI commercialization + AI game research and development", founder Liu Yongsheng is the former general manager of Tencent AI Lab, and is the leader of the Go AI "Peerless Art" and the King Glory AI "Peerless Enlightenment" project.
Prior to this, hyperparameter technology launched the self-developed AI game "Your Turn to Reveale the Secret Chapter" in March 2020, the game has almost no innovation in gameplay, similar to "Avalon" and other werewolf killing games, however, hyperparameter technology at that time took AI teammates (opponents) as the main publicity point, and even not so much to promote the game, but to promote AI, but the response seemed mediocre, the game did not bring much fun to the players at that time, so that it was difficult to see on the list of games after a period of time.
Moreover, before the release of this video, the video released on the B station account of Hyperparameter Technology was still in August 2020, and at such a point in time when AI was on the cusp, the official released a video called "AI gives NPCs soul", is it too coincidental? Putting these speculations aside, think again: even if AI does give NPCs a soul, how much does it mean for the game?
01
Backward content and forward-thinking ideas
I watched the 4 minutes and 02 seconds video repeatedly and couldn't find a frame that was one step ahead of its time.
First of all, in terms of the most intuitive picture perception, the game modeling accuracy is low, making the character face strange, unlike the ancient Chinese and not like modern people, at least from the player's point of view, few people want to believe that these are ancient Chinese, and the fineness of the texture is also difficult to say, the overall gives people a muddy feeling, not like the level of the end game, nor like the level of similar MMO (or open world) mobile games in 2023, but like the level of low picture quality in online games more than ten years ago.
Secondly, the interaction form of the various NPCs mentioned in the video is also relatively old-fashioned, as mentioned in the 22nd second of the video to complete the work of identity for each NPC setting, which appeared in earlier open-world games, even as early as the original "Assassin's Creed" in 2007, there were porter NPCs specializing in such a setting, the protagonist bumps into the NPC, the things in his hand will fall, and then scold and walk away, these NPCs are also automatically generated by AI.
And the NPC scene of the official arresting the prisoner shown in the 40th second of the video, far from it, the same picture often appears in the "Cyberpunk 2077" released in 2020, the protagonist walks in the night city, often sees the police car chasing the prisoner's car, and even there is a scene of firefights between the two sides, and the protagonist can choose to help the police at this time, can also help the prisoners, or ignore them to do their own thing, the same scene appeared earlier in 2013's "GTA5" (or even earlier GTA series).
In addition, each NPC has its own independent personality and data, such a setting is not uncommon, such a setting is not uncommon, such as the "Cyberpunk: 2077" mentioned above, players can view the identity, affiliation, personal abilities, crime and other careers of almost all NPCs in real time, almost everyone is composed of random entries, not handmade by the maker, in addition, the Ubisoft "Watch Dogs" series has almost the same design. Moreover, if you look closely at the values of NPCs demonstrated in this video, you will find that except for "money" and "occupation", almost all other values represent the mood of NPCs, and a living person is obviously not only composed of moods.
(Character values in "Living Chang'an")
(Cyberpunk 2077)
(Similar to one of the masterpieces of the system "Rimworld", each character has very detailed various data, and will move freely and socialize according to the data, and players need to meet their needs according to the data)
In all this, everything demonstrated in the video gives me a strong sense of déjà vu, and these déjà vu can be found in past works to find more complete and mature cases, but can it be concluded that the attempt at hyperparametric technology is completely "cliché"?
I don't see it, although the operation form of the NPC in this video is very similar to the previous works, but in essence, its underlying logic is completely different.
I believe that the vast majority of players in 2018 have been shocked by the highly realistic life trajectory of NPCs in "Red Dead Redemption 2": you are rushing, and you accidentally see a person on the side of the road bitten by a poisonous snake, ask you for help, and you help him suck out the poison on his ankle. After a long time, you pass by a village (most of the time Valentine), and the person you have rescued recognizes you when he is chattering on the side of the road, thanks you, lets you into the shop behind him to pick up an item, and he pays you.
This is a classic example of random event design in open-world games, but this is entirely achieved by R Star relying on high-intensity human and resource investment. Players subconsciously feel that they are living in an extremely real and random world, but their behavior route has long been designed by game manufacturers.
The underlying logic of the video "Living Chang'an City" released by hyperparameter technology is not to build a real world by piling up manpower, material resources and time, but more like creating an "emergent interaction" between NPCs and NPCs.
This word was previously applied to the video of Tdogegg, the owner of Station B UP, who analyzed "Zelda" in January 2021, he mentioned that fire can ignite items in "Breath of the Wild", not because fire can directly interact with combustibles such as wood, but fire will change the temperature of everything, and when the temperature of combustibles reaches a certain value, it will burn.
And the "emergent interaction" between NPCs in "Living Chang'an City" is manifested as: the producer does not need to artificially set up interaction like "Red Dead Redemption 2" and "Cyberpunk 2077", NPCs in Chang'an City and NPCs themselves do not interact directly, but the mood of the NPC determines the form of interaction, just like the conflict between the student and the dancer shown in the video of 1 minute and 34 seconds, the dancer's patience is low to a certain extent, and will resort to violence, and the student's patience is relatively high, which may resolve the conflict, This greatly enriches the representation of interactions.
It can be said that this kind of "emergent interaction" between NPCs, even in 2023, is a very novel method of expression, but although the idea is good, can it really be realized?
02
How far away is a virtual society made of AI?
Although the "emergent interaction" between NPCs depends on the number of emotions to determine the form of interaction, the question is: can AI really understand emotions (or emotions)?
Writer Eco mentioned a very vivid example in his speech at Harvard: In "Madame Bovary", Flaubert wants to tell the reader that Emma is cold, and there is no need to write directly that she is cold, just write that she approaches the fireplace, and the reader can naturally understand that she is cold, but AI cannot understand this indirect form of expression.
In "Living Chang'an City", the dancer has a good impression of the scholar, and the most intuitive performance of the game screen is to make the dancer feel love like the R18 game, so can its AI only understand the use of "risking love" to express the increase in the favorability of the dancer? Can dancers understand the unique sense of shame of ancient Chinese women and show corresponding movements? Can she also behave like some women in romance novels with similar "awkward" and "tsundere" performance to her feelings? If not, then what is the difference between her and the NPCs that the big factories pile up manually?
So, what if AI can?
The bigger problem is that even though Breath of the Wild makes "emergent interactions": fire can make some things burn, wood will float ashes when burned, fruits will turn gray when burned, meat will become roasted meat when cooked, and grass will leave traces of ash when it is burned. However, "burning animation", "ashes", "roasted fruit", "roasted meat", and "gray grass" are still made manually by Nintendo.
(Apples are red when they are on trees, turn black when baked and fall off, becoming Baked Apple.) The picture comes from the B station UP master Heitong Google Video. ）
So, in "Living Chang'an City": NPCs and NPCs are in love, two people can't just chat upstairs, does the animation of holding hands need to be done manually? Does the kissing animation need to be done manually? Catch a thief quickly, does the action of catching people need to be adjusted artificially? If you want to touch the fish and sit in the store, do you need to do the action of serving vegetables? Do I need to model dishes?
The large number of forms of interaction brought about by "emergent interaction" means not only a living world, but also an exponential increase in workload.
So, what if AI could automatically adjust even animations and movements?
The bigger question is again - how much computing power does this take?
As many fans of "Genshin" said: it is not that it cannot make very good picture quality on the mobile phone, but because Mihayou needs to take care of the configuration of the mobile phone of the majority of players.
Although Ubisoft's "Assassin's Creed: Revolution" released in 2014 seems to be 10,000 people on the same screen, in fact, many of this "10,000 people" are based on "a group of people" as a unit, in fact, dozens of units appear in the picture, which is still the case that the AI action mode of "Revolution" is very single.
(Image from B station UP main deer out of the snow video)
In "Cyberpunk 2077", even if the intelligence of NPCs is not too obvious, as long as the number of passers-by is adjusted to "more", most mid-range, even mid-to-high-end configuration computers will face the crisis of collapse.
So, if, like the NPCs in "The Living Chang'an City", everyone has independent AI, independent life, and a large number of interactive forms, then let's ask: How many people are qualified to experience such a world by then?
Therefore, in my opinion, the domestic and foreign game industry still has a long way to go to realize the ideas presented in the video by hyperparameter technology.
But what if all these technical problems are overcome?
03
Does "Living World" really make the game fun?
"This game is good everywhere, but it's not fun."
This quote doesn't just appear in the comments section of Ubisoft Can, it also often appears in the comment section of Red Dead Redemption 2, one of the apex of the open world.
This game released in 2018 is still the most realistic virtual world in the eyes of most players: the protagonist will be hungry if he does not eat for a long time, he will become fat if he is not hungry and often eats, he will not get fat if he eats more if he has lung disease, he closes the camera, the blood vessels on the horse are clearly visible, the crocodile will come out of the water to bite the animal, and even the tram connected to the wire will rub a small spark when turning...
(Image from B station UP main Gamker ghost in the shell video)
All these details bring extremely high praise to this masterpiece, but, it is undeniable: compared to other MC works with an average score of 96 and 97, it is really not fun enough.
Another example is the "Assassin's Creed" series, which is known for its reality, whenever "3A masterpieces are getting more and more boring", this series will not be absent, its graphics are getting stronger and stronger, the AI is getting smarter and smarter (probably), the amount of game content is getting bigger and bigger, and many college history teachers even use it to take classes, but it is indeed becoming more and more unfun in the eyes of players.
On the contrary, the overly real game world will interrupt the player's immersion, as Miyamoto Shigeru said when talking about why the Zelda series adopts a relatively cartoon style: making a logical world is far more immersive than making a real world on the screen, in the cartoon-style world, the protagonist does a lot of incredible things that players take for granted, but in the realistic world, sometimes only a model can separate the player from this virtual world. How many players, when they first played Red Dead Redemption 2, the passive and dirty horse and the police officer who pulled out the gun at every turn got a mental breakdown?
The most real-world content only strengthens the artistic attributes of the game, but it rarely enhances the entertainment attributes of the game.
But Breath of the Wild, another pinnacle of the open world, is very realistic in its content - the most famous example is that players can see their reflection in the blisters that pop up in the nose of monsters sleeping, but it is also very interesting.
This is because most of the game's shaping of the "living world" is basically to serve the player's interaction with the game, not for the real and real: because the player can use fire to solve puzzles and kill enemies, the interaction of fire is rich. Let reality serve gameplay, not gameplay limited by reality.
Eiji Aonuma, the producer of "Breath of the Wild", once used cooking as a metaphor for games: add the right ingredients. First-rate masters know how to cut, second-rate producers are happy to stitch, the birth of good games pays attention to "don't add substance if it's not necessary" and "too much", and blindly piling up materials in pursuit of reality doesn't make the game very interesting - after all, "Breath of the Wild" can't even sit on a chair.
This can be seen the problem of the content of the video "Living Chang'an City" in the game, in this video we can hardly see the interaction between the player and the game content, but the game content itself and its own interaction, the game's narration is also to introduce how rich and interesting the communication between NPCs is, what feedback players can get is not mentioned, so what is the significance of this extremely real world to players? Travel simulator?
04
end
Don't let "high-scoring questions" become "clichés"
From NFT to metaverse to AI, whenever one concept cools and someone needs financing at the same time, another concept will immediately catch fire, as long as the publicity is done well, "Brewmaster" can also become a metaverse, and the stock price will still multiply several times.
The difference this time AI is that it can directly produce qualitative changes in certain production activities, and AI itself is also evolving visibly with the naked eye, so the shelf life of this topic may be relatively long.
But will the popularity of this concept lead to more "Brewmasters" on the market?
Just like hyperparameter technology, after August 2020, its B station account neither updated the video nor updated the news, and after the concept of AI in March, it suddenly jumped out to announce something: we are using AI as an open world, and opening our mouths is a combination of two popular tags, it is difficult not to suspect that it is rubbing the heat.
However, from the few visible information, this company has indeed been engaged in AI-related research and work for several years, so it is indeed possible that it has been laid out for a long time, and then chose to return to the industry's vision at the right time.
At least, of the many companies that have recently suddenly claimed to have been working on AI for a long time, this is really the one that did it years ago and came up with actual (though not successful) results.
At the end of the day, no one can conclude that the video released by Hyperparameter Technology is all script, maybe this newly established team really has the technology of the times? At least in terms of video content, their ideas are very advanced.
Moreover, the heat can be rubbed by anyone, but the fruit of the heat, most of the time only really powerful players can pluck, take Ubisoft, as a company that has been doing open world for sixteen years, it must be very mature in the field of NPC AI technology, walking on the streets of Athens or Egypt in "Assassin's Creed", players can also see the eager communication between NPCs, different people have different lives, but that's all, NPCs are difficult to become "gameplay", The maturity and progress of its technology will not bring qualitative changes to the fun of the game, at most make the world a little more vivid, video games in the end, fun is the last word.
Moreover, if the actual product that comes out by then is the second "brewmaster", then I believe that this will be another big blow to the value of the concept of "AI" in the investment market.
Finally, "let AI give NPCs souls and shape a living world", in my opinion, this is a great feat that R Star, Nintendo, CDPR, and Ubisoft have not completed so far, and only Kawahara's science fiction novel paints us a similar scene. People who dare to say big things are generally divided into two types: one is sure that they can do it, and the other is people who are sure that they will never do it, and I sincerely hope and expect hyperparameter technology to be the former.