After ACE of NVIDIA and Gamegen from Google, it is Microsoft’s turn to embark on the adventure of generative AI dedicated to the creation of video games. The Redmond giant even paid the luxury of presenting its new AI system in the columns of the prestigious review Nature. Called Muse, he is able to automate the creation of scenes from a video game – Characters, sets, interactions – in just a few seconds.
Muse: AI born from the bowels of the Xbox
Microsoft’s automatic learning research teams, under the leadership of Katja Hofmann, principal research director, first led a large consultation with game developers. Their objective: precisely identify the needs of the sector in terms of generative artificial intelligence.
To train their model, The researchers drew from an accumulated data treasure For several years on Bleeding Edge. An online multiplayer combat game not frankly striking, released in March 2020, developed by the British studio Ninja Theory and edited by Xbox Game Studios.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY7Ectzffum
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Thanks to this collection, Microsoft was able to build up A huge database : more than a billion playing images, each part played being recorded in the form of successive images, thus creating a visual library of the game in action. Simultaneously, Muse also recorded all the actions of the players via their controllers – each button pressure, joystick movement and interaction was therefore captured.
This means that for each image, Microsoft has the exact set of orders who have generated this game situation. This temporal correspondence allows Muse to understand not only What’s going on visually, but also Why is it going In terms of interactions between players. The result of this work was baptized ” World and Human Action Model ».
Muse: A weapon for video game studios in the face of the crisis?
From a scene created by a human; Bleeding Edge has been developed by real developers; The system generates fairly coherent visual sequences. “” Without prior knowledge, one might think that these are authentic extracts from a video game “Note Katja Hofmann, principal research director at Microsoft during a demonstration to journalists. It is possible to watch On the official project page.
To temper Hofmann’s words a little, yes the generated scenes are generally successful, but There are still quirksrecognizable at the first glance if we know a little AI and video games. Textures that glitchbraid image that seems to be training live, and a very Uncanney Valleylike the videos generated by Sora of Openai. However, it must be recognized that this remains generally quite impressive, given the fact that we are still in the early days of AI applied to this area.
Muse, once sufficiently matured, could however come to the aid of the great crisis that shakes the video game sector For several years. Large blockbusters require several hundred million dollars for their development; Inflation which contrasts with the slowdown in sales growth; The saturated market and numerous development studios have been forced to close their doors due to financial difficulties.
Developing a game based on a unique AI system is therefore an enticing perspective, costs would be considerably reduced. We are entitled, however, to worry about the arrival of such tools on the market As players: what about the creative, unique and human aspect behind a game? Can the quality of a game developed by AI reach the excellence of another developed in a classic way? What will become of thousands of employees in the sector, already rudely affected by waves of layoffs? A lot of questions, but Few answers for the moment ; Let’s wait to see what Microsoft has planned for Muse. The company plans to provide external researchers with prototype software, which will certainly help to identify more closely How could it really be useful. An approach rare enough to be underlined.
- Microsoft unveils Muse, an AI capable of automatically generating video game scenes based on data collected via Xbox.
- This technology could help studios reduce production costs, but raises questions about the creativity and future of developers.
- Microsoft plans to share a prototype to explore its possible uses.
