Nvidia has unveiled a new tech demo showcasing AI video game characters with speech and animation powered by the Nvidia Avatar Cloud Engine (ACE) as part of GDC 2024 and GTC 2024.
The playable demo was created in collaboration with AI gaming startup Inworld AI and is built in Unreal Engine 5. It features Nvidia ACE technology combined with the Inworld Engine, allowing developers to implement realistically animated AI-powered NPC characters that respond dynamically to player decisions.
Titled Hidden protocolIn the demo, you step into the role of a private investigator and engage different characters in a conversation to discover information and make progress toward achieving objectives.
You can check out some short snippets of the demo for yourself in a recently released version explanation video that also shows some interesting insights into the software development kit (SDK) behind the scenes. This includes a screen with some written character details, where the developer has explained what a specific character knows in the universe, outlined some of their backstory, and filled in some information about their current mood and personality.
All of this information then informs how the character will interact with players in the game. Kylan Gibbs, CEO of Inworld AI, says that “the combination of Nvidia Ace microservices and the Inworld Engine allows developers to create digital characters that can drive dynamic storytelling, opening up new possibilities for how gamers can decipher, infer and play.”
Analysis: Do players actually want AI?
While the concept of NPC characters that can respond to your actions may sound tempting on paper, it does raise the question of whether players actually want generative AI technology in their games. The sprawling role-playing game (RPG) Baldur’s Gate 3 was one of last year’s biggest hits, thanks in no small part to its carefully constructed story and detailed characters.
although Hidden protocol is undeniably impressive from a purely technological perspective, it’s hard to imagine that AI-generated character dialogue could overshadow something carefully constructed by a team of skilled writers. The dialogue shown so far also seems quite basic and mostly concerns characters sitting in static rooms.
Whether such technology can actually be implemented in the complex world of a full-fledged game remains to be seen, but Inworld says it has the source code for Hidden protocol at some unspecified point in the near future, so that developers can learn from the code and implement similar systems in their own creations.