It’s a big week for TV! By which I mean, to me, there’s a lot of bangers this week.
19.03.2024 - 22:17 / wccftech.com / Alessio Palumbo / Ubisoft
GDC 2024 is in full swing, and it looks like Inworld AI will be one of the hottest exhibitors at San Francisco's convention of game makers.
Following yesterday's unveiling of the Covert Protocol demo made in partnership with NVIDIA and their Avatar Cloud Engine (ACE) platform, Inworld AI takes center stage once again today with a slew of announcements.
To start with, Ubisoft presented NEO NPCs, their first prototype for generative AI powered characters and gameplay. NEO NPCs is powered by Inworld AI's Character Engine and large language model technology, which allowed a Ubisoft team led by the Paris studio and supported by the Production Technology Department to build a full background, knowledge base, and conversational style for each NPC. The NEO NPCs prototype also leverages NVIDIA ACE, specifically its Audio2Face component, which enables real-time facial animation.
In the demo, players talk directly to NPCs with their voices. The non-player characters react in real time based on the conversation, allowing the NPC to unlock new story elements or even generate new quests on the fly. The NPCs possess a situational awareness that lets them react dynamically to points of interest; they can also share insights, ask questions, and plan actions.
Virginie Mosser, Narrative Director on the project, said:
My creative work has become much deeper since I get to work on their (NEO NPCs) psychology. I have to give them a soul and do so with a certain finesse that we have never before allocated to NPC creation. As a writer, seeing my characters come to life and actually converse with me for the first time has been one of the most fulfilling and touching moments of my career.
Xavier Manzanares, Director and Producer of the project, added:
It could be the start of a fantastic paradigm shift. For the first time, the game world actually listens to and dynamically responds to the players. Social interactions and skills become part of the gameplay. Smarter NPCs like our NEO NPCs have the potential to become a breakthrough addition to the traditional NPCs we see in games today. They provide the ability to create even more immersive worlds and emergent stories.
Guillemette Picard, Senior Vice President of Production Technology at Ubisoft, stated:
Generative AI brings unprecedented creative opportunities for our teams and players. It is when they find the value it has for them that we start to see its true potential to transform the way games are made and played.
It will take a while yet before the technology can be implemented in an actual game, but Ubisoft clearly believes this is the future, and they're not the
It’s a big week for TV! By which I mean, to me, there’s a lot of bangers this week.
Reliance Digital is back with its much-anticipated 'Digital Discount Days' sale, offering customers unparalleled discounts on a wide range of electronics. The sale is set to commence from April 6 and will run until April 15, 2024, across all Reliance Digital stores and My Jio Stores nationwide.
The latest update for Helldivers 2 is here, and it ought to shake up the game in a fairly significant way. The big news is that the level cap is increasing from 50 all the way to 150. Meanwhile, Arrowhead Studios have also added a couple of new planetary hazards (blizzards and sandstorms), rebalanced a long list of weapons, tweaked the specifics of how certain missions work, and more.
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Helldivers 2 releases a new and bigger update for players which brings new gameplay elements, balancing to missions and weapons, as well as general adjustments and quality of life tweaks. The live service shooter from Arrowhead Game Studios continues to evolve since its launch back in February. Helldivers 2 has managed to achieve this through a combination of new updates and a dynamic world that is constantly in flux thanks to the push and pull of the players and enemy factions across the map.
Microsoft has announced new titles coming to Xbox Game Pass in early April, which includes LEGO 2K Drive, EA Sports PGA Tour, Harold Halibut, and more.
It’s April Fools’ Day, but this post is no joke: There is a lot of new TV to watch this week. In a lot of ways it’s a showdown of tense situations — “tense,” here, being used to cover things like Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott, in the new adaptation) trying to con his way into high society, American Horror Story: Delicate’s Anna (Emma Roberts) attempting to figure what’s a real haunting and what’s in her head, Mark (Steven Yeun) trying to live up to the title of Invincible while he protects his family, or Larry David (Larry David) just trying to make it through the end of Curb Your Enthusiasm alive.
On April 8, a solar eclipse will be visible across most of North America, varying in degree depending on location, according to NASA. Residents within the path of totality, extending from Texas to Maine, will observe a total eclipse, while those outside this band will witness a partial eclipse. To engage the public, NASA is organizing in-person events, providing opportunities to experience NASA science, and offering online streaming options.
Epic Games releases update 29.10 for LEGO Fortnite, bringing new vehicle builds, custom designs, new crafting tools, as well as bug fixes as well. The Mechanical Mayhem update follows suit with another recent LEGO Fortnite patch earlier in March which added Kit Bundles to the experience. Using prebuilt designs, players could essentially purchase new building designs like Beachside Boulevard or Durrr Burger to spruce up their map.
Storage is one of the major concerns when it comes to owning a portable PC. So, if you're soon to be a new owner of a Steam Deck, ROG Ally, or Nintendo Switch, you should absolutely consider getting a microSD card alongside and boosting the available storage that they have up considerably. Below, you can find a selection of excellent SD card deals.
That’s it, guys, we made it: Time for March to go out like a lamb, as the old adage says, and spring has sprung — most notably (“most” here for if you are not the type who wants to go touch literal grass) in the form of our spring preview, which forecasts some of the best TV shows, movies, books, anime, and more coming this season.
The first trailer for new Star Wars series The Acolyte has arrived, and it looks epic.