Online gaming platform Roblox has once again helped create new games using artificial intelligence – this time for avatars and textures.
Competing with the increasingly similar Fortnite for users’ attention, Roblox is focusing on the fact that anyone can create games or worlds on its platform and simplifying this process.
It has already announced AI coding to help simplify adding scripts to objects, as well as an AI-powered translation tool available in chat for all users.
This new update is currently only available in the developer environment, but it makes it relatively easy to import a basic 3D object and give it a texture of your choice or create an avatar for the world in any style you can imagine.
Not only did it apply the texture to the entire object, but it also rendered the curls and creases to match the actual object.
The Roblox development team’s priority was to use AI to speed up game creation, expand existing games, or add new in-game content.
They launched Coding Assistant last year, which was similar to GitHub Copilot but specifically trained on the Roblox architecture. It has been in operation for 11 months and since then, more than 300 million letters of code have been suggested.
According to Roblox game development studio, Toya Play, they have seen a 5% increase in efficiency after using Code Assist, and as more AI tools come online, they expect this to increase.
AI Avatar
In a briefing with me before the announcement, Roblox Studio Director Stefano Corazza said that in the future, we could see entire worlds generated using a simple text prompt. For now, the focus is on avatars and textures, but other features are in development.
They started with AI-generated avatars to improve character creation in the game. Revealed at GDC San Francisco, the automated avatar setup transforms a 3D body mesh into an animated, lifelike avatar, ready to be adopted by the user in-game.
It only takes one mouse click and AI manages the entire process, including automatic rigging and skinning of the 3D model. Doing this manually will take users several days
Texture generator
Another new AI feature is the texture generator. This is something that Leonardo AI and Adobe are also adopting to bring object files to life. It uses traditional AI-generated image techniques and “wraps” them over the object.
With a simple line of text and the click of a button, developers can apply new textures to objects imported from Roblox or outside the Roblox Store. This applies to bags or tables as well as animals and more lifelike characters.
It currently does not handle animation of 3D objects, only textures. But that’s something you can do using an AI coding assistant that launched a year ago, and creating 3D objects from text yourself is something Coraza says they might be investigating through a third-party API.
Coraza demonstrated the equipment to me. With a simple text message, he was able to apply a denim texture to the backpack. Not only did it apply the texture to the entire object, but it also rendered the curls and creases to match the actual object.
The texture generator can handle a variety of textures including wood planks, metals or fur patterns in a range of options, for example creating gold, bronze and silver trophies.
Avatar generation was exceptionally fast during the demo, and while it’s currently only possible in the dev console, Corazza told me they hope to make it accessible to players and texture generation in the future.
This will allow players to better control the appearance of their world and make changes with nothing more than a simple text prompt rather than a list of menu settings. It can potentially be enabled as an additional feature by the game developer.
The problem, he explained, is reducing both the cost and computational requirements of generating such files before they are made more widely available.
How to access new AI features
Auto Avatar Setup and Texture Generator are beta only, available in Roblox Studio by enabling the options in the app’s beta menu.
Avatar is an early alpha feature with a lot of work to do before it’s production ready, though my demo of the tool was impressive, creating a cyberpunk-style avatar in seconds. Texture Generator is a public open beta.
It is unclear when they will be available without activating the beta, as for now Roblox is collecting feedback on performance and quality.
Where could this lead in the future?
In the future, we may see an entire world generated from a simple text prompt. Users may also be able to create their own world from an existing game, or create a building based on a text prompt or image with just one click.
Nick Torno, VP of Creative Engineering at Roblox, said, “At GDC, we’re introducing new technologies and opportunities to build, scale, build on a platform to support our vision to enable the creation of anything by anyone, anywhere. Opportunities to do and monetize. .
“Our new AI technologies help anyone from indie developers to professional game studios to quickly create rich, engaging content on the Roblox platform, taking them from idea to shared reality, faster than ever before. »
The goal is to create tools that allow ideas to become games almost as quickly as a creator can envision an original idea. “With these tools, creators can focus on creative ideation and less on execution, improving their experiences to grow engagement and, ultimately, their business,” Tornow said.
