Goodbye dialogue windows. Soon you will actually be able to talk to NPCs! Find out what it’s all about here.
Computex is one of the biggest tech fairs in the world and every year exciting new products and technologies are presented there. This year the Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang gave us an insight into what the future of gaming could look like.
In a small demo, he showed what is possible when gaming and artificial intelligences are linked.
Real conversations with NPCs
No, we’re not pulling your leg. The player in the demo no longer has to click through dialogues or listen to an eternal monologue. Instead, he converses with the character behind the bar via voice input.
The character recognises and reacts to colloquial language and provides information as it would naturally in a real conversation. This could eliminate dialogue windows completely in the future – at least in some games.
Even though the demo is already very impressive, it also makes it clear that there is still a long way to go before we will really talk to NPCs in a realistic setting.
The technology behind it
Other developers should soon be able to use AI-powered speech, conversations and animations. The folks at Nvidia used the following applications for the demo:
- Nvidia Riva Speech
- Nvidia NeMo
- Nvidia Audio2Face
- Coney Services
- Unreal Engine 5
- Meta Human
When we can expect the first games in which we talk to NPCs, we can’t say yet. Nvidia only claims in the presentation video that developers will soon be able to develop AI conversations as well.
We suspect it will be a few years before we have real conversations with NPCs.
Editor’s Opinion
Nvidia calls its demo a “glimpse into the future of video games”. Although this sounds like typical marketing-speak, I have to agree with Nvidia. This technology will be instrumental in making game worlds feel even more realistic and immersive.
Nevertheless, I am “only” cautiously optimistic, because the demo is impressive, but very far from perfect. After all, the monotone robot voice doesn’t really add to the atmosphere and the dialogue itself seemed wooden and contrived.
Nevertheless, the demo shows what is possible. And if there’s one thing we know about technological progress, it’s that it comes faster than you think. Who knows, maybe in a few years we’ll be playing games that no longer need a dialogue window.
What do you say to the demo? Are you guys looking forward to talking to NPCs? How will this affect the gaming industry? Drop us a line in the comments!
