Ubisoft NEO NPCs Explore the Possibilities of Digital Humans in Games with Inworld and NVIDIA ACE Technologies

In a creative experience showcased at GDC 2024, a team of game creators from Ubisoft come together to explore the future of NPCs, interactive gameplay and improvised storytelling.

Ubisoft is exploring new types of interactive games with dynamic NPCs, an area being revolutionized by the emergence of generative artificial intelligence technologies. The product of the latest research and development project, “NEO NPCs” are advanced NPCs designed to interact with players, their environment, and other characters in real time. This opens up new possibilities in dynamic and improvisational storytelling.

Developed by a multidisciplinary team at Ubisoft Paris, NEO NPCs were born from close collaboration between Ubisoft creators and leading GenAI technology partners NVIDIA and Inworld AI. Inworld’s Character Engine and LLM technology enable Ubisoft’s story team to create a complete background, knowledge base, and conversational style for each NPC, while NVIDIA Audio2Face, part of the NVIDIA ACE technology suite, is used to enable real-time facial animation.

Ubisoft showcases the abilities of these NEO NPCs with three separate demo scenarios. Each scenario focuses on different aspects of NPC behavior, environmental and contextual awareness; It focuses on conversational memory, collaboration and strategic decision-making, as well as real-time reactions and animations. When combined, these discoveries made throughout the experiment push the boundaries of game design and immersion.

With NEO NPCs, Ubisoft’s story and animation designers are driving the future of game development towards new horizons by blending the reliability of scripted game elements with the dynamism of spontaneous player interactions.

Leveraging Inworld AI technology, Ubisoft’s story team created two NEO NPCs named Bloom and Iron, with their own backstories, knowledge bases, and distinct speaking styles to create these unique characters in the demo universe. Inworld technology also offers NEO NPCs an inherent knowledge of their environment, resulting in interactive responses thanks to Inworld’s LLM. Audio2Face enables facial animations and lip-syncing of two NPCs in real time.

Guillemette Picard, Ubisoft’s Senior Vice President of Production Technology says: “Gen AI will enable player experiences not yet imagined with smarter worlds, nuanced characters, and emergent and adaptable narratives. “We partnered with NVIDIA on our NEO NPC prototype to help us create deeper immersion through real-time facial animations for impromptu NPC conversations with NVIDIA’s Audio2Face solution.”

John Spitzer, NVIDIA Vice President of Developer and Performance Technologies “Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool that can greatly improve players’ experiences by making games more dynamic, immersive and unique. “We are excited to partner with Ubisoft to leverage NVIDIA ACE in the development of digital characters.”

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