Nvidia announced at CES 2024, NVIDIA unveiled the Avatar Cloud Engine (ACE) that introduces microservices that empower game developers to integrate cutting-edge generative AI models into digital avatars. This technological leap promises to revolutionize player interactions by enhancing the responsiveness and lifelike qualities of non-playable characters (NPCs) in games and applications.
ACE microservices, featuring AI models like NVIDIA Omniverse Audio2Face™ (A2F) and NVIDIA Riva automatic speech recognition (ASR), offer developers the tools to create interactive avatars with expressive facial animations and customizable multilingual speech capabilities. Top-tier developers, including Charisma.AI, Convai, Inworld, miHoYo, NetEase Games, Ourpalm, Tencent, Ubisoft, and UneeQ, have embraced ACE, indicating a widespread industry interest in harnessing the potential of generative AI technologies.
NVIDIA collaborated with Convai to showcase the transformative capabilities of ACE in the latest version of Kairos, a demo that originally debuted at Computex. The demo illustrates a significant improvement in NPC interactivity. Convai’s innovative framework enables NPCs to engage in conversations, be aware of objects, perform tasks such as picking up and delivering items, lead players to objectives, and seamlessly traverse virtual worlds.
Having experienced ACE with Convai in action during CES, the level of detail observed not only in the surroundings but also in the NPCs’ ability to help you complete tasks and missions is impressive. Speaking with the NPC I put in dialogue that said “I liked your shoes, where did you get it?” in which she replied she got it at a shop nearby and they’re actually functional among fashionable. Interactions with NPCs reach a new level of realism, allowing for personalized conversations such as complimenting an NPC on their shoes and receiving functional responses about where they were obtained.
The potential for limitless interactions with NPCs, as demonstrated by ACE, is an exciting prospect for the future of gaming. The integration of ACE microservices, including Audio2Face and Riva ASR, is available now. Interactive avatar developers can seamlessly incorporate these models into their development pipelines, paving the way for a new era of immersive and dynamic digital worlds. As the industry eagerly awaits the incorporation of ACE into upcoming games, NVIDIA’s Avatar Cloud Engine signals a transformative shift in the landscape of gaming interactions.
