.டி GTA V «: AI filter game looks very realistic

Razor-sharp palm fronds, cracks in asphalt, reflections from the sun on car roofs: Video game released Many years after the release of the virtual Southern California “GTA V” video game, especially in its PC version. At the same time, the world simulated in the game can be easily distinguished from the real one.

Scientists from the American chip manufacturer Intel I would like to replace it with image enhancement software. Researchers have a software model (PDF) Has designed it Artificial Intelligence (AI) And the streets of the big city of Los Santos are very realistic.

The group uploaded a video on YouTube It shows enhanced graphic. With the AI ​​filter, the asphalt looks more reliable, the cars reflect light more beautifully, and the trees look like they were filmed by a camera from inside the vehicle.

Stephen Richter has been working on this project with two colleagues for two years. “Our goal is to make the game as real as possible,” the Intel researcher told SPIEGEL. “Game simulations often do not seem realistic: the graphics are not yet good enough to depict the real world.” A lot of work went into the project before the pictures looked like they are now.

Software disables information for the graphics card

In order to create clean images, the researchers did a double experiment: on the one hand, the fully delivered game image is sent through an AI filter. However, at the same time, the software also calls for G-buffers. It contains information for the graphics card to accurately calculate geometric details such as the distance between buildings and the camera and the position of the light source.

Researchers branch G-buffers, making it clear to AI not to place trees in the sky. Finally, the resulting film is subjected to a fact test. The software results provide reliability points compared to street snapshots.

Software selects things to map reality as accurately as possible Picture tutorial from Citiescape Again. This photo database contains the streets of 50 major German cities Erfurt, Cologne And Stuttgart Deposited. Images clearly indicate that an object is a pedestrian, traffic sign or bus stop.

Not everything is right

Although roads, trees and cars are actually very realistic, image enhancement reaches its limits with some material – since roadside palm trees are very rare in this country. The software sometimes illuminates the cranes as traffic lights and park benches are converted into rolled alarms. According to scientists, pedestrians are also “processed with less confidence”.

Despite such problems, researchers believe that technology may bring more realistic graphics to games. “I can imagine engine developers using this software as a reality filter,” says Richter. “GTA is just a proxy here. It can be used for many games. “

However, in its current form, the software is still slow. Even with the best model GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card from Nvidia, image enhancement spit out the result after half a second. According to Richter, this time it’s a prototype “at this time you can not directly insert a game.”