video game Valorant, a fast-paced team-based shooter, has recently become a testing ground for a promising new direction in artificial intelligence research. Game developers at Riot Games, a subsidiary of Tencent, are using 3D native AI models to prototype new characters, scenes and storylines, said a researcher familiar with the company’s efforts, who asked not to be identified.
While many AI models can generate text, images, and videos, Tencent’s Hunyuan (mixed original or “first mix”) family of models can envision 3D objects and interactive scenes. Sources say Tencent’s model is also used by the developers of GKART, another Tencent game, as well as some independent developers. Tencent declined to comment.
“The gaming industry requires a lot of investment,” the source said. “It used to take me a month to design a character. Now I just type in some text and Hunyuan gives me four choices in 60 seconds.”
This news is an early sign that models that can understand and recreate the physical world could become a standard element of game design. In addition to generating game content, these models enable more advanced virtual and augmented reality, and can also help robots learn how to do new things.
“Today, research in 3D vision is really exploding,” says Alexander Leitric, a graduate student at Princeton University who is working on new approaches to generating 3D content. “There are a lot of killer applications. There are a lot of problems related to content creation, autonomous driving, and augmented reality.”
Raistrick added that video games are an obvious application for 3D AI models. “3D mesh output” [a standard way of representing 3D objects] “It’s the foundation of typical game development,” he says.
However, like other creative fields, using AI to create video games is controversial. There are growing concerns about job losses due to AI. Some developers argue that games should be labeled if they contain AI-generated content. Some say it’s already too late. This technology is already widespread in the industry.
In July, Tencent released HunyuanWorld 1.0, a model that generates interactive scenes. I tested it a few months ago, exploring a scene that felt like it was part of a Lego movie: a valley of brightly colored blocks disappearing into the distance. Lately I’ve been playing with Hunyuan 3D, a more basic model that reminds me of 3D objects. I used this to generate some really cool custom Dungeons & Dragons characters to 3D print. In October, Tencent released a new version of HunyuanWorld that allows users to upload videos and generate 3D scenes.
