Love the Voice AI

It was great to see Intrepid include Voice AI in their recent showcase. I know we talked about it in the forums, and it is great to see it implemented. They did a pretty good job of it too, I'm excited to see where it goes in future iterations.

No question. Have a great day/night everybody!

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Nerror

Yep, that was honestly what I was most excited for in the stream.

nanfoodle

It will take some time but I am sure IS will do a good job of this. I really liked seeing the staff be the voices of the characters. I can't wait to see who Steven's voice is used for. A hero? The villain?

MrJones77

its a great business strategy. immortalize the devs and staff in the game. save lots of money not having to hire actors. This is still an Indy game after all. One that has sprung from the coffers of Steven's bank account and a lot of backers and fans.

Plus it sounded pretty great on this first showing.

Caeryl

It's good that they're using their own voices, but honestly it still rubs me the wrong way to see AI utilized in place of actual people for a sold product. As long as it doesn't spread into the art assets though, I guess I can mentally frame this just as very elaborate auto-tune.

Chicago

For all that intrepid do wrong lol, this was a great step forward, AI is needed imo in this age of gaming, it just brings the world to life

Depraved

tbh i couldnt care less about it. ill finish reading the texts before the npc anyways xD
also, ppl are obsessed with ai. voice actors > ai voices

AidanKD

I think one to note is that the game wasn't going to have any voice acting since it would inflate the budget.

I understand you can't replace proper voice acting - but if the choice is no voice acting, or AI voice acting and the budget gets to be put into the actual gaming then I don't see an issue. In an MMO I think it's more acceptable where this isn't a story-focused MMO.

Dragnoon

It will be fine if we gonna hear immersion from NPCs, not only pure voice without realism and indifference, then It will be just meh

nanfoodle

AidanKD wrote: »

I think one to note is that the game wasn't going to have any voice acting since it would inflate the budget.

I understand you can't replace proper voice acting - but if the choice is no voice acting, or AI voice acting and the budget gets to be put into the actual gaming then I don't see an issue. In an MMO I think it's more acceptable where this isn't a story-focused MMO.

I like it more when you can, for people like you, skip the dialog and just get your quest marker. But that Voice Acting is there for people like myself that want to care about the NPC I am helping and each quest has the potential to drop bits of lore that makes the worlds a living breathing place I feel like I am part of. Even if the AI Voice Acting is just an 8 of 10. I will be thrilled it was added.

Areann

The AI usage is the pefect balance between speed, budget, homage and art. There's no point in paying voice actors so random NPC's that hardly anybody really pays attention to can say some quest stuff. The voice over is brilliant middle road and using in house voices is a great inovation.

You might even go as far as GW2 did with Siegemaster Dulfy for the hardworking people
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Siegemaster_Dulfy

McShave

Dragnoon wrote: »

It will be fine if we gonna hear immersion from NPCs, not only pure voice without realism and indifference, then It will be just meh

What do you think of the AI we heard in the showcase? I thought it was good, but if it was bad i'd like to hear that opinion too. We also only heard voice AI of one race too, so other races will be interesting to hear as well.

TheDarkSorcerer

Intrepid using AI for voices is a win. I would however prefer if main characters in your story is voiced by real actors as it takes a certain skill to do voice acting, something AI will never replace. But the random NPC's and quest givers / merchants can be used with AI.

AlexanderGson

I'd prefer it if NPCs that "matter" and/or are recurring characters was voiced by human voice actors.

However using AI voices sourced from the development team for every other NPC would add an incredible amount of immersion. So I'm all for that.

I hope they can be turned off in the sounds settings if possible. I'd guess that some people would prefer not to have voices every time you talk to a shopkeeper but maybe would like to hear voices from more important NPCs. Nice to have, not need to have.

Flanker

Caeryl wrote: »

It's good that they're using their own voices, but honestly it still rubs me the wrong way to see AI utilized in place of actual people for a sold product.

The primary goal of any business is to make profit by offering a product or a service.

Not to "create jobs for people", even though it is often necessary to achieve the primary goal.

In past 100-200 years many jobs were replaced by tools, machinery, robots, conveyors etc. So what?

As time goes by, some jobs become less relevant or disappear.

While new opportunities appear.

If you hire real voice actors - multiply their number by 5-10 as game needs to be translated in other languages.

AI effortlessly tackles this issue. The alternative of that? Huge amount of money and unnecessary work hours.

You won't have to deal with problems that you initially managed to avoid.

nanfoodle

TheDarkSorcerer wrote: »

Intrepid using AI for voices is a win. I would however prefer if main characters in your story is voiced by real actors as it takes a certain skill to do voice acting, something AI will never replace. But the random NPC's and quest givers / merchants can be used with AI.

I would be more the happy to hear Steven be the main character. Or any of the other staff we have come to know over the years.

TheDarkSorcerer

nanfoodle wrote: »

TheDarkSorcerer wrote: »

Intrepid using AI for voices is a win. I would however prefer if main characters in your story is voiced by real actors as it takes a certain skill to do voice acting, something AI will never replace. But the random NPC's and quest givers / merchants can be used with AI.

I would be more the happy to hear Steven be the main character. Or any of the other staff we have come to know over the years.

Yeah no. Steven does not have a good voice acting voice (not to be mean). Margaret did a good job in recent showcase though. My friend Gabe Kunda does the voice for commercials for Marvel films and for many other studios, he also plays the voice of characters in Apex/Valorant/Diablo. It takes YEARS of practice and experience to be a good voice actor. I think important characters in the game should be voiced by experienced actors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJWG3MAXiIk

nanfoodle

TheDarkSorcerer wrote: »

nanfoodle wrote: »

TheDarkSorcerer wrote: »

Intrepid using AI for voices is a win. I would however prefer if main characters in your story is voiced by real actors as it takes a certain skill to do voice acting, something AI will never replace. But the random NPC's and quest givers / merchants can be used with AI.

I would be more the happy to hear Steven be the main character. Or any of the other staff we have come to know over the years.

Yeah no. Steven does not have a good voice acting voice (not to be mean). Margaret did a good job in recent showcase though. My friend Gabe Kunda does the voice for commercials for Marvel films and for many other studios, he also plays the voice of characters in Apex/Valorant/Diablo. It takes YEARS of practice and experience to be a good voice actor. I think important characters in the game should be voiced by experienced actors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJWG3MAXiIk

Your allowed your opinion

Caeryl

Flanker wrote: »

Caeryl wrote: »

It's good that they're using their own voices, but honestly it still rubs me the wrong way to see AI utilized in place of actual people for a sold product.

The primary goal of any business is to make profit by offering a product or a service.

This is the same argument people make for including lootboxes, battlepasses, macro transactions, P2W. I think everyone's well aware that plenty of companies will put profit over anything else.

Not to "create jobs for people", even though it is often necessary to achieve the primary goal.

In past 100-200 years many jobs were replaced by tools, machinery, robots, conveyors etc. So what?

Those are all good example of labor that can wreck a person's body, which are wildly different from creative ventures.

Creativity can't be replicated by a machine. Only fools claim otherwise.

As time goes by, some jobs become less relevant or disappear.

While new opportunities appear.

If you hire real voice actors - multiply their number by 5-10 as game needs to be translated in other languages.

AI effortlessly tackles this issue. The alternative of that? Huge amount of money and unnecessary work hours.

The alternative is hiring people who know the language to translate so everyone gets a better more genuine experience.

As I already said, as long as this stays for audio only, I'll only side eye it partially. If it ever creeps into trying to make visuals with AI, then that's solidly into the realm of unethical both because 'AI' can only plagiarize and it uses up an obscene amount of energy and water in order to function. It's genuinely an ecological issue how widespread chatbots and 'art'generators are these days.

Flanker

Caeryl wrote: »

This is the same argument people make for including lootboxes, battlepasses, macro transactions, P2W. I think everyone's well aware that plenty of companies will put profit over anything else.

This is not an argument this is a fact. I probably should have phrased it as "almost any business" to make it more accurate.

And yes, any business or studio is free to choose whichever monetization strategy they prefer. It's the customer's decision whether to use their service/product or not.

Caeryl wrote: »

Those are all good example of labor that can wreck a person's body, which are wildly different from creative ventures.

I suppose those who invented and started using those tools cared more about their business, efficiency and reducing the expenses.

Caeryl wrote: »

Creativity can't be replicated by a machine. Only fools claim otherwise.

It can't be replicated by a machine at this point. We don't know how it will be in future.

Caeryl wrote: »

The alternative is hiring people who know the language to translate so everyone gets a better more genuine experience.

Exactly, that could be an alternative. Theoretically. Wanna estimate how much time and money would it cost?

Caeryl wrote: »

As I already said, as long as this stays for audio only

Well, this is what this thread is about.

Caeryl wrote: »

I'll only side eye it partially. If it ever creeps into trying to make visuals with AI, then that's solidly into the realm of unethical

Ethics is always subjective. If it bothers you that much, so be it

Caeryl wrote: »

'AI' can only plagiarize and it uses up an obscene amount of energy and water in order to function. It's genuinely an ecological issue how widespread chatbots and 'art'generators are these days.

So how does it work exactly?

> You: worry about the ecological issue. Fine, understandable

> Intrepid is gonna use AI which might potentially contribute to that issue

> You: still gonna play the game (I assume)

If it is bad and it bothers you, then what keeps you here? How does it all align? A genuine question, I'm curious

Caeryl

Flanker wrote: »

So how does it work exactly?

> You: worry about the ecological issue. Fine, understandable

> Intrepid is gonna use AI which might potentially contribute to that issue

> You: still gonna play the game (I assume)

If it is bad and it bothers you, then what keeps you here? How does it all align? A genuine question, I'm curious

Really don't hold much respect for artists, I see. Bad look but thankfully for now not entirely relevant for Intrepid's planning.

Voice 'AI' is a text-to-sound program run only to record voice lines based on one specific collection of sound bites for pronunciation.

Chatbots and 'art' bots are entirely tools of plagiarism and data scraping that cast oit searches on the internet in full to frankenstein a combination together that it thinks you want.

The former is a bit disrespectful to voice artists, who are as much actors as anything. They can make or break a game and bring to life in a way a machine never can. It's not 100% a deal breaker because of the nature of how it works (prerecorded content, not on-demand queuing for a whole new voice-line every time).

The later is a complete and utter disregard for creatives entirely, along with harming the environment to boost profits. If Intrepid started using the plagiarism bots in either their art or their witting, that's a hard no. I'm never gonna put money toward a company that would use tools like that when they do nothing but steal.

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