🎮 GTA VI, AI, and Metaverses — Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney on the Future of Gaming

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney recently appeared on Lex Fridman's podcast and shared his thoughts on why we've been waiting so long for GTA VI, how AI will change gaming and computer graphics, and what to expect from metaverses.
Here are the key points:

🎮 Rockstar creates incredibly immersive worlds in GTA. But it's impossible to predict how long this process will take. Often, when you create one hyper-realistic detail, other elements look weak in comparison, forcing developers to rework them, and the cycle repeats. This is why the process takes so long. However, Sweeney is confident that the years of waiting for GTA VI will be worth it.

"A bad game is bad forever. A late good game is eventually is released and is good," he said.

🔜 Many in gamedev are overly optimistic about AI, according to Sweeney. While AI can generate high-quality static images, consistency is lost when transitioning between frames in a video. AI lacks an understanding of the full complexity of a world, whereas game engines excel at this.

🔜 "It's a completely untamed tool," Sweeney says about AI. A hand-crafted image or scene will always animate consistently, but AI "thinks" in a fuzzy way. Even a slight change in a prompt can lead to radically different results. Today, we can't control AI fully, but over time, methods will emerge to integrate it into traditional creative processes.

🔜 Humans are the most challenging part of computer graphics. The MetaHuman tool in Unreal Engine allows developers to create incredibly lifelike digital characters based on real actors. However, achieving absolute photorealism could still take decades.

🔜 At the moment, Fortnite servers can handle up to 100 players at once. Still, a single simulation could support millions of participants in the future. The metaverse could be as vast as a continent or entire Earth, with different developer teams managing various regions. However, the necessary programming tools are still lacking, so Epic Games is investing significantly in new technologies.

📱 You can watch the full 4-hour conversation with Tim Sweeney here.

More on the topic:

🎮 Microsoft launched Quake II inside an AI model

🎮 Roblox introduces AI-generated 3D models

#interview #Fortnite @hiaimediaen