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Ninja Theory, other triple-A devs using AI voice acting tech instead of voice actors

As long as it gets games out quicker, I really don’t fucking care. I’m just sick and tired of delays and games not coming out. If this speeds shit up (and eventually helps to get actual PS5/Series games out, so be it).

Besides, most voice acting is shit anyway, so big fucking deal.
 
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Ansphn

Member
Why? Are voice actors that expensive? I'm thinking voice actors like Yongyea and others cant be that expensive and they do a good job.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Recording lines is the least amount of factors when it comes to development time. It's something that's done congruent in the development process.
 
Cool for AA games as they dreadfully need it. I'm playing through Vampire Masquerade Swansong and some of these voices I swear are recorded on a tape recorder.
 
Ehhh, I get it...in a game with a ton of voice lines its cool. ES6 using AI voice lines exponentially increases the amount of VA you can have. And maybe a mod can use it so most JRPGs can stop having just text lol.

But forreal its just shows why sooner or later UBI is needed, because AI over time will tackle most industries.
 

EDMIX

Member
What sad is years ago many made the argument about what AI and automation would do to many industries and it seems like many didn't listen until it was their job that was being taken.

This isn't going to end well for many in this career field.
 
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Robb

Gold Member
Doesn’t sound all that bad to me. Should be way more efficient, you don’t have to hire someone or do different recordings. Just tweak the AI voice until you’re happy.

I can definitely see this becoming more common in the gaming and animation industry.
 

EekTheKat

Member
With the direction video game writing has been headed in these days - an AI will arguably be the only entity on Earth that can deliver lines without injury from the pure cringe.
 

Corndog

Banned
AI voice is the future.

Have you seen the Beckham voice video AI? The dude would speak in his native tongue while the AI would make his voice work on every language.

Just imagine you won't have voice actors with a shitty voice in your native language but instead the real voice in your language (ANY language).

It's the real deal in the future, and get used to it, just like every other human job getting replaced by a machine.
Not every job. Plenty of things machines still can’t do.
 
Certainly better than big name movie actors lackluster voice act badly written characters they don't care about one bit and taking gaming in general not serious and nevertheless cashing big.

I think Duolingo abandoned all actually recorded languages and replaced them with speech engines which is mostly fine and offers a variety of age and gender in the speakers but also has some hilarious weird moments where the engine clearly has no clue how it is correctly pronounced.
 

lh032

I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
A ton of JRPGs could use this in a good way. Most of them still go straight to basic text conversations once you're out of a cutscene.
yea, or they have the same voice acting like skyrim, with AI voice acting at least there will be variety of voice acting
 
AI voices used for monsters and all. Last of us used it for enemies as well afaik

Main characters will human voices.

Come on. Is this yet agenda from fanboys on other side to start console war by bashing upcoming xbox game?

Like grow up guys.
 

theclaw135

Banned
The positives are manyfold. A voice cast who doesn't age or retire, never gets fatigued from shouting and screaming, translatable to any language...
Except you know shoddy devs are going to misuse it, end up with a (pun intended) robotic sounding game.
 
Anything to save a buck. To me, this is fucked. Putting more artists out of jobs. They'd rather use fucking A.I than hire anyone else but Troy Baker. Ridiculous

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Shit makes me not wanna touch Hellblade 2 tbh.
LOL get a grip mate. It's like knocking a game for not using real music or a real orchestra and doing it all on the computer.. Next, you'll not be buying a game that uses Metascans because that putrs Artists out of work or having a Jolly going around doing research and taking photo's for a new game
 

Solarstrike

Member
So It Begins Helms Deep GIF by Giphy QA


Choosing sides between A.I and humanity. Employers/Corporations will always go the cheaper route. Smh, scary times ahead. Choose wisely :/
 
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Anything to save a buck. To me, this is fucked. Putting more artists out of jobs. They'd rather use fucking A.I than hire anyone else but Troy Baker. Ridiculous

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Shit makes me not wanna touch Hellblade 2 tbh.
Are you serious? This is quite obviously just regular NPC's as we know the lead actress is real 🙄 it's probably time saving as well not having to get in loads of voice actors to run through 30 lines etc. Main characters in games will always be voiced by actors, don't worry about it 😉
 
As long as it gets games out quicker, I really don’t fucking care. I’m just sick and tired of delays and games not coming out. If this speeds shit up (and eventually helps to get actual PS5/Series games out, so be it).

Besides, most voice acting is shit anyway, so big fucking deal.
This is the best thing, for example GTA games have loads on of NPC'S who just spout dialogue this tech would really speed that up.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
This technology has already been used in real games.


Sounds decent to me. No better or worse than typical video game actors. If AI Voice can replace most real people, skip the actors and sink that money to better writers or bug testing. Voice overs are one thing, but awful cheesy scripts are just as bad.

As long as AI Voice can churn out good dialogue, I'm all for it. In the long run, it'll suck for voice actors but that's the nature of business and tech. Some things are easier to phase out than others.
 
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Aenima

Member
AI voice is the future.

Have you seen the Beckham voice video AI? The dude would speak in his native tongue while the AI would make his voice work on every language.

Just imagine you won't have voice actors with a shitty voice in your native language but instead the real voice in your language (ANY language).

It's the real deal in the future, and get used to it, just like every other human job getting replaced by a machine.
Thats not how localization works, if thers a joke or puns or slang, etc using a machine to traslate it might not work or lose the meaning if its done a literal translation to a diferent language.
 
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ZehDon

Member
... so, using AI speech-to-text for stop-gap dialogue during dev has been in place since at least the early 2000s. Many alpha builds that have leaked come packed to the brim with this type of work, because it helps developers immensely in understanding flow and timings.

It sounds like this AI goes to the next level, and is used to cut costs by ensuring you can show the actor "this is what I need" and them delivering it in as few takes as possible, all the while your developers have a pretty good bit of cost-effective dialogue to use during development, keeping everything moving quickly. This means you don't need to bring in voice actors until much later in the process, instead of having them back again and again to re-record dialogue. For simple indie games, this type of AI might be used for NPCs, but for AAA games pushing performances, it wouldn't fly. At least, not yet.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
The positives are manyfold. A voice cast who doesn't age or retire, never gets fatigued from shouting and screaming, translatable to any language...
Except you know shoddy devs are going to misuse it, end up with a (pun intended) robotic sounding game.
And even better to put it bluntly.... The programmers dont even need the voice actor there. The can work away not caring about voice actors recording lines or giving attitude back or telling the studio they are done for the day because it's 5 pm.
 
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mrmeh

Member
Bunch of luddites on here... I care about the end product, if new tools help produce the game quicker with less staff at the same quality what's the issue? Should we stop using machines to make everything just buy chintzy overpriced crap off Etsy?
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Bunch of luddites on here... I care about the end product, if new tools help produce the game quicker with less staff at the same quality what's the issue? Should we stop using machines to make everything just buy chintzy overpriced crap off Etsy?
Whenever better tech or better business show they can do shit good and fast, you'll always get people saying stop the parade - you got to save their jobs.
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Next AI will make the games and replace devs. Payback is a bitch lol
Well you already got those AI art sites that can make a picture based on some keyword inputs. And going by some of the shit I've seen posted on gaf it's 10x better than what 99% of artists can do.

That thread in OT about some dude winning a contest based on submitting AI art was great looking stuff. It churned out space opera images you'd only get from Hollywood artists on big budgets. The site probably made the images in 2 minutes.
 

kruis

Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
"I need someone of your stature to talk to them close fuckers." haha

So I guess this tech is for voices that are harder to understand and have zero perception of pacing?

You don't understand what this tech does. It's not a text to speech synthesis tool, it's a program that alters the vocal characteristics of an already recorded voice. That means only one voice actor is needed, the program can make that one voice actor do the voices of dozens of different characters in the game and make them sound male, female, american, british, smooth, rough, etc etc.

But if that original voice actor is shit at his/her job, it will still sound off or stilted. You won't get good results if the lead programmer of a small developer team believes he can use this tool to avoid hiring a voice actor at all. You still need talent. It's the same thing if someone with no musical skills thinks he can create an orchestral score after buying the same sample libraries, synths and recording equipment as Hans Zimmer.
 

Calverz

Member
Pretty incredible tech but sucks for voice actors. As technology continues to improve, this problem won’t be limited to voice actors.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Pretty incredible tech but sucks for voice actors. As technology continues to improve, this problem won’t be limited to voice actors.
Yup.

Tech always solves technical stuff first, but at some point software companies will try to replace the human element. May work, may not.

Just think of all the paper pushers from 50 years ago replaced, then more replaced, then more. It gets to a point the computer and backend servers do all the data compiling for you. All that's left is a super lean department that churns out some of its data and does analysis on it (human judgement calls). And a team of IT people to ensure the data is done right.

At some my team and I might get replaced because a programmer will made software that churns out data with the push of a button with 20 different analysis and decisions the VP can choose to do. All in 2 minutes. And if the VP wants more, he just speaks into his mic like Alexa and asks the PC what he wants and SAP does it for him in seconds. Were not there yet and maybe not in my lifetime (I hope to retire in 10 years), but one day it can happen.
 
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azertydu91

Hard to Kill
Well I don't know if it's for the growl of enemies in Hellblade, I don't think that's a problem. If, however in story based games where Ai talks instead of real people, then it's fucked.
Exactly if random fucker dying n°2354 voice is made by AI why not but please no main or side character.Voice actors can bring so much personality and even something the dev hadn't thought about, Vaas is a good example(I thnk they rewritten the charater to match the performance of the VA).
But there's definitely not enough voice actors at least in France it is the case and the worst part is that I think we are a country with comparatively a lot of VA, but we'll always hear the same 10 to 15 voices.
Sure in the US Troy Baker is amazing but I am sure that there are other eager to voice characters that are very good too, Christopher judge was amazing for Kratos for example(
Baldr
too).
 

GymWolf

Member
The most important thing is to have black IA voicing black characters, transexual IA voicing transexual characters etc.

It's the only way i could allow this.
 
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