AI Boosts Realism of GTA 5 Visuals
What would REALLY realistic graphics look like in video games? This question is answered by an experiment in which researchers presented photorealistic (though not necessarily beautiful) graphics of Grand Theft Auto V.
GTA 6 may constantly appear in (hardly) credible rumors, but there's no indication that we'll receive official information about the game anytime soon. In this situation, the players have no choice but to return to the fifth installment of Rockstar Games's series, if only with mods that improve the visuals. However, for researchers at Intel ISL, make the visuals more beautiful is not enough. Instead, the researchers have used Grand Theft Auto V to show how photorealistic graphics can be created with the help of an AI. You can see how it looks in practice in the video below and some interactive images comparing the original visuals with the effect achieved by Intel ISL
The details of the process are described in a document shared on GitHub, but - in a nutshell - the whole thing is based on using footage and images from cities (including car cameras in Germany from Cityscapes database) as part of a so-called weave network. Based on these references, AI analyzes and reworks each frame of animation in real-time to make it look as similar as possible to the reference material. The method has an advantage over other methods, as it improves not only the color of the image, but also objects (for example, trees), and it is more stable and does not cause so many visuals artifacts.
Of course, it is easy to see that the effect is far from perfect. The quality of the image is very poor, and there is a clear drop in performance, although it should be noted that the static 'photographs' of the game look a little better. There is also a noticeable change in colors, which is probably a side effect of using footage from real German cities to process the surroundings of virtual California. Nevertheless, the whole thing is still impressive and certainly works as a proof of concept. The question is, do gamers really want such realistic virtual worlds?
