News video games 23 September 2021, 21:06

The Witcher 3 Characters Made More Life-like Thanks to AI

One Reddit user used the AI-based app called StyleCLIP to add realism to the faces of NPCs from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The result of his work is quite impressive.

NPC models in The Witcher 3 tends to be repetitive, but it's hard to deny their charm. Besides, they fit into the universe. But were they realistic? To some extent, yes. Still, their faces were far removed from what we see every day. If you've ever wondered what the NPCs from the third game would look like in real life, you can satisfy your curiosity thanks to the StyleCLIP app (more in the box) - as it was done by the Reddit user by the hande gutekx12.

How does StyleCLIP work?

The AI will describe our chosen photo or screen using several text parameters that can be easily modified. This enables us to change a specific thing, such as hair length, without any interference with other elements of the character's appearance. How does it work in practice? If you are curious, I recommend you watch this video. Those who are more inquisitive, however, can look here. Under the link - in addition to a detailed description - you can also find many examples of using StyleCLIP.

The user employed artificial intelligence software to give NPC faces from The Witcher 3 a bit more realism. The effects of his work can be admired on the screenshots below (on the left are the NPCs from the game, and on the right are the processed faces).

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/witcher/comments/ptqoh1/i_used_ai_to_make_random_npc_realistic.

I don't know about you, but I'm impressed. It makes me I wish some clever mod maker would find a way to bring those realistic faces into the game. Well, nothing is impossible, as best evidenced by mods like First Person Camera Reworked - we wrote about it here - it made the experience of looking at the world of The Witcher through Geralt's eyes (that is, from FPP view) much more believable.