The recent AI boom has had all sorts of weird and wonderful side effects as amateur tinkerers find ways to repurpose research from universities and tech companies. But one of the more unexpected applications has been in the world of video game mods. Fans have discovered that machine learning is the perfect tool to improve the graphics of classic games.
The technique being used is known as “AI upscaling.” In essence, you feed an algorithm a low-resolution image, and, based on training data it’s seen, it spits out a version that looks the same but has more pixels in it. Upscaling, as a general technique, has been around for a long time, but the use of AI has drastically improved the speed and quality of results.
“It was like witchcraft,” says Daniel Trolie, a teacher and student from Norway who used AI to update the visuals of 2002 RPG classic The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. “[It] looked like I just downloaded a hi-res texture pack from [game developers] Bethesda themselves.”
Trolie is a moderator at the r/GameUpscale subreddit where, along with specialist forums and chat apps like Discord, fans share tips and tricks on how to best use these AI tools.
Browsing these forums, it’s apparent that the modding process is a lot like restoring old furniture or works of art. It’s a job for skilled craftspeople, requiring patience and knowledge. Not every game is a good fit for upscaling, and not every upscaling algorithm produces similar results. Modders have to pick the right tool for the job before putting in hundreds of hours of work to polish the final results. It’s a labor of love, not a quick fix.
Despite the work involved, it’s still much faster than previous methods. It means restoring the graphics can be done in a few weeks by a single dedicated modder, rather than a team that has to work for years. As a consequence, there’s been an explosion of new graphics for old games over the past six months or so.
The range of titles is impressive, including Doom, Half-Life 2, Metroid Prime 2, Final Fantasy VII, and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Even more recent fare like 2010’s Mass Effect 2 has got the AI-upscaling treatment. In each case, though, these are unsanctioned upgrades, meaning it takes a bit of extra know-how to install the new visuals.
Actually creating these AI graphics takes a lot of work, explains a modder who goes by the name hidfan. He tells The Verge that the updated Doom visuals he made took at least 200 hours of work to tweak the algorithm’s output and clean up final images by hand.
In Doom, as with many video games, the majority of the visuals are stored as texture packs. These are images of rocks, metal, grass, and so on that are pasted onto the game’s 3D maps like wallpaper onto the walls of a house. Just as with wallpaper, these textures have to tesselate perfectly, or players can spot where one image starts and another begins.
Because the output from AI upscaling algorithms tends to introduce a lot of noise, says hidfan, a lot of manual editing is still required. The same is true when it comes to the visuals for characters and enemies. Hidfan says that cleaning up just a single monster takes between five and 15 hours, depending on how complex their animation is.
That’s something to remember when looking at these updates or any project that uses machine learning. Just because AI is involved, doesn’t mean human labor isn’t.
But how does the process actually work? Albert Yang, CTO of Topaz Labs, a startup that offers a popular upscaling service used by many modders, says it’s pretty straightforward.
You start by taking a type of algorithm known as a generative adversarial network (GAN) and train it on millions of pairs of low-res and high-res images. “After it’s seen these millions of photos many, many times it starts to learn what a high resolution image looks like when it sees a low resolution image,” Yang tells The Verge.
One part of the algorithm tries to re-create this transition from low-res to high-res, while another part compares its work against the training data, seeing if it can spot the difference and rejecting the output if not. This feedback loop is how GANs improve over time.
Using AI to upscale images is a relatively simple task, but it perfectly illustrates the core advantage of machine learning. While traditional algorithms rely on rules defined by humans, machine learning techniques create their own rules by learning from data.
In the case of upscaling algorithms, these rules are often pretty simple. If you want to upscale a 50 x 50-pixel image to double its size, for example, a traditional algorithm just inserts new pixels between the existing ones, selecting the new pixels’ color based on an average of its neighbors. To give a very simplified example: if you have a red pixel on one side and a blue pixel on the other, the new pixel in the middle comes out purple.
This sort of method is simple to code and execute, but it’s a one-size-fits-all approach that produces mixed results, says Yang.
The algorithms created by machine learning are much more dynamic by comparison. Topaz Labs’ Gigapixel upscaling doesn’t just look at neighboring pixels; it looks at whole sections of images at a time. That allows it to better re-create larger structures, like the outlines of buildings and furniture or the edges of a racetrack in Mario Kart.
“This larger perceptual field is the major reason [AI upscaling algorithms] perform so much better,” says Yang.
Saturday, May 18, 2019
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
Could a computer game help you cut down on sugar?
Some records indicate the people in the U.S. consume, on average, about 57 pounds (almost 26 kilograms) of added sugar per person per year.
This is significantly more than the quantity indicated as safe in official guidelines, such as those issued by the American Heart Association (AHA), which state that adults should have no more than approximately 6 teaspoons of sugar per day, for women, and no more than around 9 teaspoons of sugar per day, for men.
Overconsumption of foods that are high in sugars, and especially added sugars — such as candy, cookies, and cakes — may contribute to obesity-related health problems and, according to some studies, may increase the risk of certain forms of cancer.
Considering the potential ill effects of consuming too much added sugar, a team from Drexel University's College of Arts and Sciences, in Philadelphia, PA, wanted to find a new approach to getting people to avoid processed foods rich in sugar.
For this purpose, the team — led by Evan Forman, Ph.D. — developed a "brain-training" computer game aimed at teaching individuals to reach less often for sweets and more often for more nutritious foods, such as fruits and vegetables.
"Added sugar is one of the biggest culprits of excess calories and is also associated with several health risks, including cancer. For these reasons, eliminating added sugar from a person's diet results in weight loss and reduced risk of disease," explains Forman.
A game that promotes healthful eating
Forman notes that "Cognitive, or brain-training, games have been used to help people reduce unhealthy habits like smoking," and adds, "We were also seeing positive results from labs using computer training programs."
So, he and colleagues wondered if they would be able to apply the same principle to encouraging more healthful dietary habits.
Thus, they developed a game — which they named "Diet DASH" — in which the player has to move as quickly as they can through a supermarket, rejecting unhealthful products such as sweets and adding healthful foods to the shopping cart instead.
To test the effectiveness of this game, the researchers recruited 106 adult participants who were overweight — which in this case meant having a body mass index (BMI) of 25–50 kilograms per square meter — and who reported eating at least 2 servings of high-sugar foods on a daily basis.
Before taking part in gameplay, the participants attended workshops where they learned why sugar can be bad for health, which sweet foods are unhealthful, and which whole foods are the most nutritious.
Later, the participants played the games at home, first for a few minutes at a time, every day for a period of 6 weeks, then once per week for 2 weeks.
Promising results following trial
"The workshop helped give participants strategies for following a no-sugar diet. However, we hypothesized that participants would need an extra tool to help manage sweets cravings," Forman explains.
"The daily trainings," he adds, "could make or break a person's ability to follow the no-added sugar diet. They strengthen the [relevant] part of your brain to not react to the impulse for sweets."
The researchers found that more than half of the participants with strong sweet cravings managed to lose 3.1% of their body weight over the 8 weeks during which they played the game.
Moreover, the volunteers reported enjoying the gameplay and indicated that they would be happy to continue this brain-training in the future. The researchers report their results in a study paper published in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine.
Forman and the team also looked at whether players found a "highly gamified" version of this game — which featured enhanced graphic and design elements — more helpful and engaging than the regular, less showy version.
To this effect, they had randomly given each participant one of the two versions to play during the study period. All in all, it did not seem to matter which version the participants played, in terms of how it affected their weight loss efforts or taste for sugary foods.
However, the researchers did notice that men, specifically, tended to find the enhanced version of the game more engaging, relating to it better. Because of this, the investigators are now recruiting participants for a further trial, testing the success of the highly gamified version in training male participants.
Friday, February 22, 2019
Las Cruces gamers invent four new computer games
The Doña Ana Community College Game Jam, an international two-day round-the-clock computer game inventing marathon produced several new computer games at the East Mesa Campus Jan. 26-27.
DACC assistant professor Michael Brown was excited about the games and the robust attendance with more than 30 gamers participating.
“The turnout was fantastic, including new people from the greater Las Cruces area, a few local 3D artists and programmers,” Brown said. “We were able to break out into four teams to create four very different games.”
Game Jam is a nonprofit volunteer-run event with a single stated goal: to bring together people all over the world to have a great time making innovative games.
The theme for this year’s Game Jam was, “Home, what does it mean to you?” The teams took the theme in very diverse directions.
First, there is a 3D platformer game starring a kangaroo and her little joey who lives in her pouch (home). The joey is required to come out and solve puzzles but always returns to his pouch to feel safe, which puts a time limit on the puzzles.
Second, a community building game was created that requires players to build up a town after the apocalypse. The player has to balance out the town’s needs as well as try to save as many people as possible. If the player allows too many people in too quickly, for example, the town can’t provide for them and it crumbles.
Third, a game was created starring a loveable pup who has lost his way home. The pup must survive the forest and follow his owner’s scent until he makes it back to the warm fireplace in the cabin. In addition to finding the owner’s scent, the game requires players to manage the pup’s thirst and hunger, all the while avoiding bears and skunks.
The last game produced during the jam is a take on Temple Run-type games and is being designed for mobile devices. This game tasks the player with guiding an RV as it barrels down a hill. The player must avoid obstacles and make it safely to the end. Why is the RV barreling down the hill you ask? Easy, the RV took a wrong turn while touring the United States!
“The turnout was fantastic, including new people from the greater Las Cruces area, a few local 3D artists and programmers,” Brown said. “We were able to break out into four teams to create four very different games.”
Game Jam is a nonprofit volunteer-run event with a single stated goal: to bring together people all over the world to have a great time making innovative games.
The theme for this year’s Game Jam was, “Home, what does it mean to you?” The teams took the theme in very diverse directions.
First, there is a 3D platformer game starring a kangaroo and her little joey who lives in her pouch (home). The joey is required to come out and solve puzzles but always returns to his pouch to feel safe, which puts a time limit on the puzzles.
Second, a community building game was created that requires players to build up a town after the apocalypse. The player has to balance out the town’s needs as well as try to save as many people as possible. If the player allows too many people in too quickly, for example, the town can’t provide for them and it crumbles.
Third, a game was created starring a loveable pup who has lost his way home. The pup must survive the forest and follow his owner’s scent until he makes it back to the warm fireplace in the cabin. In addition to finding the owner’s scent, the game requires players to manage the pup’s thirst and hunger, all the while avoiding bears and skunks.
The last game produced during the jam is a take on Temple Run-type games and is being designed for mobile devices. This game tasks the player with guiding an RV as it barrels down a hill. The player must avoid obstacles and make it safely to the end. Why is the RV barreling down the hill you ask? Easy, the RV took a wrong turn while touring the United States!
Wednesday, December 26, 2018
A Comprehensive List Of All The Computer Games You Played At School
While scrolling through Reddit today, as I am wont to do, I stumbled across an image posted by a user named Thebuder89 and it made my brain do a full-blown backflip. It was a picture of a CD-ROM for the classic educational game, Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo.
It ignited an inferno of memories from the days when classroom computers contained all sorts of educational delights. They were fun as hell back then, probably because we were dumbasses at the time, but I bet if you played them now they'd blow real hard, save for a couple.
So come on a magical journey as we remember some of the classics of schoolyard gaming, starting with the aforementioned talking car.
Putt-Putt
The Putt-Putt series is made up of a heap of games, but in terms of what you'd consider main titles, there are seven in total. They were point-and-click adventures in which you play a car named Putt-Putt, taking on different objectives like saving a zoo, for example.
I could have sworn Putt-Putt was named after the sound a stupid car would make, kinda like Brum, but according to Wikipedia, "his name was given to him by his father, who enjoyed to play mini golf". What the fuck?
Freddi Fish
The Freddi Fish games were made by Humongous Entertainment, who also created the Putt-Putt games above, so it handles in a very similar manner.
Freddi Fish and his small green pal, Luther, embark on adventures specific to the title of the game, much like their anthropomorphic car cousin. One such adventure is titled The Case of the Hogfish Rustlers of Briny Gulch, which almost sounds like it's a porno.
I also have an issue with a fish being named Luther.
Lemmings
The first time I ever played Lemmings was on a school computer in year 3 and it was the fucking best. Heaps of tiny green-haired idiots just marching mindlessly towards death, waiting for you to save them by instructing the one in front to build some goddamn stairs over a bottomless pit.
I don't know why this was on the school computers because it wasn't all that educational, but it whips ass so who fucking cares?
Zoombinis
Everyone remembers Zoombinis. They were little blue blobs with feet you had to guide to a safe land known as Zoombiniville (lazy name, but we'll let that slide) by solving a series of puzzles.
The first title, Logical Journey of the Zoombinis, was released in 1996 and seemed to make its way into every school in the country. We all seem to have collective memories of that goddamn Pizza Pass level.
Bugdom
Bugdom, in which you play a bug, is a platforming game that's by no means educational, but somehow came pre-loaded onto every Mac in my primary school.
The bug also wore a tiny pair of sneakers on two of its eight legs. Do with that information what you will.
The Magic School Bus
The Magic School Bus started as a book, became an animated TV series (which was rebooted in 2017), then hit computer monitors as an educational video game.
I don't remember playing the series at school, but I definitely remember smashing that shit at home when I was a kid. There were tons of games, each one exploring a different topic, but the human body and solar system ones were the best because stacking like a thousand Earths inside Jupiter and playing pinball in Arnold‘s heart was fucking mad.
Encarta 95
The Encarta series was the closest thing we had to Wikipedia before Wikipedia was a thing. It's not really a game, but more of an interactive encyclopedia found on most school library computers.
I wouldn't say it was "fun," but pissing off the mean library lady by playing howler monkey sounds at full volume and passing it off as school work sure was.
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
Another mainstay of the school computer, the Carmen Sandiego games tasked you with finding a woman named Carmen Sandiego by following a series of clues.
From memory, finding old mate was incredibly tricky, but then again, I was like 8 and therefore, an idiot.
Reader Rabbit
I don't remember playing any of the Reader Rabbit games, but the concept is pretty simple. You are a rabbit and you read. I refuse to say more.
It ignited an inferno of memories from the days when classroom computers contained all sorts of educational delights. They were fun as hell back then, probably because we were dumbasses at the time, but I bet if you played them now they'd blow real hard, save for a couple.
So come on a magical journey as we remember some of the classics of schoolyard gaming, starting with the aforementioned talking car.
Putt-Putt
The Putt-Putt series is made up of a heap of games, but in terms of what you'd consider main titles, there are seven in total. They were point-and-click adventures in which you play a car named Putt-Putt, taking on different objectives like saving a zoo, for example.
I could have sworn Putt-Putt was named after the sound a stupid car would make, kinda like Brum, but according to Wikipedia, "his name was given to him by his father, who enjoyed to play mini golf". What the fuck?
Freddi Fish
The Freddi Fish games were made by Humongous Entertainment, who also created the Putt-Putt games above, so it handles in a very similar manner.
Freddi Fish and his small green pal, Luther, embark on adventures specific to the title of the game, much like their anthropomorphic car cousin. One such adventure is titled The Case of the Hogfish Rustlers of Briny Gulch, which almost sounds like it's a porno.
I also have an issue with a fish being named Luther.
Lemmings
The first time I ever played Lemmings was on a school computer in year 3 and it was the fucking best. Heaps of tiny green-haired idiots just marching mindlessly towards death, waiting for you to save them by instructing the one in front to build some goddamn stairs over a bottomless pit.
I don't know why this was on the school computers because it wasn't all that educational, but it whips ass so who fucking cares?
Zoombinis
Everyone remembers Zoombinis. They were little blue blobs with feet you had to guide to a safe land known as Zoombiniville (lazy name, but we'll let that slide) by solving a series of puzzles.
The first title, Logical Journey of the Zoombinis, was released in 1996 and seemed to make its way into every school in the country. We all seem to have collective memories of that goddamn Pizza Pass level.
Bugdom
Bugdom, in which you play a bug, is a platforming game that's by no means educational, but somehow came pre-loaded onto every Mac in my primary school.
The bug also wore a tiny pair of sneakers on two of its eight legs. Do with that information what you will.
The Magic School Bus
The Magic School Bus started as a book, became an animated TV series (which was rebooted in 2017), then hit computer monitors as an educational video game.
I don't remember playing the series at school, but I definitely remember smashing that shit at home when I was a kid. There were tons of games, each one exploring a different topic, but the human body and solar system ones were the best because stacking like a thousand Earths inside Jupiter and playing pinball in Arnold‘s heart was fucking mad.
Encarta 95
The Encarta series was the closest thing we had to Wikipedia before Wikipedia was a thing. It's not really a game, but more of an interactive encyclopedia found on most school library computers.
I wouldn't say it was "fun," but pissing off the mean library lady by playing howler monkey sounds at full volume and passing it off as school work sure was.
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
Another mainstay of the school computer, the Carmen Sandiego games tasked you with finding a woman named Carmen Sandiego by following a series of clues.
From memory, finding old mate was incredibly tricky, but then again, I was like 8 and therefore, an idiot.
Reader Rabbit
I don't remember playing any of the Reader Rabbit games, but the concept is pretty simple. You are a rabbit and you read. I refuse to say more.
Saturday, October 20, 2018
Mobile Casual Gamers Are 200 Million Strong but Largely Ignored
Perception is reality when it comes to marketing, and perception is challenging to alter once it is formed. For example, even though 203 million Americans will play mobile games regularly in 2018, most Americans do not identify themselves as gamers. Industry data proves that people of every age, demographic and household income play mobile games. Interestingly, over 20 percent of gamers in a recent study were older than 55. While 60 percent of women in another study said they play mobile games daily, 72 percent of women do not consider themselves gamers, even though 59 percent of them play at least 10 times per week.
Let's face it, the popular concept of a gamer (read: a teenager blowing up zombies in his parents' basement) is antiquated. Many advertisers have at least partially held back exploring mobile games as an advertising medium because the gamer image turns them off. However, in 2018, the majority of mobile games played are actually casual games: puzzles, word games, quiz games, brain teasers, etc. In other words, brand-safe and family-friendly. Mobile games are so successful that they now eclipse Hollywood's global box office revenue at $50 billion versus $40 billion.
Additionally, monster hits such as Pokémon Go, Words With Friends, HQ and others have begun to change perceptions. The industry is also remarketing itself to brands, coining the term "moca"—a combination of "mobile" and "casual"—to better represent a person who casually plays mobile games. The term originated from Jun Group as a way to rebrand mobile games for the new generation.
Pulling back the curtain on mobile games reveals an environment ideal for brand advertising. For example, the popular coloring book app Recolor surfaced with millions of daily active players who spend 10 minutes a session on average and generate over 68 million app sessions per month. Over 60 percent of Recolor players earn a household income of over $75,000, according to Facebook Analytics.
The success of casual game apps explains why they were predicted to be a more than 50 percent increase (to $655 million) in brand ad spend on mobile games over the past three years. Ninety-three percent of that spend went to video ads, and as brands continue to pull their video spend from unsavory sites and sites with uncontrollable content, they are beginning to see games as a safe and immersive way to reach their customers.
Despite this recent uptick, spend in the category still pales in comparison to the billions of dollars spent on social networks. Leading industry organizations like the Mobile Marketing Association are working to change that. A recent white paper on mobile games illustrates the opportunities in-game ads present for brands. The reality is that 25 percent of all apps downloaded from iTunes and Google Play are games, making games by far the number one app category. Mobile games typically represent 20-40 percent of the most popular apps in iTunes and the Google Play store. Mobile games are so popular that people spend on average three times more time with them than they do chat apps, as reported by comScore.
Also of interest to advertisers is the fact that people report feeling more engaged, relaxed, focused and happy with mobile games as compared to with social media. And people who are in an upbeat and positive mood are 40 percent more receptive to digital ads. Conversely, the mood of a social media goer may be less savory. Studies have revealed feelings of depression and anxiety, especially among millennial audiences—likely not the most receptive of moods for brand messaging.
So, while adopting a new term like moca to describe people who casually play mobile games is not a silver bullet for everything that ails digital advertising, it does go a long way to help change advertisers' perception of the space. It helps to refocus the conversation on an exciting source of brand-safe and high-performing ad inventory. Moca gaming reflects a growing pastime for hundreds of millions of Americans from all walks of life. Expect to see more people identify themselves as mocas in 2018—and look for advertisers to scale their spending accordingly.
Let's face it, the popular concept of a gamer (read: a teenager blowing up zombies in his parents' basement) is antiquated. Many advertisers have at least partially held back exploring mobile games as an advertising medium because the gamer image turns them off. However, in 2018, the majority of mobile games played are actually casual games: puzzles, word games, quiz games, brain teasers, etc. In other words, brand-safe and family-friendly. Mobile games are so successful that they now eclipse Hollywood's global box office revenue at $50 billion versus $40 billion.
Additionally, monster hits such as Pokémon Go, Words With Friends, HQ and others have begun to change perceptions. The industry is also remarketing itself to brands, coining the term "moca"—a combination of "mobile" and "casual"—to better represent a person who casually plays mobile games. The term originated from Jun Group as a way to rebrand mobile games for the new generation.
Pulling back the curtain on mobile games reveals an environment ideal for brand advertising. For example, the popular coloring book app Recolor surfaced with millions of daily active players who spend 10 minutes a session on average and generate over 68 million app sessions per month. Over 60 percent of Recolor players earn a household income of over $75,000, according to Facebook Analytics.
The success of casual game apps explains why they were predicted to be a more than 50 percent increase (to $655 million) in brand ad spend on mobile games over the past three years. Ninety-three percent of that spend went to video ads, and as brands continue to pull their video spend from unsavory sites and sites with uncontrollable content, they are beginning to see games as a safe and immersive way to reach their customers.
Despite this recent uptick, spend in the category still pales in comparison to the billions of dollars spent on social networks. Leading industry organizations like the Mobile Marketing Association are working to change that. A recent white paper on mobile games illustrates the opportunities in-game ads present for brands. The reality is that 25 percent of all apps downloaded from iTunes and Google Play are games, making games by far the number one app category. Mobile games typically represent 20-40 percent of the most popular apps in iTunes and the Google Play store. Mobile games are so popular that people spend on average three times more time with them than they do chat apps, as reported by comScore.
Also of interest to advertisers is the fact that people report feeling more engaged, relaxed, focused and happy with mobile games as compared to with social media. And people who are in an upbeat and positive mood are 40 percent more receptive to digital ads. Conversely, the mood of a social media goer may be less savory. Studies have revealed feelings of depression and anxiety, especially among millennial audiences—likely not the most receptive of moods for brand messaging.
So, while adopting a new term like moca to describe people who casually play mobile games is not a silver bullet for everything that ails digital advertising, it does go a long way to help change advertisers' perception of the space. It helps to refocus the conversation on an exciting source of brand-safe and high-performing ad inventory. Moca gaming reflects a growing pastime for hundreds of millions of Americans from all walks of life. Expect to see more people identify themselves as mocas in 2018—and look for advertisers to scale their spending accordingly.
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