Unity AI

Unity Unveils Generative AI Marketplace for Video Game Developers

Unity has opened a new virtual marketplace to host generative AI tools and systems for video game creators. The software developer augmented its existing Unity Asset store with a portfolio of generative AI apps useful for enhancing the AI of non-player characters in games from approved third-party developers like Replica, Leonardo AI, and Inworld.

Generative Unity

The market is designed around providing generative AI tools from various startups, with 10 partner companies in the initial lineup. They include visual and video asset generators Atlas, Layer AI, Leonardo AI, Polyhive, and Zibra AI, along with AI speech generators LMNT and Replica Studios. AI behavior programming tools are supplied by Convai and Inworld AI, while Modl.ai’s generative AI platform for streamlining game development completes the initial cohort in the market.

“We know that AI will continue to have a seismic impact on the gaming industry and we’re seeing surging demand for more AI tools from our developers,” Unity senior vice president Ralph Hauwert said. “With the new AI marketplace in the Unity Asset Store, we’re making it easier for creators to not only access AI solutions but to select the right ones that fit their project’s needs. Unity is committed to uncovering and delivering the best-in-class AI tools that bring immediate value to our creators. We’re providing our developers with a reliable marketplace so they can effectively harness the power of AI in the game development process directly through the Unity Editor.”

The marketplace is part of a larger rollout by Unity around generative AI, including the new Unity Sentis and Unity Muse platforms. Sentis enables developers to embed neural networks into games, while Muse employs AI to create assets for games. Muse also comes with a generative AI chatbot for troubleshooting issues with it named Unity Muse Chat.

Unity’s flurry of generative AI releases fits with the trend among video game developers pursuing generative AI ideas. However, Unity’s comprehensive approach to how it can be used and partnerships with other companies stands out. The closest might be Nvidia and its Avatar Cloud Engine (ACE) for Games toolkit for producing more realistic and dynamic virtual people that can interact with players. Meanwhile, Roblox started incorporating generative AI tools to write the code for objects and their behavior in a virtual environment in March, while digital human creator Didimo introduced Popul8, which uses generative AI t tweak uploaded character templates into hundreds of variations that still fit the style of the game. Scenario also uses generative AI for video game art, and game publisher Latitude relies on advanced language models to run its AI Dungeon.

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