Josep Lorente Marco
Expert XR Engineer
The introduction of GPT-3 in November 2022 marked a complete revolution in the technological landscape of recent years. We had to swiftly adopt this technology for our products and incorporate it into our value proposition. As we explored how generative AI could assist in NAKA, we identified a clear opportunity: applying this new technology to NAKA’s NPCs. This approach allows us to provide a more immersive solution through a more natural, accessible, and effective interaction with users.
In this article, we will review the key milestones in the application of generative AI to NPCs, a concept we refer to as NAKA Smart NPCs.
Ready Player Me
Ready Player Me is an online avatar creation platform. Positioned as a reference in its sector, it offers a multiplatform solution, capable of easily integrating into the main graphics engines and running smoothly on any device thanks to its optimization.
Its cross-platform philosophy and investments of more than 13 million euros make it a strong candidate to become the main platform for generating digital identities of the future. Currently, Ready Player is active in more than 400 applications. By configuring an avatar on the platform, you can access any of these applications while keeping your avatar.
Configurator
Its configurator allows for the creation of avatars from a selfie, or, if preferred, from a base of avatars, and then finish configuring it using its many facial configuration options. Afterwards, you will only have to choose the clothes that best fit your style.
NAKA and Ready Player Me
NAKA has the ability to integrate with avatar platforms as well as offering its own native avatars. In our latest release, we have chosen to integrate the Ready Player Me platform, because its avatars maintain a balance between realistic and cartoony, which makes it fit into a wide variety of artistic styles. This is something very important for NAKA, as it embraces a wide variety of different customer experiences and art directions.
The great optimization of its avatars allows for the creation of massive experiences, essential for those events of a social nature that seek the confluence of a large number of simultaneous users.
At NAKA, we use half-body avatars, which are currently the standard in virtual reality (VR), since they offer greater freedom of movement and facilitate the use of experiences in different heights and positions.
Outsourcing avatars with a reference platform allows NAKA users to keep their avatars at the forefront of technology without the need for updates, ensuring the stability of the experiences. In addition, their real-time loading facilitates the incorporation of specific elements for special events, such as Christmas.
Animations
Ready Player models follow the standard skeleton used by other animation platforms like Mixamo, making it easy to use and create new animations. At NAKA we are working on a wide variety of animations, which will improve social interactions between users and help achieve more immersive experiences.
These avatars have a large number of facial “blendshapes”, which are a list of parameters that allows users to configure different facial expressions. This nuance allows users to move their mouths while speaking, have a natural look, and express emotions in real time, making their avatars appear more human.
NPCs
With Ready Player we have improved the quality of our assistant and NPCs (Non-playable characters) giving them a more realistic appearance and providing them with new functionalities.
In one of our most recent demos, we showed one of our clients from the fashion industry how they could showcase their designs, with their clients, at a runway event.
We also provide one of our training courses with an interactive assistant, who accompanies the user throughout the experience, helping him with the completion of tasks.
