NVIDIA debuts NeMo SteerLM to help create better AI NPCs

NVIDIA wants to inject some new personality into gaming's low-level NPCs.

NVIDIA
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NVIDIA is looking to do more than upgrade its graphics game at this year's Gamescom. The company is looking to make further advances in artificial intelligence, specifically in the realm of gaming's unsung hero: the NPC. Gaming developers can't always put in maximum effort on every single non-playable character, especially in something like an MMORPG. NVIDIA is looking to help with its NVIDIA ACE custom AI foundry, which is debuting a new NPC design technique that the company is coining NeMo SteerLM.

The idea behind NeMo SteerLM is to infuse some personality into standard NPCs. NVIDIA notes that most generic NPCs are meant to give only the most basic responses to get players along their merry way, basically equating them with chat bots on the internet. With NeMo SteerLM, game developers will have the option to customize individual NPCs with personality sliders that allow them to become more informative, engaging, and display different personality traits as they direct the player to their next destination or issue their next side quest.

NVIDIA NeMo Steer LM can be used in conjunction with RTX technology and gaming engines like Unreal Engine 5 to create dynamic and realistic NPCs. While the demonstration shown above with Jin the ramen shop isn't perfect by any means, it does represent a decent step forward in creating more human-like NPCs.

NVIDIA NeMo SteerLM workflow

Source: NVIDIA

There's no word on NVIDIA will have its NeMo SteerLM-powered NPC tech available to game developers. For now, interested parties can read more about it on the NVIDIA website. We'll have more from Gamescom throughout the week, so keep it on Shacknews for the latest updates.

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Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

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