This is GTA V with surreal graphics, created by advanced AI technology

There’s a hugely different GTA V.

At the time of its release nearly eight years ago, Grand Theft Auto 5 introduced one of the most beautiful cityscapes ever in a game, as the city of Los Santos was beautifully recreated. less than in real life. Among the many accolades the game received for becoming the second best-selling game of all time, many commended the engineering and design involved in the creation of Rockstar’s Los Santos. Although Grand Theft Auto 5 is now over seven years old, it is still played by many gamers and even used by scientists for research and testing.

A research group called Intel ISL consisting of members Stephan R. Richter, Hassan Abu Alhaija and Vladen Kolten, specializes in AI research and is currently working on the “Photorealism Enhancement” project – an experimental project with a machine learning tools to make computer-generated images look more lifelike. The team is currently using Grand Theft Auto 5 as an experiment by examining computer images, comparing them with real life images, and then enhancing the computer images to achieve a more realistic effect. in GTA 5. Although there are GTA 5 mods that overhaul the image, but with new AI technology, it pushes the limits of GTA 5 to a new level.

Using a set of images known as “cityscapes”, which are mainly images of German city streets, the process creates new images frame by frame, filling in visual points with those images. This results in a more realistic experience, but there are certainly still some flaws. Using this technology, they improved the quality of every frame of GTA 5 footage. The result is a real-world GTA 5 with surreal graphics. Driving through the city of Los Santos, it was really surprising how different the city would look in real life.

The Intel ISL team has an informative video explaining how the processes work with AI photorealism and why the team’s experiment outperformed other image enhancement methods. Although the colors are not outstanding and somewhat pale, it’s easy to tell the visual difference between the 8-year-old GTA 5’s graphics and the AI-enhanced visuals. The most noticeable difference seems to be the darker AI image that smooths out textures and better contrasts against GTA 5’s still raw graphics.

Enhancing Photorealism Enhancement

One of the biggest advantages this AI system has over other image enhancement methods is that it is “time-stable”, AI-enhanced images will not fluctuate in quality when a camera is used. vehicles drive through Los Santos in GTA 5. Other methods of altering the image in the video such as CUT, TSIT and WCT 2 cause weird silhouette flickering and texture changes and while some of these methods are most modern, Intel ISL’s method is by far the smoothest.

It is unlikely that new technology will be updated in GTA 5 to reach the gaming community widely. Still, it’s a testament to what can happen with the power of modern hardware. Obviously, at some point, a new world title will push the boundaries of video game graphics capabilities, and perhaps that title will deserve to be called the “Next Gen” for elevating the game. images, and that could be GTA 6 in the future.

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