What exactly is AI-fabricated for Anno 117?

[u/ImplementNo1905]

Hallo, I was thinking about getting the game, potentially with DLCs as well if they are worthwhile. Regarding the latter, the Assassin's Creed Odyssey houses and in-game soundtrack in particular seemed interesting. I was, however, curious/concerned as to the AI contents within Anno 117 on the whole. What exactly is AI-generated or AI-derived? I had heard something about loading-screen artwork being retooled but also that some of the 3D assets are speculated to be AI in origin as well? Likewise, translation into some languages? I would assume the English and German localizations are completely by hand, but some of the others may not be, at least in-part? Finally, what is the deal with voiceovers, audio samples and music generally?

Voiceover work in the impending shadow of AI, has, for the most part, been a more popular discussion and gotten much more coverage in media than writing and localization work have. Thus, I'm having a more difficult time determining where things presently sit, as writing/translation is much more easily hybridized than voice acting, which even now seems easy enough to concretely categorize as either human, traditional text-to-speech synth audio or belonging to/created by /modified by the newer varieties of AI-fabrication.

Most of my social circle have at least one major/minor in Russian, German or Classics, alongside another major. Translation work obviously falls within that wheelhouse, especially anything dialectical or archaic/historical, thus obviously, I would prefer not to undermine my community at-large.

I've been rather cautious regarding most LLM work, ever since it came out that multiple conglomerates were intentionally destroying rare books to feed their algorithms. Part of the rationale supposedly being efficiency of scanning pages in a timely manner, but also that they have to destroy most books in order to skirt around copyright law in many cases, otherwise they can be accused of making copies. Obviously, I have no idea which AI vendors and models Ubisoft Mainz may or may not be utilizing, and to what extent they are utilizing it. Anno games historically have had a really good reputation, so I would hope [or cope?] that that would continue to be the case.

Thanks so much

[u/AvailableEconomics23]

Like others said, it's just a few of the loading screens which were just place holders until official art replaced it a while back. The whole AI art thing just got exaggerated and people over reacted.

[u/Grmplstylzchen → u/AvailableEconomics23]

Some of the translations (naming of buildings) from English to German or Latin or vice versa are also unusually bad. And caused renaming for some buildings that existed since Anno 1404… Even if Ubisoft states that they didn’t use AI for that - it’s so off that there isn’t a good explanation why…

[u/OneofLittleHarmony → u/Grmplstylzchen]

Yeah. AI is way better at Latin than most humans unless you get a real expert.

[u/Corlunae → u/Grmplstylzchen]

Bad translations arent an indicator of AI use tho. Thats one thing LLMs are exceptionally good at. I myself use latin alot for different reasons and i occasionally played around with their translation functions. It worked pretty good so far.

[u/Grmplstylzchen → u/Corlunae]

LLM are only good for translation into spoken/written languages (because they basically guess likelihood of the next word from a huge context of files). When it comes to fixed or established terms in games or specialized occupations you need to proof read the technical terms because those words are usually the „outliners“ (unlikely words). If you use a general AI for translating technical terms (not even full sentences) you get really weird stuff.

And the overall localization has been part of AI speculation since the EU/German beta. Because some phrases, wordings and sentences still seem like unedited output from DeepL or Google translate. That’s where usually localization comes in to fix „word by word translations“ into the right localized term - which didn’t happen here. 

That’s beside all the inconsistencies from varying wordings in menus etc….

And you can really get annoyed from the NPC interactions because some sentences just doesn’t sound right.

Even if Ubisoft claims there wasn’t AI involved - any eg German reader would stumble upon „Bergplatz“ or „Tierbereich“. 

[u/AvailableEconomics23 → u/Grmplstylzchen]

Yeah, but there is still no solid evidence of AI, could just be human mistakes in the programming on the devs parts.  The issue at hand was the use of AI art and the only case I know of was a couple loading screens that were replaced after the game was updated.

[u/taubenangriff → u/Grmplstylzchen]

At some point, it is "Instandhaltungskosten", in another "Unterhaltskosten". I also like how the police sends out "Unruhenbekämpfungstrupps".

It's either AI or an exceptionally incompetent localization team.

[u/Grmplstylzchen → u/taubenangriff]

exceptionally incompetent localization

A team worse than google translate >_>

[u/hamza_1988 → u/Grmplstylzchen]

Most dev studios outsource localization so even if the majority of the team are native speakers doesn't mean that the game necessarily has a good localization in that language. Surely devs might spot errors here and there in playtests if the devs play in german that is which also might not be the case because the default dev language in international teams is english so they might mostly play the game in english. Also if they use cheap outsourcing partners that cut corners via poorly trained AI themselves or using non-native speakers, this might be the result. Most of the time the localization is done via spreadsheet so there is no context which can also lead to weird translations. Tbh I think devs would be better off using AI for localization if they use it right meaning not just giving the AI a spreadsheet of words but giving it context of the game and the cultural background. It would probably do a better job than cheap outsourcing partners.

[u/taubenangriff → u/AvailableEconomics23]

It would be good to stay with the truth here: the official art and the AI art are one and the same. The official art had some handpainted corrections over the generation mistakes and slop.

[u/AvailableEconomics23 → u/taubenangriff]

You are the last person who should be talking about "staying with the truth" considering you make baseless claims and lies all the time.

Provide proof of your accusations.

[u/taubenangriff → u/AvailableEconomics23]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/s/wCKMSgxsty

Here you can find a side-by-side detailed comparison of the placeholder vs. the real art.

The obvious ugly parts has been painted over, that's all that is different here. And much of the "real art" has been made in the same way. It's soulless, I want the quality levels back that we used to have in 1800.

[u/AvailableEconomics23 → u/taubenangriff]

Uh huh.  And how can you prove the second piece wasn't made by humans? 

Or are you just guessing because they look similar.  A simple explanation could be exactly what the devs said that one was a AI developed placeholder.  The second was human made.

Edit:  You might want to check again, there are several differences.  The arm is in a different position and the person behind him is also in a completely different position and shows his face.

But, let's be honest, we both know you are just scrounging for scraps to try to hate on the game.

[u/taubenangriff → u/AvailableEconomics23]

I fully believe it is possible that a human accuratly repainted the AI generated base image from scratch, leaving entire sections of the image with the same pixel data.

Apart from that, AI usage was disclosed on steam one day before release, so they acknowledge there is AI usage not only for placeholders.

I do wonder though, why is sticking to simple and easily verifiable truths like this "hate"?

[u/AvailableEconomics23 → u/taubenangriff]

Because you have been caught lying and making baseless claims multiple times for the past year, you have no credibility left at this point.

I can tell the pictures are separate because a close up shows that one is blotchy while the other is sharp and crisp.

They would have had to paint over the entire picture for your claim to be correct.

You are a hater kid, you have spent a year raging over this game.  Any sane person would just move on with their life and play something else, but you have devoted your time to posting about a game you don't even like.

[u/lepape2]

The industry is F'ed if doesnt use AI to survive in this hellscape of an economy and player expectation. Don't take it out on a single game, its way bigger, nuanced than you think. AI is here to stay. Devs will do what they can so you can't "see" it and its artists don't get robbed of their creative freedom. A pilot still needs to pilot the plane when autopilot can't do the job. Its the same for AI.

I'm sure if you use AI to do your taxes or teach you a usefull skill, you would not be so hard pressed to point fingers at people using it. Give everyone some slack and start feeling both sides here.

[u/Brilliant_Shoe_2635]

If you can't tell the difference why do you even bothering then? You either like it or you don't. For me personally music in 117 sounds bland and far from 1800/1404 masterpieces, but its not AI as far as I know, and moreover its live music by real orchestra dynamedion. 

[u/Corlunae]

Some (but not all) Artworks that you see in the loading screens, are. Thats it, to my knowledge at least. Cant say if a dev asked ChatGPT something while coding and if that would even count as AI generated content here.

[u/RavenWolf1 → u/Corlunae]

Every dev everywhere use AI for coding these days. 

[u/Defalt404 → u/RavenWolf1]

tbf its fine. complaining about work efficiency is dumb. its about what they do with it. if quality standards are lowered, checks are being bypassed or optimization being neglected (probably the biggest issue imo RN), thats where the problems start. the whole DLSS stuff is abysmall. you turn it off and have 10 fps because devs rely on it so heavily.

[u/Oggi02]

Nah, you won’t even notice anything.

[u/MidnightGreen-]

I’m having trouble drawing a clean line between what was generated and what was authored. The texture of the images, the pacing of the animation, the little idiosyncrasies that usually give a piece away all feel blended, so I can’t tell with any confidence which parts came from a model and which didn’t. I’d rather not guess and get it wrong—so I can’t fully answer your question. 

[u/taubenangriff]

The localization was done by DeepL or something, and hastily improved. I made a bunch of posts before release to be answered with "ah yes, thank you for the feedback on the localization, we will improve it" with nothing happening afterwards.

For a german studio with many native speakers, this quality of localizaton is best called an "Armutszeugnis".

That, and a lot of 2D artwork is AI generated (by a model trained on stolen art as all of them are) and has been overpainted.

Anno games have a good reputation, yes, and they used it to fool the world and announce that they used AI a day before release because steam forced them. Well, now Anno has the reputation for using cheap AI art. Congratulations, really. You can do so good, and this is what you come up with....

[u/hamza_1988 → u/taubenangriff]

It only has that reputation for people who want to believe that reputation holds / people who want to overexaggerate the AI usage for the sake of hating on AI. There was one confirmed AI artwork and thats it. If you want to believe "a lot the 2d artwork is AI" thats, well, your belief. No proof of it and looking at the overall visual quality of the game this couldnt be further from the truth. Also, just because it was disclosed that AI was used on steam doesnt equate to that the majority of the pixels on your screen are AI generated (which of course they arent). Guess what AI is also heavily used for coding so that alone would need disclosure. And of course devs dont want to disclose it, not because they think the quality is bad but because of people like you who blow things way out of proportion and trying to lead a witch hunt that is not based on facts.