Microsoft has released a browser-based playable level of the classic video game Quake II. This functions as a tech demo for the gaming capabilities of Microsoft’s Copilot AI platform — though by the corporate’s own admission, the experience isn’t quite the identical as playing a well-made game.
You’ll be able to try it out for yourself, using your keyboard to navigate a single level of Quake II for a pair minutes before you hit the cut-off date.
In a blog post describing their work, Microsoft researchers said their Muse family of AI models for video games allows users to “interact with the model through keyboard/controller actions and see the consequences of your actions immediately, essentially allowing you to play contained in the model.”
To point out off these capabilities, the researchers trained their model on a Quake II level (which Microsoft owns through its acquisition of ZeniMax).
“Much to our initial delight we were capable of play contained in the world that the model was simulating,” they wrote. “We could wander around, move the camera, jump, crouch, shoot, and even blow-up barrels much like the unique game.”
At the identical time, the researchers emphasized that this is supposed to be “a research exploration” and needs to be regarded as “playing the model versus playing the sport.”
More specifically, they acknowledged “limitations and shortcomings,” just like the indisputable fact that enemies are fuzzy, the damage and health counters may be inaccurate, and, most strikingly, the model struggles with object permanence, incessantly forgetting about things which might be out of view for 0.9 seconds or longer.
Within the researchers’ view, this may “even be a source of fun, whereby you possibly can defeat or spawn enemies by taking a look at the ground for a second after which looking back up,” and even “teleport across the map by looking up on the sky after which back down.”
Author and game designer Austin Walker was less impressed by this approach, posting a gameplay video through which he spent most of his time trapped in a dark room. (This also happened to me each times I attempted to play the demo, though I’ll admit I’m extremely bad at first-person shooters.)
Referring to Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer’s recent statement that AI models could help with game preservation by making classic games “portable to any platform,” Walker argued this reveals “a fundamental misunderstanding of not only this tech but how games WORK.”
“The inner workings of games like Quake — code, design, 3d art, audio — produce specific cases of play, including surprising edge cases,” Walker wrote. “That could be a big a part of what makes games good. Should you aren’t actually capable of rebuild the important thing inner workings, you then lose access to those unpredictable edge cases.”
