Roblox unveils new 3D AI tool aimed at'realtime creation integrated into gameplay'

The Roblox Developers Conference has begun, and CEO and cofounder David Baszucki was all guns blazing in his keynote address. We're going to have a billion users every day! 10% of global gaming revenue We already have your kids! You can read about Roblox's rude goals and health here.

Some of the keynote was a bit naive. One of the most impressive moments was when Baszucki spoke about AI, which Roblox is slowly integrating into their creator development tools. It has a tool to automate the creation of textures, but we're not done yet.

Roblox is working on a "3D foundational AI model" that will allow users to create 3D assets using text, video or 3D prompts. Baszucki calls this an "incubation" project with 40 employees and says it's only been three months. He shows an overhead view where a map is created using simple text prompts. It then becomes a desert scene, and then is prompted to become a forest (with both a image and text prompt).

Take the above evidence about this AI model with a grain of salt, as it is part of a prerecorded stage presentation.

"We've been building generative artificial intelligence into Roblox for years, with tools like Assistant Texture Generator and Avatar Auto Setup. Baszucki said that these tools are only the tip of the iceberg. "We envision a future where Roblox experiences will have extensive generative AI abilities to power real-time creativity integrated with gameplay - in a resource-efficient manner so that we can make this accessible for everyone on the platform."

[Unfortunately, I can only embed the livestream at the moment: once the full video is made available, I will replace the link below with a timestamp]

The idea of "realtime creativity integrated with gameplay" is the most intriguing. Baszucki did not give a time frame for the development of these tools, but they already look impressive (even though it is only a stage demonstration). If they can achieve this, then AI functionality in games will be a huge leap forward. Imagine a virtual D&D where the world comes to life as the dungeonmaster describes it. It's Roblox graphics but still.

If this wasn't enough to satisfy the optimists, you could also tie-in Baszucki’s AI promises with a more sedate portion of his presentation. The platform's tech stack and backend improvements are not exactly newsworthy, even though things like improved app launch times, framerate, and crash reduction make an important difference to players each day.

Baszucki said that the next step in these "platform efforts," is to make it possible for a "developer to host a high performance, 100-player, open world, sports, or battle royale type game on Roblox, and have it run anywhere in the globe at good frame rates. We won't stop trying until it is possible."

I'm still awaiting my flying car but I suppose that taking part in 100 player experiences being created on the fly sounds absolutely awesome. This is the kind of feature we would all be fulminating about if it weren't available in Roblox. Roblox has yet to prove that it can deliver on its promises.