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Author Topic: Add an actual AI art generator to Dwarf Fortress  (Read 747 times)

SixOfSpades

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Add an actual AI art generator to Dwarf Fortress
« on: July 24, 2023, 02:22:53 pm »

AI art generators turn a set of text-based inputs into a 2D visual output.
DF items, including artworks, are a set of text-based descriptions, that could theoretically be graphically rendered in 2D.

Say that in a given fort, a specific schist wall has been engraved with a depiction of Tholtig Paddlewhips, devouring cheese. The program could be given a few texture images of real-life schist. The program could be given thousands of images of real-world engravings, each with its own text description, listing what the engraving depicts. The program already has plenty of details about what Tholtig looks like, and even what she's wearing. I see no reason why the computer couldn't produce a reasonably accurate, photo-realistic, rendering of that schist engraving of Tholtig. The user interface could be implemented as follows: When the player loo[k]s at an engraving & hits [Enter] to read the description, there will be an additional prompt, asking if the player would like to see a generated image of this engraving. They say Yes. To avoid FPS drain, this image generation only takes place while the game is paused (or the CPU otherwise has cycles to spare). The next time the player loo[k]s at the wall & checks the description, the finished image will probably be waiting for them, and will be saved along with the rest of the fort when the player exits the program. (Images that have not finished rendering before the program closes will most likely need to be prompted to start again.)

For more compartmentalized programming, this AI art generator could function separately, either as a distinct mode of DF (like Legends), or as a wholly different entity: The only thing that actually takes place in Fort mode or Adventure mode is that the user selects what they want to see an image of, and the game saves all the relevant descriptive data to a file that can later be read by DF's Art mode, or the 3rd-party program. I just think it'd be a lot more immersive to be able to see the engraved walls (or whatever expanded functionality this idea ends up showing--beds, statues, vampire victims, etc.) actually within the context of the game itself.
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Dwarf Fortress -- kind of like Minecraft, but for people who hate themselves.