discussion Why do you dislike AI art in games?

[max.smith1987]

I'm not against AI art exactly...it's just mostly when it's used the plot is almost always identicle to all of games using AI art, for example the endless list of NTR 'phone' games. Great idea when it was first done but as with AI art it's just overused and lazily done that i have no interest in most things using AI

 

[MMD enthusiast]

A lot of posts I have read on the site say they don't like AI art in games. I am curious about the reasons why.


Edit on Nov 24 at 4pm British Time: Most of the answers so far are mostly saying the dislike is because of bad experiences with games that do a poor job with it. I am skeptical of games made with RenPy because a lot of RenPy games are trash in my opinion (easy to make with low effort), but I don't dislike RenPy because of that.

So I am curious about a few other things. The answers won't change the way that I made things (I usually don't make games or mods with character images at all anyway). I am just curious.

1-1) If the AI art was good (consistent, no artifacts and weird stuff like odd fingers and skin and eyes, thematically-appropriate skin tones and features, no weird disconnect between subject and environment), and the art style could be whatever type you preferred (hyperrealism, 3D anime like, cartoonish, or whatever), would you be ok with it being used to make games?

1-2) Would you prefer "good" AI to asset swap art? (Asset swap is when you pick a 2D or 3D hair and snap it to a base model. RPG Maker is an example of asset swaps for sprite creation. Some WebGL games use asset swap libraries for 3D characters.)

1-3) Would you prefer "good" AI to porn inserts of real people?

1-4) Would you prefer "good" AI to DAZ 3D models?

1-5) Would you prefer "good" AI to hand-drawn art?

2) Have you tried making AI art yourself?


This purpose of this thread wasn't to ask about DAZ models but so many people on this site seem to prefer them that I am also curious about

3-1) If you prefer 3D models, is it because they are more likely to be animated?

3-2) If "good" AI was animated just as often, would you still prefer DAZ assets?

4-1) If you prefer 3D models, is it because you associate them with a less-anime look?

4-2) If AI art looked more realistic instead of having an anime look, would you still prefer 3D models?

Sure so I'll take this one question at a time, I know your post is from last year but I'll answer in case a game dev or the likes is doing research.

1-1: Absolutely, AI art can be bad looking sometimes, but I've also seen plenty of terrible artists who would be better off just posting AI stuff. Using AI art in a game isn't strictly bad, especially if the dev can't do art, can't afford an artist, or if they have any other prohibiting factors stopping them from using 'real' art. If the art has no obvious issues typical of AI generated content, and the picture is consistent with the rest of them, then why not?

1-2: Potentially, but I imagine the reason most people use asset swapping is for things like randomized character creation, and as such unless you have a system that is generating new images within the game, you might run into limitations with this method.

1-3: It depends, real porn often has the issue in games of not fitting the scene, or needing the scene to be built around the porn. AI art in this case gives more flexibility, more easily allowing you to build scenes in a natural way while still having porn to go with it. However, if the real porn would already fit the scene, I don't see a reason to swap it out for AI, unless you are legitimately concerned with copyright.

1-4: Probably not. I am not too familiar with how DAZ 3d models are made, but to my understanding it isn't TOO difficult, as a result it SHOULD be (if my understanding is correct) easy to make good looking models and scenes, negating the need for AI art to do the job for you.

1-5: Depends on the skill of the artist. If the only thing the artist can draw well is stick figures, then yes absolutely do AI art instead. If however, the artist has actual talent or skill, I would prefer the hand drawn content currently. Mind you, this isn't to say that I think AI is always worse than a real artist, but rather that CURRENTLY AI generated content tends to be of lower quality.

2: Yes, I've used a few online free AI image generators. I have gotten acceptable results, ones that I would find entirely workable in a porn game, but most of the outputs were garbage. It gave me an appreciation for the amount of time that some people put into creating prompts to get good outputs.

3-1: No, I don't care in particular about the content being animated.

3-2: No, I find animated AI art off-putting currently. Maybe this will change as the tech progresses, but as of now it feels wrong.

4-1: No, realistic and anime styles are both good. It depends on how you use them, some settings and stories are better served with realistic models, others more stylized anime type characters.

4-2: Yes, I would still prefer 3D models. As I see it overall, AI art should (at least currently) be used to make up for the dev's inability to represent the characters well through other means. If you have the tech/skill to make and use 3d models, it doesn't matter if the AI is realistic or anime-styled, the 3d models should likely be used instead.

 

[ApocalypseSurvivor]

Simple:
Soulless
You're not putting an effort in a product

 

[p.smith]

Soulless and no rael consistency between scenes

 

[Deleted member 183428]

I like erotic stories because there is potential to make anything and they don't require the resources or programming knowledge so they're cheaper to make and there is an easier entry point for a lot of people. Obviously the ones who can actually write well and are creative are gonna have the most success.

I like games because they give me the visuals, along the story. There is less potential for creativity, because you are trying to make money and gather followers, but they make it up with other aspects

Games with AI art have nothing to offer. They don't have creativity in them, because the concept of real creativity requires a human mind. AI just can't mix creativity with degeneracy or depravity like humans can and make something good out of it.

Consistency is a big problem. If I create one image of a person, how do I create that exact person in a different pose? You can't, it's not as accurate as the human eye. It doesn't know how to. Now imagine you need hundreds of images for one character........AI can provide you the quantity, not the quality.

 

[Donus]

Who said I would dislike it

 

[Schnuckisabber]

Personally, there's this "sheen" where AI generated stuff has an overly glossy look I hate!

 

[cosicosi89]

People might dislike AI art in games because:
- It can lack the personal touch and feel less emotional.
- Some worry it might replace human artists.
- Others might think it's not "real" art or that it's less original.

Your point about Ren'Py games is valid - just because a tool is easy to use doesn't mean the games made with it will be bad. Maybe people are reacting to poor game quality rather than the tech itself.

 

[shad12345]

they can appear uncanny and weird sometime

 

[Misuk09]

Sometimes the AI art is... weird, a hand with 6 fingers, disproportional body parts or strange alignment of the eyes, I know that there is some relatively good games with AI art, i guess it depends on the perspective (sorry for my bad English in any case)

 

[toejamtaster]

I have seen some great AI animations that look unbelievably good, though not in a game per se. Just like Ren'py it is a tool that when used effectively produces great results. The difference between the two is that AI art is still relatively new and still being developed. It's certainly buggy and weird and can break a game's sense of believability. Having said that, I absolutely love it for the promising future it is sure to bring to the world of gaming.

 

[xel101]

not as much as i used to but quality of the ai art and writing/ game mechanics makes it easier to see it as enjoyable

 

[lewdv]

I feel like it's finally at a decent point looks-wise, so no, AI art doesn't necessarily turn me off of a game these days. Just like every other aspect, it's about the effort and care the dev puts in. If someone just uses the first thing their prompt gets them then the art will likely reflect that because AI really takes some refinement a lot of the time.
I'm biased here because I'm using AI art in my own game, but I'm willing to tweak something for hours until it looks exactly how I want because I know AI art can be awful.

 

[Captain Panda]

I'm 100% against it if it has a funding behind it, other wise just write a story, i mean if its good you can find someone to help. or learn to make the game. if its a hand drawn game and they use AI to make the background im ok with it cuz making characters and backgrounds are 2 different skills. if its 100% free then fair enough.

 

[rocketsheep]

The issue isn't the quality you can get in individual AI images. Almost everyone can learn quickly how to write prompts that can produce individual images of a very high quality. (Of course you need to discard the attempts that go wrong.) This means that the barrier to entry is very low. Combine this with the very low barrier to entry of writing AVNs with Ren'Py once you have a method of getting images, and you naturally get lots of people trying their hands at the combination Ren'Py + AI images. And that is perfectly fine. The problem is, the vast majority of these games are to good Ren'Py games what typical school essays are to published novels. They are short, made without much talent or experience, and with very little effort. And they appear in large numbers. They are not yet numerous enough to drown the good games, but they are getting closer every year.

On the lowest level of games with AI images there are those who never got beyond producing unrelated individual images. They may get a certain amount of stylistic consistency between images, but the scenery and characters and characters' clothing either change completely from one image to the next, or they are similar enough so we can see the intent to make them the same, yet different enough to make it obvious they are not the same. Developers who are using AI art on this level vary in how well they are able to work around these problems by adapting the plot. But unfortunately they are never even close to good enough to make it work. This is basically the same story as with the worst kind of games with real porn art.

Some produce consistent series of images, but I guess for the price of losing control of what's in the images, and while still having no consistency between series. This is again similar to the problems with using real porn.

That leaves a tiny number of developers who really know what they are doing. An example for this is Mila AI. I am not too keen on its theme, but there is no denying that the images show a consistent cast of characters in consistent locations. The images are closer to photorealism than I have ever seen with Honey Select or Daz3d. And yet, something seems wrong. Part of the problem is that for some reason I can't explain I find the porn less appealing than good Honey Select images (my favorite image generation method), and in fact even a bit less than Daz3d (generally my least favorite one). But there is also something else I can't easily point my finger to. I would love to talk to the developer of this game about the challenges he is facing. I suspect that he needs to discard a humongous amount of images, and that the restrictions in what he can produce on his high level of quality severely impact the stories he can tell.

If Mila AI were typical for games with AI art, this thread would probably not exist. But it isn't, and AI art has the same problem as real porn and RPG Maker: It isn't about what you can achieve with these technologies if you know what you are doing. It's about the statistics of how much talent and effort we see in he people who choose them. All those people who spend a few hours (and sometimes much more, but with no better results) producing what should never be published, but publish it anyway -- all those people need to choose technologies for what they are doing. And they are choosing AI art, real porn and RPG Maker far more often than do the experienced and talented developers who make proper investments, resulting in AVNs that are worth playing.

 

[DadD]

I don't dislike them. Often they pretty cool. But, most of them look alike.

 

[DadD]

I'm 100% against it if it has a funding behind it, other wise just write a story, i mean if its good you can find someone to help. or learn to make the game. if its a hand drawn game and they use AI to make the background im ok with it cuz making characters and backgrounds are 2 different skills. if its 100% free then fair enough.

So programmers who using assets and previously written commands, shouldn't be paid.

As well as all musicians today, because all of them using "samples" from classic music.

Oh and kids in school, students in university and anyone who must do math or calculate anything and using calculator for that should have positive grades or paid as well?

Saying someone don't deserve something because it's wasn't made by him personally... Some artists so bad at painting, that I don't see a reason why I should paid anything for something I could do by myself.

 

[1nstonE]

AI tag is an instant and automatic no for me. Firstly, I despise the concept of it being art. I cannot compare a person with natural talent to create a picture and/or years of practice to myself, a person who input and refined a few prompts and let an AI do the hard part. It seems plain unfair to me. Might as well say a guy who commissioned an artist to make a paiting and instructed them on what they want is an artist himself. Absurd.

Secondly, AI slop. Welcome, come and marvel at Gwen the big-tiddied, crab-handed wonder!

Three. AI art has like 3 styles. With a tiny bit of practice, you can immediately tell when sth is AI and an AI pic in a certain style will look identical to every other AI pic of that style. No personality whatsoever.

 

[skored]

I don’t hate AI art, but if a game’s made 100% with it, it just doesn’t feel the same. A bit of human touch makes a big difference.

 

[SilentHunter]

I do not feel and have never felt any aversion or dislike for AI graphics. It is a working tool in the hands of a developer, and the final result depends solely on the developer's talent.
Based on the above, my answers to the questions posed in the OP are as follows:
1-1. Yes.
1.-2. Yes.
1-3. Yes. There is plenty of real porn
1-4. 50/50. Depends on the skill of the digital designer.
1-5. 50/50. Same as above.
2. No.
3-1 and 3-2. 50/50 (same as above)
4-1 and 4-2. I don't like Japanese graphics, and that goes for anime too.