Aleksander Caban, a co-founder of the Polish VR gaming studio Carbon Studio, identified a significant issue with contemporary game design a number of years ago. He had to hand-design hills, walkways, rocks, and other fundamental aspects of video game environments, which was frequently a tedious and time-consuming operation.
Caban decided to create technology to aid in the process of automation.
Together with Michal Bugaa, Joanna Zajc, Karolina Koszuta, and Béj Szaflik, two co-founders of Carbon Studio, he launched Auctoria. This platform uses artificial intelligence to create 3D video game assets from nothing. Auctoria, a company based in Gliwice, Poland, will take part in TechCrunch Disrupt 2023’s Startup Battlefield 200.
Video game model types are created by Auctoria using generative AI technology. Another element of the platform translates submitted photos and textures of walls, floors, and columns into 3D counterparts of that artwork. One of the platform’s features aims to build entire 3D game levels, replete with pathways for players to explore (albeit pretty simple ones).
In the style of DALL-E 2 or Midjourney, users can also submit text prompts to have Auctoria build assets. Alternatively, customers can submit a sketch, which the site will try to convert into a valuable digital model.
All of the AI algorithms that run Auctoria, according to Zajc, were created in-house, along with the training data.
We only rely on our providers because Auctoria is entirely built around our material, she explained. It’s a stand-alone tool; Auctoria doesn’t rely on a third-party engine or make use of open-source software.
Now, Auctoria is one of many AI tools available to create game assets in the emerging market. There are startups like Kaedim, Mirage, and Hypothetic, as well as the 3D model creation platforms 3DFY and Scenario. With tools like Get3D, which turns photographs into 3D models, and ClipForge, which creates models from text descriptions, even market leaders like Nvidia and Autodesk are starting to dangle their toes in the water.
Meta has also tried a technology that can produce 3D assets from instructions. The same can be said about OpenAI, which in December unveiled Point-E, an AI that creates 3D models and has the potential to be used in animation, game creation, and 3D printing.
Given the scale of the market, the race to launch innovative solutions is not surprising. By 2028, the need for 3D models might be worth $3.57 billion, claims Proficient Market Insights.
Zajc, however, asserts that Auctoria’s rather lengthy development cycle—the software has been in the research and development stage for around two years—has produced a more “robust” and “comprehensive” toolset than some rivals provide.
According to Zajc, the ability to create entire 3D world models is now impossible due to a lack of AI-based software. Most currently available options are 3D editors and plugins, although they only provide a small portion of Auctoria’s features. Our team started working on the tool two years ago, so we now have a finished product.
Naturally, Auctoria will have to deal with the legal issues surrounding AI-generated media, as do any generative AI firms. The extent to which AI-generated works can be protected by copyright still needs to be determined, at least in the United States.
However, the Auctoria team, consisting of five co-founders and seven workers, is now deferring to answering such queries. Instead, they’re concentrating on collaborating with game production firms, such as Carbon Studio at Caban, to test the tooling.
The company wants to raise $5 million ahead of Auctoria’s general release in the upcoming months to ‘’speed up the process’’ of developing back-end cloud services to grow the platform.
According to Zajc, the funding would cut down on the overall computational time required to build worlds or 3D models with Auctoria. The other is improving the user experience by making it more straightforward to sign up with a simple UI and good customer service and marketing experiences… Our core team will remain small, but before the end of the year, we’ll add a few more staff members.
