AMD plans to make games smaller with new “Neural Texture Block Compression” tech
AMD wants to lower game install sizes using AI texture compression tech
Next week, AMD plans to showcase their “Neural Texture Block Compression” technology at EGSR 2024 in London. This new technique is designed to use the power of AI to lower the download/install sizes of games by compressing game textures in a more efficient way. With this technology, AMD promises “easy game integration” and reduced data sizes. Both of these are attractive to game developers.
With AMD backing this new technology, it is likely that this new technique can be used to improve future PC and console games. That factor alone would give developers a reason to adopt this new technology. This is especially true given the limited SSD space within modern consoles.
In theory, this new Neural Texture technology from AMD should allow developers to do more with less. More texture detail with a lower data footprint. This will allow game developers to create more visually impressive games, or deliver today’s levels of image quality with a much smaller install footprint. Either way, this tech is a good thing for gamers.
We'll present "Neural Texture Block Compression" @ #EGSR2024 in London.
Nobody likes downloading huge game packages. Our method compresses the texture using a neural network, reducing data size.
Unchanged runtime execution allows easy game integration. https://t.co/gvj1D8bfBf pic.twitter.com/XglpPkdI8D
— AMD GPUOpen (@GPUOpen) June 25, 2024
Moving forward, AI and Neural Networks will become increasingly important for both gamers and developers. Unquestionably, all future console generations will feature some form of AI acceleration hardware. Additionally, developers will find new ways to utilise AI to assist in game development. Furthermore, developers will find ways to use AI hardware at game runtime. Today we have AI upscaling, and AI Frame Generation. In time, AI will be used in more exciting ways.
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