Intel makes GTA V Photorealistic using Machine Learning

Realism has long been the visual target of AAA game developers, a graphics standard that will allow gamers to fully immerse themselves within digital game worlds. While photorealistic images can be rendered, achieving that quality standard is practically impossible at high resolutions/framerates, making photorealistic gaming practically impossible.      

Grand Theft Auto V delivered incredibly visuals at launch, which only became more impressive as the game launched on PC and newer console platforms. Now, a team over at Intel Labs has decided to take the game to the next level with an “Enhancing Photorealism Enhancement” mod, which uses machine learning to make the game much more realistic. The video below showcases their work. 

Intel’s methods utilise an image enhancement network to transform GTA V’s visuals, though the company’s enhancement method is a lot more complicated than image enhancement/upscaling. Intel snoops at GTA V’s G-buffers to look at important details like material properties, vehicle shapes, lighting buffers and distance buffers to allow their neural network to produce accurate results.

While Intel’s results are not perfect, their video demo highlights that Neural Networks can be used to enhance the visuals of modern games. Intel’s mod significantly improved GTA V’s vehicle rendering, though Intel’s technology does remove much of GTA V’s artistic character and visual style in the process. You can look at more detailed comparisons here, many of which highlight how this technology harms GTA V’s visuals in many scenes. In many cases, artistry trumps AI realism.