New latent space research updates just dropped with a Twitter thread!
DALL-E 2 prompt for physical controls appreciation.
top-down view of a high-ceilinged futuristic minimalist attic loft in SoHo, Manhattan studio, medium close-up of a hand manipulating numerous dials, buttons, and sliders on a clean white surface, digital art, color-grading, film grain, golden hour, dreamlike ethereal lighting, warm-glow basement studio vibes, still from "Interstellar"
This is the first demo I've seen that really hammered into my brain, within the next few years we're going to build software agents that are so obviously and indisputably above our human-level abilities for reasoning and problem-solving — the second-order effects are going to be inconceivable.
QR codes for (sending and receiving) latent codes/coordinates in a generative model latent space?
A pattern language for expressive environments (an opinionated summary from an interface design perspective)
What are the signifiers that make a space recognizable? How can you “communicate” a living room, a church, a casino with the least amount of details?
- Decision points/making a choice, especially explicit, discrete decision trees to explore with obvious ways to backtrack, reified in "obstacles and passages."
- Readable affordances for the environment -- which doors can you open? Which obstacles can you interact with? Which roads can you actually take? Affordances that are clear from a distance in moments of urgency/flow can help ease navigation and keep user/player in flow.
- Landmark/global signposting, wherein you orient the player globally in space with an always-visible large landmark that almost becomes a part of the geography, like a mountain or a tower or a light source.
- A brightly illuminated area or light source is a particularly effective global landmark, because humans avoid darkness and chase the light.
- Grand vistas and viewpoints can serve as effective points of tension release/milestones, as well as a way for the user to understand global geography of a space and a way to encourage exploration.
- In-narrative boundaries, limits, and walls can be natural ways for the interface/game to signal invalid action spaces or off-limits areas. These usually take the form of topographic formations like shorelines in islands, unscalable walls in valleys, etc.
- Alternatively, the infinity/unboundedness of procedurally generated worlds can be emphasized in-narrative for greater effect.
- Feel of embodied movement -- "Consider the game feel of your control system and how your environment accommodates for it. A first person perspective can be grounded with heavy footsteps and head bobbing, or disembodied and ghostlike."
- Walking, gliding, falling, floating upwards...
- Cozy, "home" environments/sites vs. the outdoors
Another DALL-E 2 prompt that has a high hit rate for that SoHo loft studio vibe:
high-ceilinged futuristic minimalist attic loft in SoHo, Manhattan studio, an artist painting a giant canvas that's a portal to another ethereal magical pastel universe, golden hour, digital art, dreamlike from Studio Ghibli, color-grading