Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

joshfonseca.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 198 posts

Re: I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

#21

Post by anon7000 »

hrdwdmrbl wrote: post #6

It always felt both "a cheap shot" and "valid" to express dismay that characters in video games don't react when you do things like jump up and down on their table. While it's impossible for game developers to write code to cover every situation, AI could make general reactions possible. It's surprising that really simple things like this haven't been tried yet (AFAIK!). Like, even if it's just the dialogue, it can s…

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is one of the closer attempts, NPCs will react to lots of things about you and behavior, like if you smell bad or stare at them for too long

Re: I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

#22

Post by ehnto »

lmm wrote: post #13
hrdwdmrbl wrote: post #6

It always felt both "a cheap shot" and "valid" to express dismay that characters in video games don't react when you do things like jump up and down on their table. While it's impossible for game developers to write code to cover every situation, AI could make general reactions possible. It's surprising that really simple things like this haven't been tried yet (AFAIK!). Like, even if it's just the dialogue, it can s…

Many games have tried for more "realistic" simulated NPCs, but usually it turns out they don't make the game any more fun, quite the opposite.

The cost benefit is really poor, but I also wonder if it's just never been done well.

Old text adventures honestly did this heaps better than modern games do, but the reality is there was a more finite action space for them and it wasn't surprising when something wasn't catered for.

Re: I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

#23

Post by bigyabai »

vuciv wrote: post #11
amilios wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would require decompilation of the Animal Crossing game code for the Switch. I believe DRM has gotten a lot better since the Gamecube days as well. Hypothetically possible maybe but good luck haha

I actually think now that I've gone through the process, memory scanning and writing will be enough... Except, they probably have different control codes that I'd need to reverse engineer.

You should be able to run Cheat Engine on your emul*tor of choice to tweak New Leaf "and newer" titles.

And if you're a stickler for pissing Nintendo off in very specific ways, LayeredFS + Atmosphere opens up some modding opportunities right on the console itself. Not sure how easy it would be to pull something like this off though...

Re: I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

#24

Post by famahar »

Extremely interesting use case. LLMs as a modding tool to recontexualize virtual spaces. I can see this being a tool used for artistic intervention in the same vein as plunderludic tools like Unity Hawk which allows you to run emulator save states in Unity3D. https://plunderludics.github.io/tools/unityhawk.html

Re: I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

#25

Post by sterlind »

bigyabai wrote: post #23
vuciv wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually think now that I've gone through the process, memory scanning and writing will be enough... Except, they probably have different control codes that I'd need to reverse engineer.

You should be able to run Cheat Engine on your emul*tor of choice to tweak New Leaf "and newer" titles. And if you're a stickler for pissing Nintendo off in very specific ways, LayeredFS + Atmosphere opens up some modding opportunities right on the console itself. Not sure how easy it would be to pull something like this off though...

you really don't have to self-censor "emulator" here. HN moderation is not like social media platforms.

Re: I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

#27

Post by serp002 »

dolebirchwood wrote: post #15

This is awesome. LLM-powered NPCs is one thing I'm most excited about in the future of gaming. Characters repeating the same scripted dialog over and over again is one of the biggest immersion breakers.

Agreed, this AI-ran DnD campaign is an example of how good/funny it can be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpYVyJBmH0g&ab_channel=DougD...

Re: I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

#28

Post by lazide »

sterlind wrote: post #25
bigyabai wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should be able to run Cheat Engine on your emul*tor of choice to tweak New Leaf "and newer" titles. And if you're a stickler for pissing Nintendo off in very specific ways, LayeredFS + Atmosphere opens up some modding opportunities right on the console itself. Not sure how easy it would be to pull something like this off though...

you really don't have to self-censor "emulator" here. HN moderation is not like social media platforms.

Social media platforms censor emulator?!?

Re: I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

#29

Post by shomp »

This is amazing. Well done figuring out the shared memory hack. That's a huge time saver and really makes sense from an engineering perspective. Ten dollars for the hammer and five thousand for knowing where to strike the machine, to paraphrase a trope on expertise applied correctly.

Re: I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory

#30

Post by mungoman2 »

ehnto wrote: post #20
dolebirchwood wrote: post #15

This is awesome. LLM-powered NPCs is one thing I'm most excited about in the future of gaming. Characters repeating the same scripted dialog over and over again is one of the biggest immersion breakers.

I would say local LLMs are already good enough for this. It might be an issue that the GPU is already quite busy at the time it's needed for LLM inference, but not an insurmountable issue. I wouldn't ever want a game to use it for the core story writing, because it's pretty important that it is consistent and unable to be derailed. But for less serious NPC interactions or like an RPG scenario it is such a great fit.…

For story writing you generate into the framework of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45134144
Post reply on HN