CD Projekt Pink has revealed that it used – and is utilizing – generative AI expertise to deal with and alter the voice of the Polish actor who portrayed Geralt of Rivia in upcoming Witcher 3 enlargement Songs of the Previous.
The actor, Jacek Rozenek, has portrayed Geralt of Rivia in all the most important Witcher video games, which means his voice has develop into as synonymous with the function in Poland as Doug Cockle’s has for folks enjoying in English. However Rozenek suffered a extreme stroke in 2019 that left him briefly unable to talk, and when he was in a position to speak and carry out once more, the tonality and high quality of his voice had modified.
It is for these causes that CD Projekt Pink – with Rozenek’s consent – employed the assistance of an organization referred to as Respeecher to change the strains he recorded for The Witcher 3’s Songs of the Previous enlargement utilizing generative-AI expertise. As confirmed to Recreation File, an AI skilled on Rozenek’s earlier Witcher work is retreating his recordings to make them sound extra just like the Geralt you hear elsewhere in The Witcher 3.
“The purpose is that this voice ought to be as shut as doable to my voice from 12 years in the past,” Jacek Rozenek defined. “I’ve nice belief … for the creators of this sport.”
Recreation File heard each handled and untreated recordings of Rozenek’s Songs of the Previous work, and reported a “important” distinction between them. Rozenek’s untreated voice was apparently “deep and gravelly” and “noticeably rougher than his recordings for the unique sport”. However handled, the voice was “far smoother and sounds youthful”, and nearer to the unique Witcher 3 Geralt recordings.
This is not the primary time CD Projekt Pink has used generative AI for voice recordings in one in every of its video games. The studio labored with Respeecher in 2023 to supply new voiceover strains for Cyberpunk 2077 enlargement Phantom Liberty. Viktor Vektor actor Miłogost “Miłek” Reczek handed away in 2021, after the unique sport was launched, and CD Projekt Pink did not wish to recast the function. Reczek’s sons apparently gave their blessing for his or her father’s voice to be artificially generated.
“I do assume that is a type of methods the place you should utilize AI ethically with consent and in addition to do one thing good,” CD Projekt Pink localisation producer Mikołaj Szwed instructed Recreation File, referring to the Rozenek recordings.
“For future initiatives, after we take into account Geralt is turning into older and has a deeper voice, this isn’t an issue for us in any respect. It is extra about this particular scenario right here, the place we have now each the voice from 12 years in the past and from now subsequent to one another, which might form of take folks out of the expertise and really feel that there’s this distinction.”
The third Witcher 3 enlargement, Songs of the Previous, releases in some unspecified time in the future subsequent 12 months, an unprecedented 12 years after the unique sport launched. It provides a wholly new area, Letten, and centres its principal story round Geralt’s lacking bardic bestie Dandelion, whose household lives there.
In preparation for the enlargement, a remastered model of The Witcher 3 was launched a few months in the past, overhauling the outdated role-playing journey and bringing its baseline presentation extra consistent with what we might count on from a contemporary sport; it additionally overhauled some animations and enemy behaviours and reworked ability timber. For that motive, old-gen consoles PS4 and Xbox One will not obtain the Songs of the Previous enlargement, regardless of The Witcher 3 being accessible on them.