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Here’s Code for that AI-Generated Minecraft Clone

10 Noviembre 2024 at 00:00

A little while ago Oasis was showcased on social media, billing itself as the world’s first playable “AI video game” that responds to complex user input in real-time. Code is available on GitHub for a down-scaled local version if you’d like to take a look. There’s a bit more detail and background in the accompanying project write-up, which talks about both the potential as well as the numerous limitations.

We suspect the focus on supporting complex user input (such as mouse look and an item inventory) is what the creators feel distinguishes it meaningfully from AI-generated DOOM. The latter was a concept that demonstrated AI image generators could (kinda) function as real-time game engines.

Image generators are, in a sense, prediction machines. The idea is that by providing a trained model with a short history of what just happened plus the user’s input as context, it can generate a pretty usable prediction of what should happen next, and do it quickly enough to be interactive. Run that in a loop, and you get some pretty impressive clips to put on social media.

It is a neat idea, and we certainly applaud the creativity of bending an image generator to this kind of application, but we can’t help but really notice the limitations. Sit and stare at something, or walk through dark or repetitive areas, and the system loses its grip and things rapidly go in a downward spiral we can only describe as “dreamily broken”.

It may be more a demonstration of a concept than a properly functioning game, but it’s still a very clever way to leverage image generation technology. Although, if you’d prefer AI to keep the game itself untouched take a look at neural networks trained to use the DOOM level creator tools.

Retrotechtacular: Making Enough Merlins to Win a War

26 Octubre 2024 at 02:00

From the earliest days of warfare, it’s never been enough to be able to build a deadlier weapon than your enemy can. Making a sharper spear, an arrow that flies farther and straighter, or a more accurate rifle are all important, but if you can’t make a lot of those spears, arrows, or guns, their quality doesn’t matter. As the saying goes, quantity has a quality of its own.

That was the problem faced by Britain in the run-up to World War II. In the 1930s, Rolls-Royce had developed one of the finest pieces of engineering ever conceived: the Merlin engine. Planners knew they had something special in the supercharged V-12 engine, which would go on to power fighters such as the Supermarine Spitfire, and bombers like the Avro Lancaster and Hawker Hurricane. But, the engine would be needed in such numbers that an entire system would need to be built to produce enough of them to make a difference.

“Contribution to Victory,” a film that appears to date from the early 1950s, documents the expansive efforts of the Rolls-Royce corporation to ramp up Merlin engine production for World War II. Compiled from footage shot during the mid to late 1930s, the film details not just the exquisite mechanical engineering of the Merlin but how a web of enterprises was brought together under one vast, vertically integrated umbrella. Designing the engine and the infrastructure to produce it in massive numbers took place in parallel, which must have represented a huge gamble for Rolls-Royce and the Air Ministry. To manage that risk, Rolls-Royce designers made wooden scale models on the Merlin, to test fitment and look for potential interference problems before any castings were made or metal was cut. They also set up an experimental shop dedicated to looking at the processes of making each part, and how human factors could be streamlined to make it easier to manufacture the engines.

With prototype engines and processes in hand, Rolls-Royce embarked on a massive scale-up to production levels. They built huge plants in Crewe and Glasgow, hopefully as far from the Luftwaffe’s reach as possible. They also undertook a massive social engineering effort, building a network of training institutions tasked with churning out the millions of skilled workers needed. Entire towns were constructed to house the workers, and each factory had its own support services, including fire brigade and medical departments.

As fascinating as the engineering behind the engineering is, the film is still a love letter to the engine itself, of which almost 150,000 copies would eventually be manufactured. The casting processes are perhaps the most interesting, but there’s eye candy aplenty for Merlin fans at every stage of production. We were also surprised to learn that Rolls-Royce took the added step of mounting finished Merlins in the cowlings needed for the various planes they were destined for, to ensure that the engine would be properly integrated with the airframe. This must have been a huge boon to groundcrews out in the field; being able to bolt a new nose on a Spitfire and get it back in the fight with a spanking new Merlin was probably key to victory in the Battle of Britain.

A Wobble Disk Air Motor with One Moving Part

22 Octubre 2024 at 20:00

In general, the simpler a thing is, the better. That doesn’t appear to apply to engines, though, at least not how we’ve been building them. Pistons, cranks, valves, and seals, all operating in a synchronized mechanical ballet to extract useful work out of some fossilized plankton.

It doesn’t have to be that way, though, if the clever engineering behind this wobbling disk air engine is any indication. [Retsetman] built the engine as a proof-of-concept, and the design seems well suited to 3D printing. The driven element of the engine is a disk attached to the equator of a sphere — think of a model of Saturn — with a shaft running through its axis. The shaft is tilted from the vertical by 20° and attached to arms at the top and bottom, forming a Z shape. The whole assembly lives inside a block with intake and exhaust ports. In operation, compressed air enters the block and pushes down on the upper surface of the disk. This rotates the disc and shaft until the disc moves above the inlet port, at which point the compressed air pushes on the underside of the disc to continue rotation.

[Resetman] went through several iterations before getting everything to work. The main problems were getting proper seals between the disc and the block, and overcoming the friction of all-plastic construction. In addition to the FDM block he also had one printed from clear resin; as you can see in the video below, this gives a nice look at the engine’s innards in motion. We’d imagine a version made from aluminum or steel would work even better.

If [Resetman]’s style seems familiar, it’s with good reason. We’ve featured plenty of his clever mechanisms, like this pericyclic gearbox and his toothless magnetic gearboxes.

Rewind

Por: EasyWithAI
24 Enero 2023 at 21:22
Rewind brands itself as a search engine for your life, that allows you to find anything you’ve seen, said or heard. It uses native macOS APIs and Optical Character Recognition to analyze everything on your screen, no need for cloud integration or IT assistance. It can also automatically record your meetings and store all the […]

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Andi

Por: EasyWithAI
16 Diciembre 2022 at 23:18
Andi is a next-generation search tool powered by generative AI. It provides answers to questions and explains and summarizes information from the best sources, giving you the knowledge you need without the clutter of SEO spam, ads, and surveillance capitalism. Andi presents results visually in an easy-to-understand format and protects you from distractions, it feels […]

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Lexica

Por: EasyWithAI
16 Diciembre 2022 at 18:53
Lexica is a stable diffusion search engine for AI-generated images. If you don’t feel like generating your own this can be a neat way to quickly get some copyright-free images! The site’s interface is nice and easy to use, it also features it’s own image generator which you can navigate to using the top menu. […]

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iAsk

Por: EasyWithAI
24 Mayo 2024 at 13:55
iAsk is a free AI-powered search engine that lets you get answers to your questions, find sources across the internet, educational videos, and more. Simply type or speak your question into the search engine to get started. You can use the filter setting to narrow down the results to specific sources (such as academic, forums, […]

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Phind

Por: EasyWithAI
10 Enero 2024 at 14:15
Phind is an AI-powered search engine and chatbot that provides instant answers to questions instead of having to dig through hours of search results. It features multiple AI models including unlimited free uses of Phind’s own natural language model (which is very powerful at coding) and 10 free daily uses of the more powerful GPT-4 […]

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Genspark.ai

Por: EasyWithAI
18 Junio 2024 at 13:48
Genspark is an AI Agent engine where specialized AI agents perform research and generate custom pages called Sparkpages. Free from biases and SEO-driven content, Sparkpages synthesize trustworthy information, offering more valuable results and saving you time. You can also ask the AI agent about specific parts of a Sparkpage – this can be used to […]

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Perplexity AI

Por: EasyWithAI
4 Mayo 2023 at 01:25
Perplexity AI is an AI chat and search engine that uses advanced technology to provide direct answers to your queries. It delivers accurate answers using large language models and even includes links to citations and related topics. It is available for free via web browser and also on mobile via the Apple App Store. Using […]

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Inworld

Por: EasyWithAI
15 Enero 2023 at 20:25
Inworld is a development platform for AI characters. The tool allows you to create and generate AI characters built for real-time, interactive conversations that can be used for gaming, brands & customer experience, and training.

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StockAI

Por: EasyWithAI
10 Enero 2023 at 14:39
StockAI is a search engine for AI generated stock photos. You can search for the exact type of stock photo you’re looking for, and you can freely use the images for commercial use. As a free user you’ll be limited to small resolution images, however, you can check out some of our AI image upscalers […]

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