Monthly Archives: December 2021
Someone Forced a Bot to Look at Every Pokémon and Generate its Own
Someone forced a bot to look at every Pokémon ever created – then told it to generate its own.
It sounds like the start of another one of those memes where someone makes an absurdist parody script so out-there only a robot could have conceived it, and then claims a bot wrote it. But BuzzFeed data scientist Max Woolf actually made a robot generate Pokémon, and the results are...kind of cool?
I forced a bot to look at every Pokémon and told it to generate its own. Here are the results.
— Max Woolf (@minimaxir) December 15, 2021
(this isn't a joke, that's actually how I made these) pic.twitter.com/MfJUWJHZoB
In a Twitter thread over the last few weeks, Woolf has been sharing the results of his robot's efforts. Some of them are admittedly a little out there -- there's something that looks like a green bird with an ocarina for a head, a greyish-pink thing that just looks like a mutated pig nose, and plenty of upsetting creatures with no discernable faces, or limbs where they shouldn't be.
Bonus batch! pic.twitter.com/qdr7SoesUj
— Max Woolf (@minimaxir) December 15, 2021
But others are pretty cool. I'm personally a fan of the little dude that looks like a taiko drum with eyes on the second page of the above bonus batch, but there are plenty of other cuties that seem reasonable enough as monsters I might encounter in the Pokémon universe somewhere.
Of course, if you're a fan of the weirder stuff, may I recommend Woolf's AI-generated batch that was only based on the 1995-era Ken Sugimori art of the original 151 Pokémon? All of the creatures that came out are very clearly Sugimori-inspired, but uh, boy, there's something delightfully off here:
By popular demand: here's more AI-generated Pokémon, but this time the model is trained on *only* Gen 1 Pokémon (the 1995-era Sugimori art of the original 151).
— Max Woolf (@minimaxir) December 17, 2021
Those who thought this would make the generated Pokémon less bizarre were very wrong. pic.twitter.com/FS5GIweKUc
Woolf's robot Pokémon generation became popular enough on social media that he open-sourced the image preprocessing code he used to create the dataset that led to AI spitting out weird Pokémon, so if you're savvy enough with telling robots to do things, you can probably try it yourself.
He has also, delightfully, done a similar AI-generation with Genshin Impact playable characters. And if you like both of these, the Twitter account @ai_curio has Pokémon, Fire Emblem characters, Animal Crossing characters, and more all generated by bots if you can get through a lot of haunting bot-generated images of hallways to find them.
Or you can just look at real Pokémon in, say, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, which we thought were solid remakes that leaned heavily on their origins.
Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.
Someone Forced a Bot to Look at Every Pokémon and Generate its Own
Someone forced a bot to look at every Pokémon ever created – then told it to generate its own.
It sounds like the start of another one of those memes where someone makes an absurdist parody script so out-there only a robot could have conceived it, and then claims a bot wrote it. But BuzzFeed data scientist Max Woolf actually made a robot generate Pokémon, and the results are...kind of cool?
I forced a bot to look at every Pokémon and told it to generate its own. Here are the results.
— Max Woolf (@minimaxir) December 15, 2021
(this isn't a joke, that's actually how I made these) pic.twitter.com/MfJUWJHZoB
In a Twitter thread over the last few weeks, Woolf has been sharing the results of his robot's efforts. Some of them are admittedly a little out there -- there's something that looks like a green bird with an ocarina for a head, a greyish-pink thing that just looks like a mutated pig nose, and plenty of upsetting creatures with no discernable faces, or limbs where they shouldn't be.
Bonus batch! pic.twitter.com/qdr7SoesUj
— Max Woolf (@minimaxir) December 15, 2021
But others are pretty cool. I'm personally a fan of the little dude that looks like a taiko drum with eyes on the second page of the above bonus batch, but there are plenty of other cuties that seem reasonable enough as monsters I might encounter in the Pokémon universe somewhere.
Of course, if you're a fan of the weirder stuff, may I recommend Woolf's AI-generated batch that was only based on the 1995-era Ken Sugimori art of the original 151 Pokémon? All of the creatures that came out are very clearly Sugimori-inspired, but uh, boy, there's something delightfully off here:
By popular demand: here's more AI-generated Pokémon, but this time the model is trained on *only* Gen 1 Pokémon (the 1995-era Sugimori art of the original 151).
— Max Woolf (@minimaxir) December 17, 2021
Those who thought this would make the generated Pokémon less bizarre were very wrong. pic.twitter.com/FS5GIweKUc
Woolf's robot Pokémon generation became popular enough on social media that he open-sourced the image preprocessing code he used to create the dataset that led to AI spitting out weird Pokémon, so if you're savvy enough with telling robots to do things, you can probably try it yourself.
He has also, delightfully, done a similar AI-generation with Genshin Impact playable characters. And if you like both of these, the Twitter account @ai_curio has Pokémon, Fire Emblem characters, Animal Crossing characters, and more all generated by bots if you can get through a lot of haunting bot-generated images of hallways to find them.
Or you can just look at real Pokémon in, say, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, which we thought were solid remakes that leaned heavily on their origins.
Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.
NASA Reveals the Companies That Could Build Low-Earth Orbit ‘Commercial Destinations’
Three companies have signed agreements with NASA to design space stations that could eventually replace the International Space Station. Blue Origin, Nanoracks LLC, and Northrop Grumman will receive over $400 million in government funding, according to NASA’s announcement early this month.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in the announcement that NASA is, “partnering with U.S. companies to develop the space destinations where people can visit, live, and work, enabling NASA to continue forging a path in space for the benefit of humanity while fostering commercial activity in space.”
The funding is part of a plan to transition away from the ISS and toward commercial space stations. The ISS is currently set to remain operational through at least 2024, but it's several decades old and is costly to keep running. NASA wants to save money by becoming a customer of private stations, allowing the agency to focus on other projects like its Artemis missions.
Blue Origin, which is receiving $130 million, is partnering with Sierra Space to work on its Orbital Reef station, a “mixed-use space business park” nearly as large as the ISS that the company announced plans for in October. Blue Origin claims Orbital Reef will be ready for operation in the second half of this decade.
Nanoracks LLC, awarded $160 million, is working on a Starlab station in collaboration with Voyager Space and Lockheed Martin. Designed for four astronauts, Starlab is slated to have labs for biology, plant habitation, and physical science and materials research. In October, the three companies announced they plan to launch Starlab in 2027.
Northrop Grumman, receiving $125.6 million, is working with Dynetics and other unannounced partners to develop a modular space station. Northrup currently manufactures the Cygnus spacecraft, which carries cargo to the ISS.
The plans for each station include various interfaces, like multiple docking ports, that could enable future expansion and possibly tourism. NASA says the funding agreements are part of its efforts, "to enable a robust, American-led commercial economy in low-Earth orbit."
For more of the latest news from NASA, check out our piece about astronauts aboard the ISS making tacos, and read our article on all the NASA easter eggs we could find on the past rovers.
Main image credit: Northrop Grumman
Kait Sanchez is a freelance writer for IGN. Find them on Twitter @crisp_red.
NASA Reveals the Companies That Could Build Low-Earth Orbit ‘Commercial Destinations’
Three companies have signed agreements with NASA to design space stations that could eventually replace the International Space Station. Blue Origin, Nanoracks LLC, and Northrop Grumman will receive over $400 million in government funding, according to NASA’s announcement early this month.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in the announcement that NASA is, “partnering with U.S. companies to develop the space destinations where people can visit, live, and work, enabling NASA to continue forging a path in space for the benefit of humanity while fostering commercial activity in space.”
The funding is part of a plan to transition away from the ISS and toward commercial space stations. The ISS is currently set to remain operational through at least 2024, but it's several decades old and is costly to keep running. NASA wants to save money by becoming a customer of private stations, allowing the agency to focus on other projects like its Artemis missions.
Blue Origin, which is receiving $130 million, is partnering with Sierra Space to work on its Orbital Reef station, a “mixed-use space business park” nearly as large as the ISS that the company announced plans for in October. Blue Origin claims Orbital Reef will be ready for operation in the second half of this decade.
Nanoracks LLC, awarded $160 million, is working on a Starlab station in collaboration with Voyager Space and Lockheed Martin. Designed for four astronauts, Starlab is slated to have labs for biology, plant habitation, and physical science and materials research. In October, the three companies announced they plan to launch Starlab in 2027.
Northrop Grumman, receiving $125.6 million, is working with Dynetics and other unannounced partners to develop a modular space station. Northrup currently manufactures the Cygnus spacecraft, which carries cargo to the ISS.
The plans for each station include various interfaces, like multiple docking ports, that could enable future expansion and possibly tourism. NASA says the funding agreements are part of its efforts, "to enable a robust, American-led commercial economy in low-Earth orbit."
For more of the latest news from NASA, check out our piece about astronauts aboard the ISS making tacos, and read our article on all the NASA easter eggs we could find on the past rovers.
Main image credit: Northrop Grumman
Kait Sanchez is a freelance writer for IGN. Find them on Twitter @crisp_red.
Hendrick’s Gin Reveals (Probably) the World’s Only Gaming Chaise Lounge
There are plenty of gaming chairs. There are very few gaming chaise lounges. In fact, as far as I can tell, Hendrick's Gin is the only company to try and make the latter.
Priced at a mere £2999.99 (just under $4,000 USD), the gaming chaise is designed specifically for tabletop gaming – although Hendrick's freely admits that it's "the world's longest, least technical and most inconvenient gaming chair."
Aside from looking extremely comfortable, the gaming chaise comes with some more unique features, including a "fully analogue" speaking horn to let you bellow at those not lucky enough to be in your seat, retractable arms to hold cocktails, concealed compartments to hold games, and "subtle anti-racing stripes".
"Although we enjoy video games as much as any iconoclastic gin distilled in a tiny seaside village in rural Scotland, it seems to us that current trends in gaming furniture have resulted in chairs lacking in worldly sophistication," says the Hendrick's description of the chaise. "We’ve chosen to remedy the situation with our very own gaming chaise, designed to accentuate the pleasures of a range of leisurely diversions, from card playing to chess, backgammon and other board games — not to mention the pursuit of human conversation (over cocktails of course) with all its feints and complexities."
Sadly, if you're really into the idea of a comfy but functionally confusing bit of gaming seating, ballots to buy the extremely limited item have now closed. We can only hope that this sparks a revolution in the extremely quiet gaming chaise space. But it probably won't.
Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
Hendrick’s Gin Reveals (Probably) the World’s Only Gaming Chaise Lounge
There are plenty of gaming chairs. There are very few gaming chaise lounges. In fact, as far as I can tell, Hendrick's Gin is the only company to try and make the latter.
Priced at a mere £2999.99 (just under $4,000 USD), the gaming chaise is designed specifically for tabletop gaming – although Hendrick's freely admits that it's "the world's longest, least technical and most inconvenient gaming chair."
Aside from looking extremely comfortable, the gaming chaise comes with some more unique features, including a "fully analogue" speaking horn to let you bellow at those not lucky enough to be in your seat, retractable arms to hold cocktails, concealed compartments to hold games, and "subtle anti-racing stripes".
"Although we enjoy video games as much as any iconoclastic gin distilled in a tiny seaside village in rural Scotland, it seems to us that current trends in gaming furniture have resulted in chairs lacking in worldly sophistication," says the Hendrick's description of the chaise. "We’ve chosen to remedy the situation with our very own gaming chaise, designed to accentuate the pleasures of a range of leisurely diversions, from card playing to chess, backgammon and other board games — not to mention the pursuit of human conversation (over cocktails of course) with all its feints and complexities."
Sadly, if you're really into the idea of a comfy but functionally confusing bit of gaming seating, ballots to buy the extremely limited item have now closed. We can only hope that this sparks a revolution in the extremely quiet gaming chaise space. But it probably won't.
Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
IGN UK Podcast #624: Alternative Movie and TV Awards 2021
We've done the games awards, so it's only right that we cover movies and TV as well, right?
Simon, Joe, and Matt convened this week to invent never-to-be-repeated categories that allow them to talk about their favourite shows and films from the last 12 months – as well as one movie that Joe simply never wants to think about again.
If you've got any alternative awards of your own, feel free to sling us an email at ign_ukfeedback@ign.com. Merry Christmas!
IGN UK Podcast #624: Alternative Movie and TV Awards 2021
We've done the games awards, so it's only right that we cover movies and TV as well, right?
Simon, Joe, and Matt convened this week to invent never-to-be-repeated categories that allow them to talk about their favourite shows and films from the last 12 months – as well as one movie that Joe simply never wants to think about again.
If you've got any alternative awards of your own, feel free to sling us an email at ign_ukfeedback@ign.com. Merry Christmas!
Rats are Being Taught to Run Around Doom Maps
You've heard the concept of the "rat race," but how about a literal rat, racing through the hallways of Doom? One researcher named Viktor Toth ran an experiment over nearly six months, seeing if he could train a rat to run down a straight hallway in Doom by using a VR rig he built himself.
As Toth explained on Mindsoft, It took him about four months to build the VR rig for the rats, using a 3D printer, an iron, a drilling machine, and a set of screwdrivers. The main part of the rig is a large, round ball sitting on a base that allows the ball to rotate in place. There are also motion sensors taken from computer mouses that track the movement of the ball. The rat is then strapped into a harness on top of the ball, facing a large, curved PC monitor displaying the game. When the rat moves the ball in a specific direction, the game responds by moving the player in that same direction.
It's like a large hamster ball you put your pet in to let them run around the room, only in this case, the animal rests on top of the ball instead of inside, and the movement is tied into a video game. Toth also set up a sugary water release system for positive reinforcement to help train the rat to move on the ball through the hall.
The hallway itself was a straight hallway taken from the opening map of Doom 2. When the rat reached the end of the hallway, it was programmed to warp back to the start so the rat could keep going.
Toth used three rats for this experiment: Romero, Carmack, and Tom. The researcher says Romero, who loved eating grapes, ended up having the most success moving through the hallway. Eventually, after six weeks of training on the VR rig, Romero learned to run down the hallway pretty consistently. He was at first confused by the ball he was moving on, but later started to walk on his own. You can check out the full video of Romero running down the hall on YouTube — it's pretty cool to see.
Toth also toyed with teaching the rats to shoot enemies by lifting their paws, but he says the rats were never consistent at performing this action. So, what's the point of this? Well, Toth says running experiments using software, like a video game, can be much more cost-effective than a hardware-based experiment, like a maze.
"Once we can reliably train animals to play games, designing an experiment becomes a software problem instead of an often costly hardware problem," Toth said.
However, it seems there is still a long way to go to reach the idea of consistent software-based experiments. In this trial, after 11 days of VR training, Toth still needed to be there to help get the rats on and off the ball themselves.
If hearing about a rat running through Doom made you want to play the series yourself, check out our review of the latest DLC for Doom Eternal. Or, check out how the Doom series fares on our ranking of the best FPS campaigns of all time.
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
Xbox Games with Gold for January 2022 Revealed
Microsoft has announced that the Xbox Games with Gold for January 2022 are NeuroVoider, Aground, Radiant Silvergun, and Space Invaders Infinity Gene.
As detailed by Xbox Wire, these games will be available to all Xbox Live Gold members and those who are subscribed to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. NueroVoider and Radiant Silvergun will kick off the month on January 1, with Radiant Silvergun staying on the service until January 15 and NeuroVoider staying on until January 31.
On January 16, Aground and Space Invaders Infinity Gene will join Xbox Games with Gold, with Space Invaders Infinity Gene sticking around until January 31 and Aground staying on until February 15.
Originally released in 1998 in arcades and on SEGA Saturn, Radiant Silvergun was restored by Treasure and brought to Xbox 360 in 2011. Now, those with access to Xbox Games with Gold will be able to try the beloved vertical-shooter for themselves.
In our review, we said, "Radiant Silvergun has a lot to offer: you can play it like a manic shooter and enjoy the weapons and skillful dodging, or you can make it more cerebral and go for the ridiculous color combos. Either way, you're getting one of the very best 2D shooters ever made."
NeuroVoider takes players to a cyberpunk world with original music from Dan Terminus and tasks them with battling through "hordes of vigilante robots using endless combinations of nuclear-powered weapons." To make it even better, NeuroVoider supports co-op with up to four friends.
Space Invaders Infinity Gene is another take on the "game that defined video games for generations." This version comes packaged with 143 stages, countless modes, new power-ups, new features, and much more.
In our Space Invaders Infinity Gene review, we said, "The game’s standard mode and its endless emphasis on leveling up will keep arcade fiends coming back for more, while its multiple ancillary modes will please those looking for a little diversity in their experience."
Aground is a mining and crafting RPG that places you in the shoes of one of the last human survivors and asks you to not only survive, but to thrive. To do so, you'll be able to unlock new technology, raise dragons, launch into space, and much more.
While you wait for these games to go live, be sure to download the games still available in December 2021's lineup, including The Escapists 2, Tropico 5, and Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet.
Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.