Recently, CD Projekt Red announced that its upcoming RPG Cyberpunk 2077 has gone gold. Since then, a bunch of new details about the game have been coming to light. The latest one is that Cyberpunk 2077 will feature lip-sync for all 10 of its localized languages.
The studio has achieved this impressive feat using a smart technology called JALI. Capturing facial motions in every language would have been quite tedious, and would have required plenty of time and resources. With JALI, however, the whole process of lip synchronization has become a piece of cake for the Polish developer. JALI is an AI technology that procedurally analyzes and animates facial animations on 3D character models.
JALI divides facial animations into seven basic parts, including speech, speech styles, emotions, brows, eyes, head, and neck motions. The AI then creates lip synchronizations and is capable of adding emotions to the character model's face, making the conversation seem authentic. This is the first time that we have seen a lip-sync technology like JALI being used in video games. And, it is being said that the entire voice talent that worked for Cyberpunk 2077 has used the technology, which means accurate lip movement regardless of what language is being spoken.
In addition to automatic facial motions, JALI is also capable of understanding multiple languages, allowing CD Projekt Red to produce accurate lip-sync for localized languages, including Japanese, French, Spanish, German, and more. If you want to learn more about JALI and how the technology works, you may want to check out the video below:
November is quickly approaching and there's no doubt that the month is going to be no less than a festival for gamers. Not only will there be massive video game releases, including Cyberpunk 2077, but also the launch of next-gen consoles.
Cyberpunk 2077 is releasing on November 19 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Stadia.
