Why Are Game Companies So Obsessed with 'Human Creation'? [Im Juhyung's Tech Talk]

Creating Virtual Humans with Game Engines 'Digital Human'
Major Commercial Engine Makers Like Unreal and Unity Begin Development
High-Difficulty Technology Considering Skin, Hair, Skeleton, and Expressions
Overcoming the 'Uncanny Valley' Phenomenon Also a Challenge

Digital human unveiled by US IT company 'Epic Games'. A digital human refers to a lifelike human image created through virtual 3D graphics. / Photo by YouTube video capture

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Juhyung] The most important element when creating a game is the 'game engine.' A game engine refers to a software component capable of rendering 3D graphics, physics engines, animation functions, and more, which are essential for game development. When creating the latest games boasting dazzling graphics, a game engine is an indispensable element. As a result, game engine developers wield enormous influence in the gaming industry.

Amid this, there is a project that game engine developers have been diligently pursuing recently. It is the so-called 'digital human,' which implements lifelike humans in virtual spaces.

◆Game Companies Devoted to Creating 'Digital Humans'

Today, the two most important game engines in the gaming industry are 'Unity Engine' by Unity Technologies and 'Unreal Engine' by Epic Games. These two engines currently hold the first and second market shares among commercial game engines sold worldwide.

Among them, both companies are putting great effort into digital human creation. Last June, Unity Korea unveiled the 'Sua Project,' a digital human avatar created in collaboration with 'Onmind' using the Unity 3D engine. Sua, produced by fully leveraging Unity's graphic technology, resembles a real human so closely that it has been used as an actual advertising model.

Creating a digital human using Epic Games' software MetaHuman Creator. / Photo by YouTube video capture

Epic Games also announced 'MetaHuman Creator,' a digital human creation tool, through its game engine, Unreal Engine.

Unlike Sua, which is a project to create the most realistic digital humans using existing game engine technology, MetaHuman Creator aims to provide a kind of 'creation tool' that allows anyone to easily make digital humans.

According to Epic Games, MetaHuman Creator contains various human skin types, body shapes, hairstyles, and skeletal information stored within, enabling designers to combine these elements to arbitrarily create digital humans.

◆Digital Humans: The Pinnacle of Virtual Graphic Technology

So why have game engine developers become so interested in digital human creation? The reason is that implementing a perfect digital human is equivalent to reaching the pinnacle of game graphic technology.

In fact, creating lifelike humans with game graphics is very challenging. In movies, virtual humans can be relatively easily implemented by dressing real actors in special costumes for motion capture and then applying special graphics to change faces or skin.

However, in games, humans must be created within an empty virtual space. This means that every element?bones, body shape, skin, hair, natural movements, and facial expression changes?must be individually and directly created.

The term "uncanny valley" refers to the phenomenon of feeling strong aversion when seeing an entity that imperfectly resembles a human. The photo shows "Sophia," a humanoid AI robot developed by the Hong Kong company Hanson Robotics. Photo by Yonhap News

The so-called 'uncanny valley' phenomenon is also one of the factors that sharply increase the difficulty of digital human creation. The uncanny valley theory, first introduced in 1970 by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori, states that as robots or CG become more humanlike but remain imperfect, they evoke a strong sense of discomfort at some point. Awkward CG videos or robots causing discomfort are typical examples of the uncanny valley.

Over the past decades, as game graphic technology has advanced, the depiction of humans in games has become more precise. However, creating digital humans with inadequate technology can trigger the uncanny valley phenomenon. Therefore, digital human creation is a highly complex and demanding project requiring sophisticated and high-quality technology.

Regarding this, the U.S. tech company-focused online media 'TechCrunch' evaluated MetaHuman Creator on the 11th, stating, "It may seem like a simple graphic technology, but in reality, it is the result of integrating and continuously enhancing numerous specialized technologies and elements," and added, "(Epic Games) has absorbed various game companies and teams over the past several years to present an integrated production system for digital humans."

◆"The Applications of Digital Characters Are Limitless... The Multiverse Will Open in the Future"

Digital humans are not limited to merely implementing lifelike humans. Game engine developers plan to approach various service industries that require communication through digital humans.

For example, digital humans can be widely adopted as fashion industry models by implementing various human body types. They can also be used as virtual employee avatars in unmanned hospitals or convenience stores.

Chris Evans, a tech animator at Epic Games, emphasized in a video introducing MetaHuman Creator that "the uses of digital characters are limitless, ranging from entertainment, simulation, service training, to healthcare businesses."

He further predicted, "In the near future, everyone may interact with each other in digital spaces through virtual characters they create themselves," and added, "The so-called Metaverse era (a neologism referring to a virtual world coexisting with reality) will open."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.