Exploring the World of Preface: Undiscovered World

I recently had the opportunity to explore Brendan Greene’s new creation, and it truly resembles a planet. The landscape showcases a variety of terrains—rustic rocks, gentle hills, and even a sun illuminating the sky.

This project, Preface: Undiscovered World, is a technical demonstration by PlayerUnknown Productions. Utilizing Greene’s new game engine, it aims to construct a vast, immersive sandbox informed by advanced machine learning agents.

Unique Features

While everything appears fairly conventional—trees here and hills there—this expansive virtual planet holds peculiar surprises, as suggested by the development team.

“There’s always going to be some level of hallucination with machine learning,” says Leon Lubking, senior engine developer. Translation: «Machine learning may sometimes produce unexpected images or landscapes.»

The core of the experience includes training the engine on specific regions of our world, leading to unique and varied environments. However, with this approach, unexpected results may also surface.

Embracing Anomalies

“Machine learning can generate unexpected outputs… sometimes we find anomalies in what we have created,” says Noel Lopez Gonzaga, lead ML researcher. Translation: «Sometimes it generates results we didn’t expect or plan for.»

Exploring this world promises a mix of anticipated and unpredictable adventure. For those eager to experience it firsthand, Preface: Undiscovered World is available on Steam.