Several years ago, Alexander Kaban, co-founder of Carbon Studio, a Polish company that specializes in developing virtual reality games, noticed a big problem in modern game design. He had to create rocks, hills, paths, and other basic elements of video game environments by hand, which often turned out to be a time-consuming and tedious process.
So Caban decided to develop technology to help automate the process.
He teamed up with Michal Bugała, Joanna Zając and two Carbon Studio co-founders, Karolina Kossuta and Błażej Szaflik, to launch Auctoria, a platform that uses artificial intelligence to create 3D video game assets from scratch. Auctoria, based in Gliwice, Poland, is a Startup Battlefield 200 participant at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023.
“We created Auctoria out of a passion for limitless creativity,” Zając told TechCrunch in an email interview. “It was created to support game development professionals in their work, but anyone who wants to create can use it. There aren’t a lot of advanced tools for professionals; most of them focus on hobbyists and enthusiasts. We want to change that.”
Auctoria uses generative AI technology to create a range of different types of models for video games. One feature of the platform attempts to create full 3D game levels, complete with paths for players to explore (albeit fairly basic), while another converts uploaded images and textures of walls, floors, and columns into 3D equivalents of that work of art.
Users can also enter text prompts to have Auctoria create assets, similar to DALL-E 2 or Midjourney. Or they can submit a sketch, which the platform will attempt to convert into a usable digital form.
Zając claims that all of the AI algorithms that power Auctoria, as well as the data used to train it, were developed internally.
“Auctoria “It’s 100% dependent on our content, so we’re not dependent on any other provider,” she said. “It is an independent tool – Auctoria does not rely on any external engine or use open source solutions.”
Now, Auctoria doesn’t stand alone in the emerging market for AI tools to create game assets. There are 3D modeling platforms 3DFY and Scenario, as well as startups like Kaedim, Mirage, and Hypothetic. Even established companies like NVIDIA and Autodesk are getting into this space with apps like Get3D, which turns images into 3D models, and ClipForge, which generates templates from text descriptions.
Meta, too, has I tried With technology to create 3D assets from claims. So did OpenAI, which last December launched Point-E, an artificial intelligence that brings together 3D models with potential applications in 3D printing, game design, and animation.
The race to bring new solutions to market is not surprising, given the enormous scale of opportunity. According to According to Proficient Market Insights, the 3D modeling market could be worth $3.57 billion by 2028.
But Zając claims that Auctoria’s relatively long development cycle – it has been in the R&D phase for about two years – has resulted in a more “robust” and “comprehensive” toolkit than what some competitors offer.
“At present, there is a lack of AI-based software that enables the creation of full 3D global models,” Zajec said. “Existing solutions typically consist of 3D editors and plug-ins, but they only offer a small part of Auctoria’s capabilities. Our team started developing the tool two years ago, which allowed us to have a ready-to-use product.
Naturally, as with all AI startups, Auctoria will have to confront the legal challenges currently looming over AI-generated media. In the United States at least, it is not yet clear to what extent works produced by artificial intelligence can be copyrighted.
But the Auctoria team — a team of seven employees at present, plus the five co-founders — is leaving these questions unanswered for now. They are instead focusing on partnering with game development studios, including Caban’s own Carbon Studio, to experiment with the tools.
Ahead of Auctoria’s general availability in the coming months, the company hopes to raise up to $5 million to “accelerate the process” of creating back-end cloud services to scale the platform.
“This money will reduce the overall computing time needed to create 3D worlds or models with Auctoria,” Zajac said. “It’s one thing to create an infrastructure for a SaaS model – another is to improve the user experience, for example, making it easier to onboard with a simple UI, good customer service, marketing experiences… We will keep our core team small, but by the end of the year, we will hire a few employees.