Modders are re-creating ‘Red Dead Redemption’ inside ‘Grand Theft Auto V’

By Brad Jones March 21, 2017

gta red dead redemption reddeadmarston — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Gamers are hungry for more Red Dead Redemption, as evidenced by the enormous response to last year’s announcement that a sequel was in development. As fans anticipate the follow-up’s debut this fall, a group of dedicated players has set about recreating its predecessor’s map within Grand Theft Auto V.

This ambitious set of modders, helmed by an individual known as Mr. Leisurewear, announced the project over the weekend, according to a report from Gamespot. The Xbox 360 version of Red Dead Redemption is being picked apart and reconstructed for use with third-party multiplayer clients designed for Grand Theft Auto V.

Rockstar makes a lot of money selling in-game currency to GTA Online players, so the project won’t be compatible with the game’s official online offering. The studio takes a stern stance on modifications that could counteract the advantages of buying in-game currency, so the modders are steering clear.

It’s not just the Red Dead Redemption map that’s being recreated and inserted into Grand Theft Auto V. The group intends to reconstruct environmental elements like the game’s day-to-night cycle, and there are even plans to reproduce certain gameplay mechanics.

The team is currently looking for programmers who could help with the process of recreating this content within the framework of Grand Theft Auto V. The game’s Dead Eye slow-motion targeting is listed as a top priority, but there’s also a mention of the various mini-games that were peppered throughout Red Dead Redemption, like five-finger filet, arm wrestling, and poker.

It’s anticipated that a beta version of the map will be released some time this summer, although there’s no word whether that will include any of the gameplay mechanics and other content that’s being worked on. In any case, that timing should work out well for players who are eager to get their hands on Red Dead Redemption 2, which is scheduled to release in late 2017.

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Brad is an English-born writer currently splitting his time between Edinburgh and Pennsylvania. You can find him on Twitter…

Gaming

Grand Theft Auto 6 is getting its first trailer sooner than you think

Trevor firing an assault rifle in GTA 5.

After a decades-long wait, Grand Theft Auto 6 is finally making its formal debut. Rockstar announced that the first trailer for the anticipated open-world game will drop in early December.

It's no stretch to call Grand Theft Auto 6 the most anticipated video game of all time. It's been 10 years since the mega-successful Grand Theft Auto 5 launched and fans have been itching for news on a sequel since. That impatience boiled over last year when Rockstar suffered a major security breach that saw early footage from the game leaking. Now the studio is finally ready to reveal the game on its own terms.

Gaming

A new Grand Theft Auto V mod features a cast of AI-voiced NPCs

The protagonists of GTA V pose for the camera.

A new PC mod for Grand Theft Auto V adds a new mission with over 30 NPCs whose responses and voices are generated by AI.
The mod is called Sentient Streets and was created by a modder that goes by Bloc. In it, players are a Los Santos Police Officer investigating a cult called the NihiAIists, who think they live in a game world and worship an AI god. During this investigation, players can speak to over 30 NPCs, but these conversations aren't scripted, and Bloc didn't hire professional voice actors to portray these characters. Instead, Sentient Streets uses AI to create both the NPCs' responses and their voices. To make this mod, Bloc used the Character Engine from Inworld and ElevenLabs, two tech companies heavily invested in AI.
AI Powered GTA V: Story Mode with AI NPCs (similar to ChatGPT)
This mod serves as the grand kickoff of Inworld and ElevenLabs' partnership, and they plan to make these Character Engine tools available to modders and game developers who want more reactive NPCs with AI-generated voices. Sentient Streets is an intriguing proof of concept, but its release also raises questions about how ethical the data sets from ElevenLabs that are being used to create these AI voices actually are. A press release from Inworld says that Character Engine voices can come from someone making "custom voices, cloning their own voices using a one-minute sample, or by synthesizing entirely new voices from scratch," and we got more clarification on this from a spokesperson for Inworld.
Digital Trends was told that the voices in Sentient Streets are some of the default options from the AI voice technology provided by ElevenLabs. As for the data ElevenLabs used to create those voices, it cites public domain data, data acquired in agreements with commercial partners, and vaguely defined publicly available data. That last part leaves a few question marks, as it's unclear what exactly constitutes as "publicly available."

The mod has launched in the middle of a building firestorm in the games industry. Several actors have voiced potential concerns about AI replacing their jobs or replicating their voices without consent. Assassin's Creed Syndicate actress Victoria Atkin told Axios that a mod that added her voice to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim without her knowledge was "very frightening" and made her "upset and confused." With the rise of tools like Inworld's Character Engine, situations similar to this could become more common without stricter guidelines about what machines can be trained on.
If you want to try Sentient Streets out for yourself and see how its AI voices are handled, it's available to download on Nexus Mods.

Gaming

Red Dead Redemption is coming to Nintendo Switch and PS4 this month

red dead redemption switch ps4 release date key art

The original Red Dead Redemption is coming to two new platforms, PS4 and Nintendo Switch, later this month. It'll retail for $50 on both platforms.
Red Dead Redemption and Undead Nightmare Coming to Switch and PS4
Rockstar Games' open-world western game first launched in 2010 for Xbox 360 and PS3. It was critically acclaimed and a smash sales hit, creating a new franchise for Rockstar that could stand alongside the likes of Grand Theft Auto. It received a sequel, Red Dead Redemption 2, in 2019, but the original Red Dead Redemption remained stuck on older platforms outside of backward compatibility support on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
That's why fans got excited when a rating for the game from the Game Rating and Administration Committee of Korea popped up. We've now learned that this rating is for new Nintendo Switch and PS4 ports of Red Dead Redemption by Double Eleven Studios. Red Dead Redemption will release across both of those platforms digitally on August 17, with a physical launch to follow on October 13.

It will cost $50 and includes the base campaign as well as the zombie-infested Undead Nightmare expansion; the Red Dead Online multiplayer is not included. This is the first time Red Dead Redemption will ever be on a Nintendo system, although it doesn't look like the port will have much in the way of Switch-exclusive features. That said, a press release does reveal that this will be the first version of the game to include Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Latin American Spanish, Polish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese localizations.
Red Dead Redemption comes out on PS4 and Nintendo Switch on August 17.