When Cyberpunk 2077 (hopefully) launches this December, it will have a staggering 11 different voice-over languages.
And at the heart to make this possible (and not being an animator’s nightmare) is JALI, a new tool by JaliResearch that automates lip-syncing. Using AI, JALI effectively simulates lip movements based on the vocal recordings, which can apply to any language. The developers can still fine-tune it, but it’s just a matter of toggling some settings to match a certain tone. Like mumbling, or shouting.
The recent Night City Wire broadcast reveals how powerful this tool is, which allows Cyberpunk to have 11 different localised VO, each lip sync correctly.
The 11 localised languages with voice-overs are as follows:
- English
- Brazilian Portuguese
- French
- Russian
- Polish
- Italian
- German
- Spanish
- Japanese
- Chinese
- Korean
Not all developers can afford putting such efforts. So it’s crazy to see that the tech to make lip sync easier to implement is now a reality. And it can help provide better quality localisations too, from the footage being shown in the behind-the-scenes clip here.
Cyberpunk 2077 releases (hopefully) on December 10 for the PS4, PC (Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG), Xbox One and Stadia. A free next-gen upgrade for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S will be coming in the future.