Improvements for NPC Generation

[Nimarus]

Like many playing Cyberpunk 2077, you may have walked down a sidewalk with Pedestrian traffic at maximum. You turn a corner and see 3-5 NPCs who are all wearing the exact same clothing. Taking a closer look and you notice they all have the same faces, hairstyle, and skin pigmentation. It sometimes feels like Night City has a mad scientist making Quadruplets and Quintuplets. As a person playing the game, it looks like there are a set number of NPC models to pull from when populating the sidewalks. I'm not a game developer and not familiar with the tools used by CDPR to make Cyberpunk. Could something be done in a future update to improve NPC Generation? NPCs being generated with randomized Hair, skin tone, clothing sets, and faces. I also have a hunch that doing this would likely add more processing power to generate NPCs this way and possibly effect performance.

It just really stands out when I see a guy with a white vest with a black X on his back...and then seeing 4 more of him crossing the street.

 

[Azulath]

It has been reported an the thread linked below that "Slow HDD Mode = ON" appears to be the culprit. Any chance you have this setting turned on as well?

Uggh. So this is improved? [NPC Clones]

now that you mention it, they might actually have done it on purpose XD I didn't know about this photo before it was shown here but indeed if it was on a doppler execution I'd say it was on purpose too - the voice of the masses as one turns every individual the same, while they are all...

forums.cdprojektred.com

 

[Species8472rc3]

IMO, the yellow plaid shirt should be blacklisted for NPC use... It's way too easy to spot when there are multiple people wearing it at the same time...

 

[andrewdilley]

It has been reported an the thread linked below that "Slow HDD Mode = ON" appears to be the culprit. Any chance you have this setting turned on as well?

Uggh. So this is improved? [NPC Clones]

now that you mention it, they might actually have done it on purpose XD I didn't know about this photo before it was shown here but indeed if it was on a doppler execution I'd say it was on purpose too - the voice of the masses as one turns every individual the same, while they are all...

forums.cdprojektred.com

Weil, I have always had that option turned OFF and am still frequently surrounded by clones.

 

[Azulath]

Weil, I have always had that option turned OFF and am still frequently surrounded by clones.

Naturally, this game is still bound by general hardware capabilities and consequently there will be NPC clones even with this setting turned off. For me, turning it off solved the problem of clones appearing frequently. However, if this issue still persists on your end consider screenshotting it and creating a bug report.

 

[Nimarus]

It has been reported an the thread linked below that "Slow HDD Mode = ON" appears to be the culprit. Any chance you have this setting turned on as well?

Uggh. So this is improved? [NPC Clones]

now that you mention it, they might actually have done it on purpose XD I didn't know about this photo before it was shown here but indeed if it was on a doppler execution I'd say it was on purpose too - the voice of the masses as one turns every individual the same, while they are all...

forums.cdprojektred.com

As a matter of fact, I believe I do. I'll disable that option the next time I pick up the game. I'm trying not to burn myself out on Cyberpunk before CDPR finally released some kind of story DLC. Fingers crossed on a DLC that will continue the story and give us some endings that are not so depressing.

 

[Azulath]

As a matter of fact, I believe I do. I'll disable that option the next time I pick up the game. I'm trying not to burn myself out on Cyberpunk before CDPR finally released some kind of story DLC. Fingers crossed on a DLC that will continue the story and give us some endings that are not so depressing.

Yeah let us know how it works. Since I haven't finished Cyberpunk 2077 yet I cannot make any statement in regards to the ending and thus also appreciate the absence of any kind of spoilers

That being said, a truly happy sunshine ending would not fit the tone of Cyberpunk. (But let's not discuss that here.)

 

[strangerr3]

There is YouTube video somewhere about early implementation on a system which randomize colors of npc wardrobe giving it less repetition. Reason why its not working is they maybe needed more time, it was heavy on resources or maybe they didnt liked idea at the end. Ive spend many hours in CP So I know probably all of those skins, for average Player who has 60h maybe its not a big deal. Anyway, I hope they will implement some extra variations at some Point.

 

[Azulath]

There is YouTube video somewhere about early implementation on a system which randomize colors of npc wardrobe giving it more repetition. Reason why its not working is they maybe needed more time, it was heavy on resources or maybe they didnt liked idea at the end. Ive spend many hours in CP So I know probably all of those skins, for average Player who has 60h maybe its not a big deal. Anyway, I widh thry will implementuje some extra variations at some Point.

Maybe it will be done in a patch or some modder activates this functionality. Time will tell, but it sounds interesting.

 

[Kid_SixXx]

Yeah, I have usually assumed that the lack of randomness in NPCs and vehicle traffic on the streets is due to the memory improvements made to the game to make it stable. Rendering all of that traffic and unique NPCs is very resource intensive.

 

[andrewdilley]

Naturally, this game is still bound by general hardware capabilities and consequently there will be NPC clones even with this setting turned off. For me, turning it off solved the problem of clones appearing frequently. However, if this issue still persists on your end consider screenshotting it and creating a bug report.

I'm just noting that the Slow HDD Mode option has no effect on whether I see clones or not. Was supposed to have been improved in Patch 1.23 but to be honest, I saw more of em - as did others, looking back at earlier posts, so not a new bug by any means. Can actually be pretty amusing, wandering around a market and seeing the same person crossing your path over and over and over again If I can work out how to capture a decent video I'll post one.

 

[Azulath]

With Slow HDD Mode enabled I got this NPC appearing three times:

Haven't encountered this issue once I disabled it though...

 

[andrewdilley]

With Slow HDD Mode enabled I got this NPC appearing three times:
View attachment 11259376

Haven't encountered this issue once I disabled it though...

Yeah I've seen him around Like I say, I have it disabled too, so don't know what else to say.

 

[Mybrokenenglish]

Wait, there's really a "slow HDD" toggle on pc? For real? That's the first time I heard about anything like this, but I'm a console peasant so what do I know. Still, I imagine that every time you toggle it on a warning appears on your monitor: "the game runs surprisingly well on your PC"

 

[LeKill3rFou]

Wait, there's really a "slow HDD" toggle on pc? For real? That's the first time I heard about anything like this, but I'm a console peasant so what do I know. Still, I imagine that every time you toggle it on a warning appears on your monitor: "the game runs surprisingly well on your PC"

A typical 7200 RPM HDD will deliver a read/write speed of 80-160MB/s. On the other hand, a typical SSD will deliver read/write speed of between 200 MB/s to 550 MB/s.

I don't know if the game could "see" what hardware is installed on your PC, so good idea to add this option. Opposite of consoles where the hardware is well "know" by the OS (and the games)

 

[Mybrokenenglish]

I don't know if the game could "see" what hardware is installed on your PC, so good idea to add this option. Opposite of consoles where the hardware is well "know" by the OS (and the games)

I wasn't criticizing.

 

[Azulath]

I don't know if the game could "see" what hardware is installed on your PC, so good idea to add this option. Opposite of consoles where the hardware is well "know" by the OS (and the games)

Well actually it can, otherwise how do games choose recommended settings? Also 200-550MB/s is just for SATA SSDs. NVMe SSDs have much higher speeds, depending on the generation 3.5GB/s or even higher.