The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered launched last year to massive success, surpassing nine million players in its first three months and selling over two million copies on Steam, according to SteamDB.
Despite the sales figures, fans have been vocal about the game's performance. Stuttering, frame spikes, and poor optimization have been common complaints, often attributed to the use of Unreal Engine 5. However, one fan on Reddit decided to take matters into their own hands and "vibe code" a fix.
Yes, people are now using AI to generate performance patches for games. User u/LTSharpe, posting on the r/ChatGPT subreddit, explained that they are a huge Oblivion fan who was struggling with the game’s performance despite running a high-end PC setup featuring an AMD 9070 XT, 32GB of DDR4 RAM, and a Ryzen 9 5800X processor.
Can AI really fix Oblivion Remastered's performance issues?
Opting to use Claude instead of ChatGPT, LTSharpe managed to boost the game’s average FPS by 37%. If you’re interested in trying the patch yourself, you can try the GitHub repository (using proper precautions, of course).
I played the Oblivion Remaster on Xbox, and even on that hardware, I noticed stuttering and frame spikes. While I’m usually cautious about how AI is used in development, I think this is a pretty clever use case, one that most people likely won’t mind.
Seeing someone take their framerate from 30 to a stable 60, while also fixing bugs that the developers missed, is impressive, even if an AI did the heavy lifting.
We are, of course, in the midst of an AI wave in the gaming space. Community-driven projects are cropping up everywhere thanks to these tools, whether it’s mashups between games or impossible ports. We’re seeing it all lately, and it’s enough for Xbox to take notice, having launched Xbox Labs to explore these emerging AI technologies.
Let me know if you agree or disagree with me on whether this is a good use case for AI. Both views are valid, so do share your thoughts in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll below:
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