[FEATURE REQUEST] IBM Watson integration (or Alexa, or Google Assistant, or all of them), please ?

[motorsep]

This is something I was wondering about last year and it seems that Unity already knew it would be a good idea: https://80.lv/articles/ibm-unity-pre...son-unity-sdk/

Dear Epic, can we please have such goodie for UE4, officially ?

Thanks beforehand

[ambershee]

Unity already knew it would be a good idea

Unity didn't do anything, IBM are responsible for the implementation. What's stopping you from just integrating the SDK for the platforms you wish to use?

[motorsep]

Unity didn't do anything, IBM are responsible for the implementation. What's stopping you from just integrating the SDK for the platforms you wish to use?

I am not IBM, nor Unity.. Are you one of those FOSS fanatics? Sounds like one for sure - "the code is there, why don't you do it yourself".

[Moth Doctor]

Are you one of those FOSS fanatics? Sounds like one for sure - "the code is there, why don't you do it yourself".

Well, it looks like Epic is kind of FOSS fanatic since the engine's source code is publicly available. This says exactly "the code is there, why don't you do it yourself"
And I don't see a reason to "attack" another user because he points out.

Middleware owners often manage this kind of integrations. Look at Wwise, Substance, Houdini or Speedtree. AFAIK even Steam Audio is updated in form of pull request from Valve.
And yeah, Speedtree 8 comes to Unreal year and a half after Unity... That sucks, of course.

I wouldn't expect or even demand this kind of integration from Epic directly. Especially that Watson would very well as the official IBM plugin, like in Unity.
Why don't ask IBM also?

[motorsep]

Well, it looks like Epic is kind of FOSS fanatic since the engine's source code is publicly available. This says exactly "the code is there, why don't you do it yourself"
And I don't see a reason to "attack" another user because he points out.

Well, if there were no royalties attached, then perhaps it would be legit to say that (and even then it would sound like "I am lazy and don't care, do it yourself"). But that's not the case.

Why don't ask IBM also?

Me asking IBM: "Could you please offer UE4 plugin for Watson?"
IBM: "And who are you, again?"

Epic (TimS preferably) asking IBM: ...
IBM: "Oh hey Tim! Sure thing, we'll put it on the roadmap"

Do you see my point?

This is from the same category as real-time GI.. Epic doesn't care for it, so it won't happen. And now that Fortnite is a big thing, I'd say don't expect UE4 getting anything out of ordinary. This is just proves the point that Unity makes engine for everyone, while Epic makes UE4 for Epic and $$$$$ paying partners, but dresses it up (used to, not anymore though) as UE4 for everyone.

P.S. I use UE4 and not planning on switching to Unity any time soon, but this is my feedback, so deal with it and stop defending Epic where it doesn't need to be defended.

[Moth Doctor]

I see your point. If you're able to convince Tim Sweeney to do this, I owe you a beer

Out of curiosity, did you try this integration? Does it work?
https://github.com/Perefin/watson-unreal-sdk-plugin

Speaking of other statements...
I'm not defending anyone, man. Having different opinion than you doesn't mean I'm defending someone. This my feedback, so please deal with too

This is just proves the point that Unity makes engine for everyone

No, it doesn't prove anything. If that was true, we both would use Unity. There's no such thing as "engine for everyone".
And such statement is quite amusing since Unity is the very first engine allowing other developers to easily add new systems and features. This way they avoided adding some vital system to the engine like material editor or cinematics tool...
Unity's Asset Story created for 3rd party content is the true "solution for almost everyone", no the engine itself. This is what Epic tries to replicate here.

Well, if there were no royalties attached, then perhaps it would be legit to say that (and even then it would sound like "I am lazy and don't care, do it yourself"). But that's not the case.

So you're suggesting they should shutdown marketplace for plugins and add every custom feature to the engine? Otherwise, you're entitled to say "Epic is lazy" because they provide tons of updates every release but not everything, so other devs use provide functionality for you?
You would have to say the same thing about Unity and its Asset Store.
No, that would be ridiculous. Would you agree with me on that?

[DamirH]

No, please don't bloat the engine with ridiculous fringe features that barely anyone has any use for.

[motorsep]

No, please don't bloat the engine with ridiculous fringe features that barely anyone has any use for.

First of all, it would be a plugin. Don't need it - don't use it. Also I fail to see why wouldn't anyone want for their NPCs to be less pre-scripted than they are now?!

[DamirH]

Engine plugins are still shipped with the engine and compile with the engine so they still bloat the engine, if not compiled projects. And it's a cloud based solution so it's inherently only applicable to the small subset of always-online games.

[mordentral]

First of all, it would be a plugin. Don't need it - don't use it. Also I fail to see why wouldn't anyone want for their NPCs to be less pre-scripted than they are now?!

You want to tie your in game dialogs to a 3rd party service with pay per call subscription plans, embedded latency, and possible downtime?

Sounds...silly

[Frenetic Pony]

You want to tie your in game dialogs to a 3rd party service with pay per call subscription plans, embedded latency, and possible downtime?

Sounds...silly

Agreed. This is in not how deep learning is coming to games and game engines. It's all going to be client side computation done by native engine code. This "solution" is silly and would be a waste of time for all involved. Watson, Alexa, and Google Assistant are in no way, shape, or form meant to be plugged into a game and none of their makers are interested in doing such.

[motorsep]

mordentral Frenetic Pony

So apparently either it's pure PR move or Unity have no clue what they are talking about, right? Did you even read the article?!

[mordentral]

mordentral Frenetic Pony

So apparently either it's pure PR move or Unity have no clue what they are talking about, right? Did you even read the article?!

Not everything is pointed towards games, they specifically mention tools and programs in their PR release, and only breifly mention games, and that is mostly for speech recognition (like star trek bridge crew), which can be done without Watson entirely.

Hell, pretty much all of it can be done without Watson with open and available libraries that don't require the cloud.

Watson is cool and all, but its not unique (not anymore at least), and its going to be niche of niche to be used for games as a pay for time service.

*Edit* Not saying you can't use it for games, its just both overkill and not optimum at the same time.

[DamirH]

Unity have no clue what they are talking about

More likely than you think.

[motorsep]

I wanted to have somewhat-semi-intelligent "chat" with my NPCs.. oh well, maybe in the nearest future...