Crimson Desert replaces AI-generated assets left in the game by accident "as part of ongoing visual improvements," alongside improvements to loading and controls

Pearl Abyss has just released a new Crimson Desert patch containing improvements to the game's sometimes wonky controls, faster load times, new mounts, and replacements for some of the AI-generated assets that were left in the RPG supposedly by accident.

For context, players very quickly noticed that some in-game paintings in Crimson Desert's huge world looked, well, questionable at best. More than a few pieces of art had all the hallmarks of something that was AI-generated, with one particularly nightmarish painting fusing humans and horses together in a way that would make Frankenstein's monster shudder.

Developer Pearl Abyss hadn't disclosed the game used generative AI before release, but it did apologize for accidentally letting the tech slip into Crimson Desert's retail version and promised to conduct an audit of all in-game asset.

Crimson Desert's patch 1.01.00 now seems to be replacing at least some of the AI-generated offenders. The latest patch notes say that the developer has "replaced select 2D visual assets to better align with the game's art direction" as "part of ongoing visual improvements."

Crimson Desert players have since spotted a number of obvious changes. Pieces that were previously non-descript slabs of slop now seem actually painterly and make some amount of real world sense, like the example above.

The new patch that's already out on Steam, Xbox, and PS5 has also introduced five summonable mounts that I won't list here due to potentially spoilery reasons, as well as decreased loading times for fast travel and "some more changes to controls as part of our ongoing efforts to improve the game's controls." That includes faster movement speed for both the player character and your mounts.

As Crimson Desert becomes the latest game to see AI art slip through the cracks, Mewgenics co-creator says concept art is "one of the worst" places to use it: "That's where you want to be the most creative"