Vinyl Synth

The generative AI situation in modding is easily the worst I've ever seen the ai situation generally. A mod is a special kind of derivative work, where you exercise a creative right to modify something you own to your tastes, whether on a large scale like a massive overhaul mod, or on the small scale with a little UI change. A creative, creation changing art. When did we stop caring about the process and start caring about some dumb result? A mod is a reflection of it's creator. When I see l33tmaan and Pursec's work on "A Culinary Artillery" and "Expanded Foods", I know I'm getting something curated by people who really care about their work. They put in the effort. What they change, too, reflects their choices at every step. If I were to have a conversation with one of them every day for a month, I would be able to piece together a complete explanation for everything they did in that month. Why some edit was made, why they left some bug in this version, why the update timeline is so odd. In the advertising of a mod, this is work you can do! a somewhat edited stock photo, art in the creative commons or used with permission has a ton of charm. people see it and instantly think "huh, i wonder why they chose to do that?" even unedited screenshots have their appeal, especially if they depict something from your mod! Where is this, in the context of AI? When someone sees an AI image, their first thought is "ok" or "ew". Even if they don't immediately reject the premise of AI generated art, they still don't see it as creative. The usage of AI is not a lack of a choice, not having an image is a choice, using ai is a choice, using stock photos is a choice. That choice, however, is a clear sign that you don't really care. Worse, it's a sign that you use it in other matters too. When the day comes that you find yourself tempted to ask it for advice on childcare, personal health, interpersonal relationships, careers, or even something more sensitive, will you be able to actually tell when it lies to you? It's not a secret that AI decays our ability to critically think; it's paraded around the offices of people who make it. It's not a secret that using AI worsens your own understanding of things; it's a natural result of not doing them yourself. The learning styles of yesteryear are a myth. We all learn by doing, we all learn by watching, we all learn by seeing. When you give it to the ai, what do you learn? Not to try, and pass it off to the AI? Something I know people will try to argue with me about is how this "doesn't actually address the covers" but doesn't it? Your cover is the first thing someone sees when they see your mod. If it's AI, they're going to assume what has proven true almost every time: you don't actually care about the mod, and just wanted to speed through the process. When I see Salty, his AI generated floppa image, and his vibe coded mods, I know that the mod is going to fail basic tests of game design, and i know it will run poorly. ex: mountain climbing, smooth movement. If you're not against AI in all creative endeavors, to be frank, you're just against artists as a whole. Art and media (and yes, that includes mods) aren't made for you to chew up and spit out and ask for more today, tomorrow, and the day after; they exist in a real context, by a real person, for a real reason. They serve identifiable purposes for identifiable reasons and are made with choices ingrained in them.

I would absolutely die for a proper CRT shader mod with multiple fx sliders, and, being a linux user, all of the standard options are unusable at best. I have next to or even below zero shader knowledge so I'm unfortunately useless at this ._.