NVIDIA ACE
NVIDIA models and SDKs for on-device game characters
- Best for
- Studios building voice-driven characters that run locally on players' GPUs, in Unreal or a custom engine
- Makes
- Speech recognition, dialogue, text-to-speech and facial animation for game characters
- Made by
- NVIDIA
- Where you use it
- Unreal Editor, Windows
- Engines
- Unreal Engine
- Pricing
- Not published; Unreal plugins and the Audio2Face-3D SDK are MIT-licensed, the Game Agent SDK is Apache-2.0, and models use a mix of open and NVIDIA licenses
- Open source
- Yes (MIT (Unreal plugins, Audio2Face-3D SDK); Apache-2.0 (Game Agent SDK); models under NVIDIA Open Model License or custom licenses)
- Export
- Models and plugins run inside your own game build; check each model's license before shipping
- Status
- Available
NVIDIA ACE is a set of models, plugins and SDKs for building AI characters, first announced at Computex on May 28, 2023. As of October 2026, NVIDIA's ACE for Games page lists models for speech recognition (Nemotron ASR), dialogue (Nemotron and Qwen small language models), text-to-speech (Chatterbox and Qwen 3 TTS) and facial animation (Audio2Face-3D and Audio2Emotion-3D).
The emphasis is on running models on the player's PC. NVIDIA says its Unreal Engine 5 plugins run locally and are tuned for RTX GPUs, and its In-Game Inferencing SDK runs models inside the game process using CUDA alongside graphics. The Game Agent SDK, in beta, is a C/C++ framework for connecting characters to game state in custom engines. Some parts, including speech recognition and Audio2Face-3D, can also run in the cloud. Plugin support ranges from Unreal Engine 5.4 to 5.7 depending on the plugin.
Shipped uses include Krafton's inZOI, whose optional Smart Zoi characters run a 0.5-billion-parameter Mistral NeMo Minitron model, and NARAKA: BLADEPOINT's AI teammate, according to NVIDIA. NVIDIA's developer blog says Krafton's PUBG Ally runs a 2B Minitron model on the player's GPU, with a behavior tree handling fast combat moves.
NVIDIA doesn't list prices. The Unreal plugins and Audio2Face-3D SDK are MIT-licensed, the Game Agent SDK on GitHub is Apache-2.0, and models carry their own licenses. AIGamer hasn't tested ACE; see our AI NPCs guide.
Limitation: NVIDIA's ACE page lists Unreal Engine 5 plugins (5.4 to 5.7, varying by plugin) and C/C++ SDKs, but no Unity plugin.
FAQ
What is NVIDIA ACE?
It's NVIDIA's collection of models, plugins and SDKs for AI game characters, covering speech recognition, dialogue, text-to-speech and facial animation, with an emphasis on running locally on the player's GPU.
Is NVIDIA ACE free?
NVIDIA doesn't publish a price. Its ACE page says the Unreal plugins and Audio2Face-3D SDK are MIT-licensed and the Audio2Face-3D models use the NVIDIA Open Model License; the Game Agent SDK's GitHub repository is Apache-2.0. Check each model's license before shipping.
Does NVIDIA ACE work with Unity?
NVIDIA's ACE page lists Unreal Engine 5 plugins and C/C++ SDKs for custom engines, but no Unity plugin.
What games use NVIDIA ACE?
NVIDIA names inZOI's Smart Zoi characters, NARAKA: BLADEPOINT MOBILE PC VERSION's AI teammate and Krafton's PUBG Ally, which ran as a beta in 2026.
Sources
Compiled by AIGamer from NVIDIA ACE's own pages and the sources below, checked 29 October 2026. We haven't tested NVIDIA ACE hands-on.
- NVIDIA Developer: NVIDIA ACE for Games
- NVIDIA Newsroom: NVIDIA ACE for Games Sparks Life Into Virtual Characters With Generative AI
- NVIDIA Developer: How KRAFTON Built PUBG Ally, a Co-Playable Character Powered by NVIDIA ACE
- NVIDIA: NVIDIA ACE Autonomous Game Characters Debut This Month In inZOI & NARAKA: BLADEPOINT MOBILE PC VERSION
- NVIDIA: game-agent-sdk (GitHub repository)
Image: NVIDIA
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