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A new Take-Two patent was discovered and appears to be based on improving the intelligence and navigation capabilities of AI.
The patent, which registers a “system and method of virtual navigation in a gaming environment” was posted on Reddit in recent days, although the actual document was originally filed by Rockstar’s parent company, Take-Two, in October 2020.
In the simplest possible terms, the patent aims to make the artificial intelligence of non-player characters (i.e. NPCs) a little smarter and more organic, with the aim of moving away from solutions current AIs who are starting to feel a bit overwhelmed.
The patent notes that “conventional systems provide only limited resources” for developers who wish to populate their worlds with active elements. Think about the pedestrians you see walking down the street, the cars you see on the roads – even the vehicles you see flying overhead. They run on scripts that only allow a limited number of instances to be active in the game at a time. NPCs generally all drive at the same speed, follow the same routes, and do the same things.
Rockstar believes that these current systems are “deficient” and instead wishes to activate systems that produce “a realistic virtual world that is not limited by hardware or software limitations”.
The system suggested in the patent therefore points to an NPC solution which gives the characters different personalities. Maybe an NPC in some type of car will intentionally take side roads to avoid traffic jams. Perhaps someone else, who is not such a confident driver, will move much slower once the sun goes down in the evening.
Of course, there is no indication that this is definitely related to GTA 6 at the time of writing; Rockstar barely recognized that the game exists. But references to “high speed chase”, “ambient traffic”, etc. suggest that we are looking for something more modern here. Not – for reasons of argument – Red Dead Redemption 3, or similar.
The patent is filed with the parent company, but the names attached to the patent as “inventors” are Rockstar North CTO, David Hynd, and AI manager, Simon Parr. So that’s definitely something the studio is looking for when it comes to next-gen open-world titles.
While Rockstar is keeping a low profile on anything they work on next, we have had reports that the next GTA is at the start of development and will be smaller compared to previous Rockstar games.
Elsewhere, the Take-Two marketing budget seems to imply that GTA 6 could launch in 2023 and that a GTA Online race appeared to point to Vice City for GTA 6 in 2020.
Remember that officially GTA 6 doesn’t even exist yet.