It appears that recently some Reddit users have discovered a new patent application filed by Rockstar’s parent company, Take-Two, in October 2020. The patent application is titled as ‘System And Method For Virtual Navigation In A Gaming Environment’, which is most likely for the developer’s upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6.

Although there is no specific reference given to any particular game, it was developed by Rockstar’s lead AI programmer, Simon Parr, and David Hynd, Rockstar’s associate director of technology, which suggests that it could be related to the studio’s next game, GTA6.

Receive help with your Rockstar Games technical issues – Use our Knowledge Base Articles and receive assistance via Callback, Chat, Email, and our Player Supported Community. Of course, there’s no suggestion that this is definitely linked to GTA 6 at the time of writing; Rockstar has barely even acknowledged the game exists. But references to a “high-speed chase.

So basically this new patent hints at the possible next-gen NPC AI and vehicle navigation tech which is going to be implemented in Grand Theft Auto 6. If this patent is to be taken as a base guideline for now, it appears that GTA 6 might feature advanced new NPC and AI systems to create an immersive and more realistic city full of ‘smart’ AI.

The patent is highly technical in nature, but it describes new advanced methods to improve in-game NPC movement patterns as well as the virtual navigation.

The new document highlights how NPC systems and vehicles actually work linearly across nodes and the addresses throughout the game world, as evident from the graph. The patent aims to make the navigation and behavior of NPC characters more realistic in GTA 6.

As the patent reads, “Conventional systems only provide limited resources for automating NPCs. For example, processing power, memory, and efficiency only allow for a predetermined number of NPC controlled cars in any single instance of a conventional system.

Rockstar Gta 6 Tweet

Rockstar Games Email

As an additional drawback, conventional systems relied almost entirely on local traffic avoidance for NPCs to avoid collisions.

However, players of a video game would expect to see more than a predetermined number of NPC controlled cars in a video game for a realistic experience.

In conventional systems, NPCs are often grouped by characteristics and perform the same motions. In fact, some NPCs of conventional systems fade out of existence as the player approaches the NPC.”

So basically Rockstar developers are now looking into an advanced AI pattern method, which will enhance its NPC systems to allow for more immersion and realistic interactions in the open game world, from how characters move, what behavior patterns they exhibit, how they interact with the game world at any particular given time, and how NPCs drive across huge cities.

As the document reads, “Each NPC can define its own specific characteristics for traversing the road nodes.”

So NPCs and AI systems would be able to use Pathfinding and subsequent node traversal, so that the NPC AI feels more reactive. The patent and the graph outlines specific characteristics for each NPC, so that they can traverse the game environment differently based on the vehicle type, road speed rules and restrictions, type of road and street they’re on, and also the current state of the weather in the city.

The patent is designed to create “a realistic virtual world that is not limited by hardware and software limitations. For example, driving slower on residential-type roads or having to perform certain manoeuvres to avoid oncoming traffic on single-lane streets”.

“In yet another embodiment, NPCs can also account for exigent circumstances, such as a high-speed chase. For example, in addition to using local avoidance based on the coarse graph 200, splines can be generated through ambient traffic. In other words, vehicles in the virtual world that are obeying traffic laws are used to generate routes through/around them.

A list of ambient traffic in the area can be generated and for each vehicle, information related to the subject NPC is recorded. For example, the space between two vehicles, relative direction of travel, velocity differences, and so on. Based on this information, a route can be plotted towards the final destination”, the patent reads.

However, it’s too early to come to any conclusion now because things might change as the game development progresses, and some of the AI pattern and coding might also be altered when GTA 6 comes out in future.

Stay tuned for more!

Metal Messiah

Hello, my name is NICK Richardson. I'm an avid PC and tech fan since the good old days of RIVA TNT2, and 3DFX interactive 'Voodoo' gaming cards. I love playing mostly First-person shooters, and I'm a die-hard fan of this FPS genre, since the good 'old Doom and Wolfenstein days. MUSIC has always been my passion/roots, but I started gaming 'casually' when I was young on Nvidia's GeForce3 series of cards. I'm by no means an avid or a hardcore gamer though, but I just love stuff related to the PC, Games, and technology in general. I've been involved with many indie Metal bands worldwide, and have helped them promote their albums in record labels. I'm a very broad-minded down to earth guy. MUSIC is my inner expression, and soul. Contact: Email

Rockstar Games parent company Take-Two Interactive has seemingly confirmed some bad news about the release date of GTA 6. More specifically, it has essentially revealed that the new Grand Theft Auto won't be releasing anytime soon. During its latest earnings call, Take-Two Interactive confirmed that it's expecting a 'light' fiscal year in terms of releases. In other words, it has a light lineup of games releasing between April 2020 and March 2021, which all but confirms Grand Theft Auto VI will be not releasing during this window. If it was, you wouldn't refer to the year as 'light' to a room full of your investors.

That said, Take-Two Interactive did suggest the following fiscal year will be bigger in this regard, which could mean GTA 6 will drop sometime during this window of April 2021 to March 2022. If this is the case, then the new installment will presumably be revealed later this year. After all, Red Dead Redemption 2 was revealed two years ahead of its release, and this is typically Rockstar Games' marketing strategy when it comes to its biggest releases. So, if the game is going to release sometime in 2021 or 2022, it would mean a reveal would have to be somewhat on the horizon.

Over the past couple of years, rumors have suggested the new Grand Theft Auto would release as early as 2020. At the time the rumors seemed like wishful thinking, and now we know that's exactly what they were.

Rockstar Gta San Andreas

Recently, there have been conflicting reports about the game's development. Some have claimed the game is still in the early stages of development, while others have suggested the game is actually further along in development than we think. There have even been suggestions the game could release ahead of schedule, but it would come at a big cost. All of this is to say, nobody seems to know when the next Grand Theft Auto is releasing, but what we do know is it won't be dropping before March 2021.

1comments

At the moment of publishing, Grand Theft Auto VI has not been officially announced by Rockstar Games, but that hasn't stopped rumors, reports, and speculation from flooding the Internet about the inevitable PS5 and Xbox Series X game. To make sure you're up to date on the latest scuttlebutt surrounding the title, click here.

Meanwhile, as always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think or hit me up on Twitter @Tyler_Fischer_ and let me know over there. When do you think GTA 6 will release?