Rockstar Games Patents New NPC Technology Likely For Grand Theft Auto 6 And Beyond

Rockstar Games is known as the studio that pushes the boundaries of the gaming industry when it comes to their storytelling, gameplay mechanics, or their detailed environments. Well, a new patent filed by Take-Two Interactive was found that shows Rockstar wants to improve the artificial intelligence and navigation capabilities of AI’s for future games.

Rockstar Games Has A New System

According to IGN, the document was discovered by Reddit users that registered a “system and Method for Virtual Navigation in a Gaming Environment” in a filing back in October 2020, by Rockstar’s parent company. This means the new program will advance non-playable characters (NPC) intelligence to generate more realistic and immersive simulation of traffic. The application also confirmed that the system was created by Rockstar Games’ AI programmer Simon Parr and Associate Director of Technology, David Hynd.

Rockstar believes that the current systems for NPCs are inadequate, which prompted them to enable a system that would create “a realistic virtual world that is not limited by hardware and software limitation.” The patent suggests that NPCs in boats, cars, and drivers, will have their own characteristics for traversing road nodes.

These would be NPCs that could be able to understand acceleration, breaking time and distances, top speeds, and cornering speeds. Meaning you will have different types of drivers on the road depending on the circumstances of the road. You may find NPCs driving faster on highways and trying to pass one another or find slower drivers on one lane residential type of roads.

How It Could Impact GTA 6 and GTA Online

Another note from the patent explains that the system is for “virtual navigation and management of objects in a multiplayer network gaming community.” It’s likely the system is also designed for an online experience, perhaps this system will be implemented into GTA Online first, as the patent refers to Xbox one and PS4 consoles than next gen consoles. It also raises the question if the next GTA game in the series will have an online experience. Obviously, you can’t have a Rockstar game without a stellar single player narrative and hopefully the multiplayer portion is playable at launch, unlike GTA Online’s release.

There is no denying that the vehicle traffic system created by Rockstar programmers could be used for an upcoming game, such as Grand Theft Auto 6. Through, the studio hasn’t released any new information on the game, this new information gives us an idea on how ambitious Rockstar is getting.

GTA Online recently received a new heist update back in December that gave us a new location to explore in the seven-year-old game. It’s possible that Rockstar may release more updates in future with new content to test out their new systems to implement them into the upcoming game. Let’s hope we will see more teasers from the studio sometime this year.