Grand Theft Auto 6 may benefit from vastly improved animations thanks to a locomotion system patented by Take-Two Interactive.
Rockstar Games has reliably pushed the envelope in terms of animations with each of its titles, but the GTA 6 locomotion system patent reveals that its authors have figured out a way to support more animations using fewer resources, which could open things up to a new world of possibilities.
GTA 6 Locomotion System Patent
As spotted by Reddit user Tobbelobben30, Grand Theft Auto 6’s locomotion system patent enables “flexibility for creating a larger variety of animations for virtual worlds with a smaller set of stock resources and a more flexible code structure than traditional systems require.”
The user discovered the document by going over last year’s significant leak, which led him to the name of one former Rockstar Games employee, Tobias Kleanthous, whose LinkedIn page notes that they were the lead inventor and authored the patent alongside other members of the development studio.
“They’ve built a library of small building blocks for character movements,” Tobbelobben30 explains in his post.
“These blocks can be combined in various ways to create a wide range of animations. For instance, think about a character in the game walking in the rain, feeling tired, or getting injured. Instead of designing separate animations for each of these situations, they use these building blocks to put together the character’s movements naturally.
“This means GTA 6 can have more diverse and lifelike animations. So, when you play GTA 6, you’ll see characters moving in ways that match the weather, their energy level, and their injuries.”
Pointing towards footage from the leaks, they claim that the system could also be used by the NPCs, which were seen gradually adjusting their posture when taking cover based on the object behind which they were hiding.
Red Dead Redemption 2 already raised the bar in terms of animations – although some players considered their highly detailed nature to negatively impact gameplay – so it will certainly be interesting to see what Rockstar Games cooks up for the next entry in its modern-day open-world series of games.
Whether or not Tobbelobben30’s predictions come true remains to be seen. Although GTA 6 is confirmed to be in development and has a patented, new locomotion system it could very well use, its developer has yet to give us a look at how it plays.
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