Those looking forward to seeing how Rockstar might push its animation technology even further than the already-impressive Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2 in its upcoming (and still very secretive) sequel, Grand Theft Auto VI, may have cause to be excited after a patent was unearthed that describes some pretty wild new capabilities.
The patent was discovered by Reddit user Tobblelobben30, who was doing some sleuthing based on early leaks of the game and followed a thread leading to a developer named Tobias Kleanthous, previously a Lead AI/Gameplay Programmer at Rockstar that worked on RDR2. Kleanthous, it turns out, had shared a particular patent on his LinkedIn profile earlier this year, saying “I was lead inventor and authored this patent regarding animated locomotion control based on some of the core technology I architected and implemented for games at Rockstar Games.”
Further looking into this revealed that the patent in question, which seems to have been filed in late 2020, relates to a system used to create dynamic and realistic character locomotion and animations based on a vast library of smaller animation components that can be combined to create believable movement in certain circumstances, like the weather, their own energy levels or even injuries. “Tobblelobben30” was able to find references to these animation blocks in the leaked GTA 6 videos, further proving that this system has been designed for the upcoming game, though the patent also contains references to some animation blocks that sound like they’re from RDR2, suggesting this is likely an evolution of Rockstar’s prior (and already-impressive tech).
This Take-Two Patent About GTA 6 Hints Towards Highly Dynamic and Realistic Animations
byu/Tobbelobben30 inGTA6
The originally-discovered patent has since been blocked from public view, but a duplicate can be found right here (sans any images).
This new finding, coupled with previously-discovered Rockstar patents describing new UE5 Nanite-like rendering technology as well as cloud-based management of AI pathfinding and behaviour in an open-world environment, all paint a pretty exciting picture of just how groundbreaking GTA 6 might actually be. Whenever it eventually appears.
