Rockstar Developers Patent New NPC Tech

IGN writes: A patent filed by Take-Two Interactive details a new Rockstar-developed system for managing NPC navigation, with details explicitly referring to vehicle road routes and behaviour.The patent application, entitled ‘System And Method For Virtual Navigation In A Gaming Environment’, was filed by Rockstar’s parent company, Take-Two, in October 2020, and was recently discovered by Reddit users. The system described within it was developed by Rockstar’s lead AI programmer, Simon Parr, and David Hynd, Rockstar’s associate director of technology.

[Ezio2048]

Where Cyberpunk is lagging behind a 2013 game in NPC behaviour, Rockstar is pushing the boundaries even further.

[mostarr]

Hehe yep. Original Mafia from 2002 had better npcs too

[bouzebbal]

I think they should patent some better movement tech.. The movements in their games are the most stiff I've seen

[Destiny1080]

pac-man from 1980 has smarter Ai then Cyberpunk in 2020

[--Onilink--]

To be fair, almost every open world game is lagging behind games like GTA4 or Far Cry 2 in things like physics and other stuff (including the sequels to those games).

For all the many faults Cyberpunk has, Im not sure why people were expecting to revolutionize every single possible aspect of the genre.

[chronoforce]

Cdpr were the ones that set expectations.

[Dee_91]

well correct me if im wrong but CDPR did say that NPC's would have full 24hr cycles.. that would have been pretty revolutionary right?
side note, I was on a complete media blackout for cyberpunk for years, so that was new info to me lol

[--Onilink--]

@Dee

Cant say I recall that part, maybe they di, but even if it were the case, I wouldnt call it revolutionary, it was already done in AC Origins (and removed since then on the following sequels). Probably other games have done it too

[Chaos_Order]

Expecting revolutionary AI is one thing, but when you have open world games that are nearly 20 years old with better NPC AI, CDPR's promises for a "living, breathing city" sound ridiculous.

No, people shouldn't have been expecting the greatest AI of all time. But if you told people before release to expect the game to have AI worse than PS2 era games, everyone would've laughed and called you an ignorant idiot.

[Aussiesummer]

Because they said it would, yet they didn't even come close to even the standards of today and the past.

[blacktiger]

just so you know this whole thing is stage

[Imalwaysright]

GTAIV was released in 2008 and had far superior NPC behaviour than Cyberpunk.

[Muzikguy]

One of the areas I give Take Two props is they continually improve. Unlike others (EA, Activision, Ubisoft) that dumb things down as time goes on

[Dee_91]

you can tell the developers that love doing their jobs from the ones who don't for sure.

[RgR]

What game isn't lagging behind this 2013 game you speak of?

[AuraAbjure]

I hope it's current gen only and not last gen.

[TeamIcoFan]

Well, the underpowered series S is a thing, so it'll still get held back.

[roadkillers]

We're skipping a whole generation for a GTA game. I'm sure they can do something great even including the S.

[Tacoboto]

The Series S is totally gonna stump them. That'll hold back the game, not... Idk, things like supporting a GTX 1650 + 2015 Intel CPU with 8GB of 2333Mhz RAM on a traditional HDD

[AuraAbjure]

I doubt the Series S will hold back the development of games when a developer can just choose to turn off special effects & ray tracing, dial down physics and the native resolution to 720p @ 30 FPS. They optimize games to run at such low fidelity everyday on PC. It's called low settings and it does not screw up game development it just allows the game to reach an audience that would otherwise never dream of playing the latest and greatest. So long as you see games coming out on the Series S running at 60 FPS you can bet your bottom dollar the console did not hold back the game's development otherwise it would be running at 30 FPS duh.

[vallencer]

And yet we have games like the outer worlds that look great and run amazing on current gen that they made for the switch. So I guess you're right underpowered consoles hold games back.

[frostypants]

It's just a patent. Not clear when or if a game will utilize this.

[fitofficial]

Making the controls less clunky would be a better investment.

[Kabaneri]

Yeah no more running by tapping X, its incredibly outdated and inefficient.

[JackBNimble]

So what would you propose?
You can walk , run and sprint, explain how you would implement this.

[TeamIcoFan]

So many games have a better alternative to tapping x to run.
A common one dating back to the 90s is character speed dependent on how far you tilt the left stick, from a leisurely walk to a nice jog, while clicking in the left stick allows for sprinting.

Way better than having to hammer the same button over and over again to perform that basic function.

[Aussiesummer]

Just let us click the left stick in or hold a button down, so easy, let's hope.

[ocelot07]

Could be for the new GTA 5 Remaster they are doing?

[UltraNova]

If they want to test and upgrade it before deploying to GTA 6, that would be an excellent opportunity.

[Psychotica]

GTA 6 is early in development? Seems hard to believe considering it took 8 years for RDR2, wow. Maybe the smaller releases will help, hopefully..

[Kason35]

Gta VI on the way

[CrimsonWing69]

I don’t mind GTA online, but please don’t make GTA 6 only an online game.

[anast]

Because of this I might actually play GTA6 now, but I hate the genre. The gangster sim stuff is boring to me.