While it remains to be seen what Rockstar will do with its next iteration of Grand Theft Auto — and whether or not it’ll be online, as with GTAO — some fans discovered a patent from April 2019 that looks like NPC tech for a future game.
The patent in question is for “a system and method for managing and pathfinding using a coarse graph of low-level nodes representing the virtual world of a gaming environment.” Or as IGN summarized, it’ll potentially make for more realistic game in-game traffic and NPC use of vehicles.
What’s really interesting, at least to us, is that part of the patent mentions a multiplayer experience, with “virtual navigation and management of objects in a multiplayer network gaming community.” Confirmation? Or simply… a possibility?
