GTA 6 has patented a new locomotion system to make "highly dynamic and realistic animations"
GTA 6 has patented a new locomotion system to make "highly dynamic and realistic animations"
I hate this. Same with WB patenting the Nemesis system then not even bothering to milk it.
Time to get to work writing the alternative cola recurring enemy system I guess...
They've built a library of small building blocks for character movements. These blocks can be combined in various ways to create a wide range of animations. … Instead of designing separate animations for each of these situations, they use these building blocks to put together the character's movements naturally.
This sounds like shape keys, which is a technique already widely used in games and animation today. When you get shot in Battlefield, your character model plays a “getting shot” animation. When your character runs, it plays a “running” animation. When your character gets shot while running, these two animations are combined - it’s not a separate “shot while running” animation.
Would love to know if there’s actually some novel aspect to this “invention” but it seems more likely that this is yet another bullshit patent approved by a clueless clerk who did zero searches for prior art.
Edit: Read the patent. Not only does it describe nothing novel, it doesn’t even document what they did. All it says is basically “we created animation blocks and combine them”. The details are just a bunch of bullshit jargon spew:
attributes can include conditions, properties, events, flags, graphs, values, references, and variants
Their novel discovery: They figured out nobody had patented this yet
I think this would make it tough to enforce the patent if it's actually commonly used. If I were somehow granted a patent on tap dancing, its common usage by others before me would probably cause my patent to be invalidated if I then tried to sue a tap dancer.
Not a patent lawyer, but IIRC, US patent law had some protections for things (including non-patented) that are already common practice.
EDIT: Clarity
I work in patents. If it wasn't novel it wouldn't be granted, believe me.
I work in computer graphics software. My former employer preferred that engineers liberally apply for “defensive” patents because of how often people would get a patent for something we already did and then try to sue us for it. Plus we got a small cash bonus when our patents were approved. Through this process, I was granted six patents for my work there. It would be unwise to put something to text that could be used as evidence to invalidate the patents, so I’ll just say that my opinion on how low the bar is to getting software patents approved is definitely well-informed.
understanding the law and understanding how to assess novelty in a proper way
I’ll admit I have little understanding of the legal definition of “novel”, but insofar as the intent of the patent system, the current bar is way too low for software patents. Although remedied recently, the plethora of software patents that still exist for “(Something people have done for decades) but do it on a computer” is ridiculous.
Sir you are too level headed for the internet
It sounds more like they're using more fundamental movements than what you're describing, not running animation+shot animation but more like:
Both reloading a particular weapon and mantling over a walk require you to lift your arms, so the root movement of lifting your arm to reload an LMG is the same one used to grab a ledge overhead, etc.
Basically they're just categorizing movements based on use case and direction so they can string those individual movements into different and unique patterns for individual actions.
Pressing an elevator button uses the same arm movement as opening a door, which uses the same wrist rotation movement as turning the key in a car, etc. So they just break down individual movements in the same way an LLM breaks down a voice into phonetics to string new words together.
It’s definitely possible they’re doing something novel internally, but the details that would support that interpretation are missing from the filing. One of the requirements for patents is that it “sufficient disclosure of the invention so that it can be reproduced by others”. I would say I qualify as an expert in the domain covered, and I have no idea what they’re actually doing based on the patent alone.
Software patents need to die.
Not shape keys, but something more akin to Unity's animation layers. This kinda stuff has been in games for a decade or so.
This has been done for decades. Anyone that respects this patent is an idiot.
Meanwhile at Bethesda:
Hey look, I figured out how to animate them to look at you! What? Walk naturally? No I don't have time for that.
The modders will figure that part out.
Did they just patent procedural animation?
Anybody remember Euphoria? Also seen in that canceled Indiana Jones game.
ues, euphoria was used in gta4 and Jedi unleashed
We need a video game "taco bell" to take on this stupid "taco John patented taco Tuesday slogan"
As long as GTA 6 has male strip clubs I'll be happy.
Who cares? Give me great game mechanics. It will be the dated missions with you being always an inch from failure in an open world. Give me another Zelda pls. Or better yet (since I haven't played it) Horizon Forbidden West.
The Fromsoft locomotion is already perfect for games. People care about good games, not graphics or realism.
I don't know how old you are, but I feel like younger people say this more often than older people.
As someone who saw the transition from 8-bit to 16-bit to 32/64-bit in their childhood, graphics were everything from the 80s until at least the 2000s. Each new generation was leaps and bounds better than the last; I remember the discussions in the playground being centered around nothing but graphics every time a new console was announced. Nobody talked about the games.
Nowadays we have incremental updates at best, so now people care less and less about graphics like they used to. Not me, though. I'm still a graphics slut and an absolute whore for path traced games. I'll play a game I don't enjoy if it has the latest in graphics tech.
I'm old and hold the opposite opinion. Those first few generational leaps were amazing. But I feel like we've long reached the point that almost any experience can be conveyed with impact.
I enjoy the new bells and whistles. But these incremental upgrades come coupled with skyrocketing costs, longer development times, and fewer risks. Indie gaming is still innovating of course, but I miss when AAA studios were churning out risky, unique titles.
I'm likely older than you.
Edit: why down vote? Were you born in the 60s?
Yeah but Rockstar won't using that they were using just standard animations so it's fine that they've come up with around animation system cuz they use their own engine.
I understand their reasoning... My point is why patent a locomotion style when no one gives a shit if the game is shit. I don't think a great looking walking animation is going to move the needle as to a game's sales.
And in no other games! Patents aee truely wonderful aren't they.
We will get like two games out of this before the patent expires cuz Rockstar takes 3 console gens to make 2 games.
They made GTA V then GTA V again then GTA V again then GTA V for VR, that's loads of games.
Rockstar have just innovated by releasing exactly the same game every single generation.
Or those gigantic multi million dollar game dev corporations could afford to, you know, pay to license that shit for their own games.
If they can afford to pay the CEOs millions of dollars for their golden parachute as well as their yearly salary, then they can afford that license.
If you think a game that doesn't have that is a failure, then both your expectations as well as that game both deserve to fail.
Why license endless patents if you can save money by just not doing that
Greedy ceos is a bad justification for software patents
Yeah, just like WB did with the Nemesis system, right? Oh wait.
Where can I get the crack you're smoking
Dude, maybe you do work on patents and know your shit. But boy are you clueless about the video game industry.