GTA 6 has patented a new locomotion system to make "highly dynamic and realistic animations"

Fuck software patents.

"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."

That's what they patented. Their animations a tiny bit more modular. The patent and copyright system is literally only their to fuck us.

Is there no example of prior art anywhere? Someone doing this, but not explicitly calling it out because it's obvious?

I think the FromSoftware games have had a modular animation scheme that allowed contextual selection of sub-animations with priorities so that things looked fluid during combat. If the animations change based on context, what's the difference if that context is incoming weapon angle vs "tiredness"? Hundreds of games have characters react to low health with a different movement animation. Other games have characters react to weather like rain or wind by bracing against it. How is this different from that, other than simply having more factors taken into account?

Software patents in general are just scummy. No one is going to buy your game specifically because your characters limp. No one bought the Mordor games JUST for the patented nemesis system. No one is going to buy a Nintendo game JUST for the loading animation that shows where you were and where you just teleported to. All patenting these things do is limit future potential and piss off vocal parts of your fan base.

I know I'm preaching to the choir here...