In open world games like GTA 5, what happens to NPCs when no one is around? Do they still “move,” drive, etc?

Question

In open world games like GTA 5, what happens to NPCs when no one is around? Do they still “move,” drive, etc?

In: Technology

Answer 1

It depends entirely on the game.

The most aggressive and pretty universal removal is the graphics. The graphics card calculates the look of everything around you, and there are separate and pretty aggressive routines to not calculate what you can’t see.

Then you have the simulation of movement and actions. It will simply be different from game to game.

Metal Gear 5 is an example with a huge world, where if you place a mine on a road, and go far enough away, you can still see the mine on the map, and the movement of the enemy vehicle, but the mine won’t be triggered.

This because mine triggering is done by a costly calculation involving exact proximity – enemies far enough away are simulated in simpler ways.