This may be a silly question, but I’m trying to figure out whether to optimize my game by selectively destroying and spawning NPCs based on player distance, or whether I can get away with “switching off” everything on an ACharacter except for their behavior tree, and effectively treat them like an empty point in space that pathfinds with the navmesh and modifies its CharacterData component in response to game logic.
The latter would lead to much more believably behavior, as I could simply switch characters from Dumb mode (when they’re far away) to Smart mode (with their model rendered, animations playing, and more complicated AI running) when they get close, but I’m really concerned about the CPU overhead.
To that end, is there a way to minimize the overhead an ACharacter consumes to the actions of its pathfinding and behavior tree, or would I be better off flat-out Destroy()-ing it?
