Questions re Low-Level Processing

[zymurgy65]

1. What is it?

2. When can it be dispensed with?

I have a guard in a ship's cargo hold. He doesn't eat or sleep, and doesn't have any scripts attached. I'm guessing he doesn't need it.

What about the rest of the crew, who have wander and sleep packages?

[Striker879]

My experience with Low Processing checked is that then the NPC will not evaluate and execute any of their assigned packages until the player enters the cell they are in.

 

An example ... I have 'rescued' Pumpkin the dog from Rockmilk and given her packages that let her wander around in White Stallion. In one set of packages she'll follow Mazoga outside on the days that Mazoga isn't busy with her black bow stuff (Mazoga has been tweaked with more packages too). If I'm not in White Stallion Lodge she won't go outside until after I've entered White Stallion, if I'm in White Stallion at the time (and conditions) that have Mazoga go for her stroll Pumpkin follows her out no problem. I have discovered with some other low processing NPCs that I've tweaked that simply unticking the box solves the 'you've got to be there' problem, just havent got around to unticking Pumpkin yet.

 

My take on it is that Bethesda was looking for ways to limit the CPU hit of the game ... you need to recall the computer hardware landscape of the time the game was released (still plenty of Pentiums in use back in the days of the Pentium 4s at the height of the GHz Wars).

[zymurgy65]

OK, that's very helpful. No low-level processing required for the guard in the hold, but the rest of the crew will need it. Thanks! :thumbsup:

[qwertyasdfgh]

Basically, you can check "No Low-Level Processing" flag if your NPC is never supposed to leave their starting cell and doesn't have special behavior like locking/unlocking doors by schedule.

There's no harm in not checking it, but it might give a minuscule performance increase.