Status: Accepted
Date: 2026-05-23
Context#
Hitman-class sandbox maps require hundreds of civilians with perception, schedules, reactions, and replication boundaries. Actor-only crowds would put unnecessary pressure on ticking, memory, and replication.
Decision#
V4 uses Unreal Mass Entity as the default dense-crowd runtime. Actor facades are reserved for characters currently interacting with players, cinematics, or high-fidelity combat.
Consequences#
- Crowd schedules and perception data must support Mass fragments.
- Asset and data linting must reject crowd content that bypasses the Mass pipeline without an explicit exemption.
- Performance tests must cover 400-NPC sandbox density.