Ashley To my knowledge, Rendering Cells & the new system action "Reset persisted objects" were to address the issues brought up in this thread.
However, I fail to see how they do so. The consensus was to add a single new action, something like "Reload Layout Zone (x1,y2,x2,y2)" with a button to specify which object types in that zone would be reloaded. This would allow us to dynamically load & destroy portions of a layout, which would be ideal for metroidvanias & open-world type games such as Zelda.
What I don't get is how "Reset persisted objects" is supposed to solve this, since it only works when you exit and re-enter a layout.
The rendering cells were also surprising because, with the above solution, "far off cells" wouldn't even exist outside of memory. Instead, the "cells" would be loaded & unloaded as you progress based on distance to the player (or however the dev wants), which would result in a lower average CPU/GPU usage. I suppose they are currently beneficial to GTA-style sandbox games where you have one continual seamless area with no resetting, but that's about it.
Is there something I'm missing? Is the "Reload Layout Zone" action still on the horizon?