What does AI Off or Uncontrolled actually do?

I have gone to great length to create triggers for groups, to set them AI OFF when no allied were inside that trigger zone, and have also been using uncontrolled units/groups, all in hope to limit the cpu hit.

Now I got a little curious, cause I had been seeing little to no gain with the above approach. Only thing that would help performance, was to only active the group/groups, when needed. So I made a quick test, where I place a Hornet on the ramp at Senaki, so Id have the same location and view for checking fps. Then I went ahead and placed 320 units - BTR-80 in this case.

Clean with only Hornet on the ramp, parking 12 at Senaki, I had 97 fps.

All units placed north of Enguri river, 25 nm behind the Hornet view.

Units off road: 72 fps

Units on road: 72 fps

Units on road uncontrolled: 72 fps

Units on road, AI OFF: 72 fps

So no difference at all. Only thing that can get the fps up, is decreasing the unit count.

184 units, 80 fps.

96 units, 87 fps.

Groups of 8 units used in all cases.

So Im wondering, what does AI Off and Uncontrolled actually do? Just a quicker way to Weapon Hold and dont disperse? I had kinda expected path finding, and anything AI's do, to be switched off, and thereby gain some performance?

AI off shuts down ground AI and movement immediately and completely. With hold position they can still move and attack. ROE/Alarm state can change that and shut off sensors. Its like using the power switch to mute your radio instead of turning the volume down or hitting the mute button.

I forget what uncontrolled is supposed to do for AI units. I wanna say its lock the player from controlling it or makes it only so the player can control it.

Perhaps spawn an enemy target unit/group after a certain period of time and note the performance impact of all those AI being active and targeting vs being empty shells of units.

I did that later yesterday, threw a single blue unit in, just outside red's fire range. Fps remained, but every 3 seconds or so, the fps would dip to 64 fps. That was AI On.

30 seconds later, I switched all Red AI off (320 units), fps same as before. Dips to 64 fps.

30 seconds later again, I switched the single blue AI Off, and fps was steady 72 fps.

Ive been using uncontrolled for aircraft on a ramp for example. They will just sit there, like static. But its easier to place them, and I can have them as groups. Goes for ground units too.

But what disappointed me, was that there was no difference in performance, if they were active (AI On), AI OFF, or uncontrolled. Disappointed maybe the wrong word, but I had expected some performance gain. Dont know the exact intention with AI Off, hence my question. But they dont feel like they are completely off, as if AI is still doing what ever it does, in the background. Cause placing 320 static buildings in the same location made no difference at all. Fps would be 97, like in clean.

Kicker was though, placing 320 static BTR-80's, and fps would be the same 72 fps (with and without a blue unit), as with 320 live BTR-80's?? Dont feel that static then, just like uncontrolled and AI OFF.

And just to underline, units and statics were placed north of Enguri river, at the the Hornets (view) 5 o'clock, which sits at Senaki ramp parking 12.

Not that it proves anything, but I was just curious if there was some linearity to the fps and unit count.

So placed 500 units (BTR-80), groups of 50, off the map (way north). Player Hornet cold on ramp parking 12 at Senaki again, and then Id switch off 100 units, every 15 seconds and note the fps:

500	64
400	69
300	74
200	80
100	88
50	93
0	98

Repeated it with all units set to uncontrolled. Same.

Repated it with all units AI Off (triggered that after 10 seconds). Same.

And compared with a Ural 4320T unarmed. Same count and procedure as above:

	BTR	4320T
500	64	70
400	69	74	
300	74	79
200	80	83
100	88	90
50	93	94
0	98	98

So looks to be, that some Line of sight, path finding, scanning for units/enemies, or what ever is going on, isnt switched entirely off, when 'uncontrolled', 'AI OFF', or even as static units.

Strange that fps anomaly from 200 to 100 fps, in both cases.

And for the hell of it, cause it might be interesting for other mission builders. Same approach, but this time I let all the 4320T's drive off road. Was above Black Sea, so up in the flat area with nothing but textures up there. Didnt test with uncontrolled and AI off for this driving test obviously.

	BTR	4320T	Drive
500	64	70	62
400	69	74	66
300	74	79	71	
200	80	83	79	
100	88	90	87
50	93	94	92
0	98	98	98