Normally I'd run a bunch of tests to find out the answer, but I'm going to bed so I'll pose the question and hopefully tomorrow it will be answered with lots of wisdom and experience.
Basically, I want the physics system to ignore off screen items. I have a variety of things off screen - lots of debris, lots of objects, etc. The more I add to the system the slower it runs, of course.
Now, the command
PHY SLEEP RIGID BODY looks ideal for this, until you read the help file.
Will make the rigid body stay asleep until the next call to phy update, and will not wake up until then even when otherwise it would ( for example a force is applied to it ). It can however wake up during the next call to phy update. If you require an object to be temporarily removed from the simulation this is an ideal command to use. Simply call this command on the rigid body until you require it to return back to a normal, active state.
Apparently this only stops the physics body for one iteration. So, instead of being able to toggle an object off and on, I have to reset it every single loop. That seems a little redundant. Probably not the worst thing in the world, but is there a better way? I'm going to add the physics culling tomorrow and I just don't want to miss something obvious, like some magic command I've not seen that does this automatically.
I appreciate it!
Come see the WIP!