after much research i dont believe baking is possible. However I have identified the issue using the profiler. My crowd character is partented to the character class and is using the character movement component. This kills the performance. Is there another method I could use to move a character with a walking animation around using the mass ai? Some thing that isnt performance heavy… I’m redownloading the city sample for 5.1 to see what they are doing but if anyone knows the answer please let me know