What is UE4 doing while idle?

I think you miss the point, if there’s nothing going on, there is no need for it to refresh anything. That’s the systemic problem with the engine right now, it’s always doing something, even when that something is nothing.

Another good example of this is in in the material editor. If you open it, sometimes it forces you to recompile your materials. Or if you move a module around, but don’t actually change any of the pin layouts, it forces you to recompile the material. It’s ALOT of useless CPU activity, running the computer into the ground, to accomplish absolutely nothing at all.

It’s like when we use the “Tick”. We, as people who use the engine, know not to abuse the tick because it can run the computer up when nothing is happening. But the guys who make the very engine we use seem to be abusing the tick.