The conceit being that I want to watch some McDonalds employee brush his teeth before heading out to work, or get the chance to talk to some guy about his mortg

The conceit being that I want to watch some McDonalds employee brush his teeth before heading out to work, or get the chance to talk to some guy about his mortgage at a bar. I don't know why you'd build a game simulating more depth of interest in background characters than people actually possess, and it's not like occlusion culling is a foreign idea.