A programming paradigm in which gameobjects (entities) are composed out of components, and are operated upon by systems. Each entity is an ID that points to specific components.
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Is an entity/component system appropriate for this geometry handling system?
I'm working on a Component/Entity-System based game engine atm. And I have this little dilemma. I have simple geometrical structures which might be downloaded or created in game at some point.
These ...
2
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3answers
883 views
Question about “Entity System” design
I am developing a top down 'thing' in SFML and C++ and was wondering about how best to handle so called Entities in my game.
An entity, for example is defined by me as an object in-game, such as a ...
24
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2answers
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Entity/Component Systems in C++, How do I discover types and construct components?
I'm working on an entity component system in C++ that I hope to follow the style of Artemis (http://piemaster.net/2011/07/entity-component-artemis/) in that components are mostly data bags and it's ...
4
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2answers
286 views
Storing Entity Meta-Data
The question is about how to handle data about entities, but not particularly useful to the entity itself. An example of such data may be the external script that controls the entity's behavior or the ...
3
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1answer
277 views
Entity position: In map or in script?
I'd like to know how others have handled the issue of storing the entity's position. (Or maybe it's not an issue and I just make it too complicated.)
I'm undecided on whether to store the position of ...
10
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5answers
589 views
Why place entity config outside of scripts?
I've seen a lot of games that define the entity components in script files, but when they configure each entity and specify what components it has, they use some other file format (like XML). Why do ...
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3answers
1k views
XNA Entity Component Design: Lost on how to include Sprite Animation
I've been reading about Entity Component design and thought it's pretty neat.
I've been trying to write a quick 2D engine in XNA.
I think I've laid the proper groundwork for registering and updating ...
6
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2answers
564 views
Data Structure (or algorithm) for fast distance-based entity lookups
For example, your game has 100 enemies (on different teams) running around and their AI wants to inspect the nearby entities to see which it should attack. What is a fast way to organize those ...
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3answers
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Component entity system - Updates and call orders
In order to get components to be able to update every frame (and leave this functionality out of components that don't need to) I got the idea to make an UpdateComponent component. Other components ...
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2answers
575 views
Checking for Weapon Collision in a 2D overhead RPG game
I'm starting development on a 2D overhead RPG game, and am wondering what the best approach for handling weapon collision and dealing damage to enemies is.
I'm currently using a basic ...
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2answers
335 views
How granular should entity states be?
I'm writing a component-based entity system and one of the components is the entity's state, which dictates how it reacts to game events. In case anyone has experience with implementing states, how ...
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5answers
559 views
Whats the most efficient method for controlling entities?
I'm creating a tower defense game and I'm having logistical issues trying to figure out how to best have all of the enitites do their apporiate task.
I have considered just constantly looping through ...
12
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3answers
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Appropriate level of granularity for component-based architecture
I'm working on a game with a component-based architecture. An Entity owns a set of Component instances, each of which has a set of Slot instances with which to store, send, and receive values. Factory ...
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2answers
594 views
Component-based entities without IDs?
I'd like to know if someone has found a way to build a component-based entity system in their game(s) without using IDs. I find that IDs tend to do away with one of the major (possible) advantages of ...
6
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4answers
1k views
How does an Engine like Source process entities?
[background information]
On the Source engine (and it's antecessor, goldsrc, quake's) the game objects are divided on two types, world and entities. The world is the map geometry and the entities are ...
7
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3answers
628 views
Overriding component behavior
I was thinking of how to implement overriding of behaviors in a component based entity system. A concrete example, an entity has a heath component that can be damaged, healed, killed etc. The entity ...
21
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5answers
1k views
Doing powerups in a component-based system
I'm just starting really getting my head around component based design. I don't know what the "right" way to do this is.
Here's the scenario. The player can equip a shield. The the shield is drawn ...
7
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3answers
1k views
Role of an entity state in a component based system?
Component-based entity systems are all the rage these days; everyone seems to agree they are the way to go, but no one really has a definitive implementation of such a system. I was wondering, what ...
5
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4answers
640 views
Drawbacks of using reflection for a component based system at loading-time
I'm coding a little casual game in Java using Slick2D.
This game use a lot of different "objects", managed in a composite way. So, firearms, furniture in the map, NPC and player character will be ...
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1answer
502 views
How to manage game components and their attributes?
Currently I am working with cocos2d for the iPhone. I want to make my game structured and consequential. How to manage all the game components?
What do I mean with game components? A game component ...
19
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6answers
3k views
What designs are there for a component based entity system that are user friendly but still flexible?
I've been interested in the component based entity system for a while, and read countless articles on it (The Insomiac games, the pretty standard Evolve Your Hierarchy, the T-Machine, Chronoclast ... ...
7
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3answers
1k views
Component based entity system API naming problems
My engine uses a component-based entity system internally, and I want to bind it to Lua for scripting.
Now, I want to save people who write scripts for it typing work. In C++, to set the position of ...
8
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2answers
671 views
How to manage all the NPC/AI objects on the server?
I'm writing a simple MMO, and currently have the the server-client architecture in place for multiple users to see each other and be able to move around together...now its time to add enemies.
Was ...
3
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1answer
470 views
Design suggestions for my Entity module
I need some advice on how to design the Entity module in my game, how to apply the MVC pattern and generally how the Entity should interact with its controller and its representation.
First some ...
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1answer
437 views
Managing Game Entity coordinates
In my Game I'm currently have "Scene Coordinates" which are the X,Y coordinates relative to a Game Scene.
In that Scene there are Game Entities, let's say there's a GameEntity A in x=100.0, y=100.0 ( ...
4
votes
1answer
312 views
A few questions about entity states
This is the first time I'm trying to make a 2D game, so I'm having quite a few difficulties in getting things right. Right now I'm trying to figure out exactly how the entity state machine should ...
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3answers
2k views
Creating Entity as an aggregation
I recently asked about how to separate entities from their behaviour and the main answer linked to this article: http://cowboyprogramming.com/2007/01/05/evolve-your-heirachy/
The ultimate concept ...
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2answers
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Implementing my Entity System. Questions about some problems I have found
Well during this week I have deciding about implementation of my entity system. It is a big topic so it has been difficult to take one option from the whole. This has been my decision:
1) I don't ...
8
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5answers
857 views
Managing multiple references of the same game entity in different places using IDs
I've seen great questions on similar topics, but none that addressed this particular method:
Given that I have multiple collections of game entities in my [XNA Game Studio] game, with many entities ...
11
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4answers
3k views
Game engine with good Lua entity creation/management [closed]
I'm looking for an engine that constructs it's entities using Lua or other scripting language. This is in order to find inspiration and do it in my own engine as well.
I know that Cryengine does use ...
18
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2answers
2k views
Component-Based System online resources
I've been considering moving to a more component-based approach in my games. Does anyone else have any decent reference material or sample implementations that would help make this transition a little ...
75
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9answers
6k views
Entity communication: Message queue vs Publish/Subscribe vs Signal/Slots
How do game engine entities communicate?
Two use cases:
How would entity_A send a take-damage message to entity_B?
How would entity_A query entity_B's HP?
Here's what I've encountered so far:
...
