Questions tagged [component-based]

Component-based designs rely on separating the multiple logical attributes of business objects and game objects into small components dedicated only to specific tasks. Whereas game objects are usually modeled to reproduce the attributes and behavior of "real world" objects by aggregating them together and allowing specialized objects to inherit from general ones, component based design relies on composition rather than inheritance.

295 questions
185
votes
1 answer

What is the role of "systems" in a component-based entity architecture?

I've been reading a lot about entity components and systems and have thought that the idea of an entity just being an ID is quite interesting. However I don't know how this completely works with the components aspect or the systems aspect. A…
bio595
  • 1,961
  • 3
  • 12
  • 5
59
votes
1 answer

Using component based entity system practically

Yesterday, I've read a presentation from GDC Canada about Attribute / Behaviour entity system and I think it's pretty great. However, I'm not sure how to use it practially, not just in theory. First of all, I'll quickly explain you how this system…
TomsonTom
  • 703
  • 1
  • 6
  • 8
57
votes
3 answers

In an Entity-Component-System Engine, How do I deal with groups of dependent entities?

After going over a few game design patterns, I have settle with Entity-Component-System (ES System) for my game engine. I've reading articles (mainly T=Machine ) and review some source code and I think I got enough to get started. There is just one…
John Daniels
  • 673
  • 1
  • 6
  • 5
42
votes
6 answers

Component-based game object systems in practice

Let's see history of success. Which popular games (and game engines) were built using component-based game object system ? Each answer should contain: Game Title (one per answer) Author / Company Year Development time (optional) Link to postmortem…
topright
  • 1,310
  • 1
  • 14
  • 22
37
votes
4 answers

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 the Systems that contain the logic. I'm hoping to…
michael.bartnett
  • 7,601
  • 1
  • 37
  • 45
34
votes
5 answers

How do I implement features in an entity system?

After asking two questions about entity systems ( 1 , 2 ), and reading some articles on them, I think that I understand them much better than before. I still have some uncertainties, mainly about building a particle emitter, an input system, and a…
jcora
  • 7,917
  • 5
  • 54
  • 89
33
votes
2 answers

How to network this entity system?

I have designed an entity system for an FPS. It basically works like this: We have a "world"-object, called GameWorld. This holds an array of GameObject, as well as an array of ComponentManager. GameObject holds an array of Component. It also…
Carter
  • 331
  • 3
  • 3
32
votes
3 answers

How to properly implement message handling in a component based entity system?

I am implementing an entity system variant that has: An Entity class that is little more than an ID that binds components together A bunch of component classes that have no "component logic", only data A bunch of system classes (a.k.a "subsystems",…
Onlainas
  • 441
  • 1
  • 5
  • 6
30
votes
8 answers

Would it be better to use XML/JSON/Text or a database to store game content?

I'm considering how to implement a component-based game, as that seems to be the hot thing and I like the idea of such a flexible design. One of the features of such a design is that adding new things to the game can be done through data, often…
CodexArcanum
  • 1,372
  • 1
  • 13
  • 14
30
votes
5 answers

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 as bubble around the player, it has a separate…
deft_code
  • 7,652
  • 5
  • 40
  • 55
27
votes
4 answers

Are there existing FOSS component-based frameworks?

The component based game programming paradigm is becoming much more popular. I was wondering, are there any projects out there that offer a reusable component framework? In any language, I guess I don't care about that. It's not for my own project,…
Tesserex
  • 2,284
  • 3
  • 20
  • 27
27
votes
4 answers

What is an 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 functions such as Player produce entities with…
Jon Purdy
  • 800
  • 5
  • 13
23
votes
3 answers

How to wire finite state machine into component-based architecture?

State machines seem to cause harmful dependencies in component-based architectures. How, specifically, is communication handled between a state machine and the components that carry out state-related behavior? Where I'm at: I'm new to…
Pup
  • 344
  • 1
  • 3
  • 9
23
votes
6 answers

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 ... just to name a few). They all seem to have a…
PrettyPrincessKitty FS
  • 10,355
  • 8
  • 47
  • 68
21
votes
4 answers

How to implement behavior in a component-based game architecture?

I am starting to implement player and enemy AI in a game, but I am confused about how to best implement this in a component-based game architecture. Say I have a following player character that can be stationary, running and swinging a sword. A…
ghost
  • 1,539
  • 10
  • 12
1
2 3
…
19 20