Entity-Component-System (ECS) for UE4

Kanc · February 6, 2018, 5:28pm

WHSolv:

@Kanc[/USER],[USER=“11900”]OptimisticMonkey , yes, we do have AActor class that can be Entity and persist in World. But…

First of all, there is no EntityManager, or AActorManager, or ActorPool (correct me if I’m wrong), and that is essential for ECS. Moreover, you cannot turn on or off some Components in ComponentManager without breaking your game build either, and this is one of the aspects for ECS as well, as I understand it.

Secondly, indeed, UE4 has Entity-Component, not Entity-Component-System, that is a different thing (please, double check what is ECS, we are not talking about OOP-hierarchy). Components in UE4 now can have logic, but in ECS they should only contain data, and nothing more.

Having these two points, we do not have ECS-pipeline in UE4. Though, we could create all of this on top of the current hierarchy, but I’m not sure if it would be real Data-Driven approach, or just an emulation of it.

Thanks man. I didn’t know that in an ECS the components should only contain data.