Quillraven
commented
1 year ago Hi,
this is a good question and tbh I don't know what are the best practices here.
I remember that I did what you mention at the end in an old project using Ashley and I didn't like it because every time I add a component with entity references I had to remember to add the cleanup logic to the hook. Also performance wise it is not ideal because you have to iterate through all such components and also through the entity ref containers.
Another solution which is maybe better and which I also used in some projects is a RemoveSystem with a RemoveComponent. Instead of removing an entity directly you then have to add a RemoveComponent to it. The system then really removes the entity. This has the advantage that you can control when entities get really removed. It is also easy to e.g. add a timer to en entity and remove it delayed by simply adding a delay to the RemoveComponent and adjust the logic in the RemoveSystem.
Also, on your entity ref components and their system you can then check if your entity has a RemoveComponent and remove it or do whatever logic you need to do (e.g. follow another nearby entity).
Finally, in the last version of Fleks you can provide your own EntityProvider. Check the wiki. That way you can remove the recycle logic and always create new IDs. But be careful to not overflow the IDs.
Of course I am open for other ideas and can add some generic solution to Fleks if there is a good one 😃
dragbone
I'm working on a game prototype using fleks and I'm struggling to find a good way to reference an entity from a component. A simple example would be one entity following another entity and therefore needing a reference. It seems that the Entity value class is not a safe reference because entities get reused after removal from the world, so a reference might reference a completely different entity in the future. Is there some safe way to reference entities? Do I need to set a remove entity hook and search for all components that might reference that entity?