ECS API

Introduction

The ECS API is a way to create 3D scenes in Vivid. It is a way to create entities and components.

Do not create entities and components directly. Use the ECS API to create them.

Creation

Entity

Entites are the main objects in the ECS API. They are the objects that are rendered in the scene. To create an entity you can use the Entity class.

Ref<Entity> entity = ECS::CreateEntity("Entity Name");

ECS is a namespace in the Vivid library, it contains all the helper functions to maintain all the entities and components.

Component

Components are the objects that are attached to entities. They are the objects that define the properties of the entity.

To create a component you can use the Component class.

Ref<Component> component = ECS::CreateComponent<ExampleComponent>();

Only components that inherit from the Component class can created using the CreateComponent function.

Adding Components to Entities

To add a component to an entity you can use the AddComponent function in the ECS namespace.

ECS::AddComponent(entityID, componentID);

To get the entityID you can use the GetEntityID method in the entity class, and to get the componentID you can use the GetComponentID method in the component class.

Getting Components

To get a component from an entity you can use the GetComponent function in the ECS namespace.

Ref<Component> component = ECS::GetComponent(componentType, entityID);

You can also get all the components of a certain type from the entity using the GetComponents function.

Vector<Vivid::DirectionalLightComponent*> directionalLights;
Vivid::ECS::GetAllComponents(Vivid::ComponentType::DirectionalLightComponent, directionalLights);

UI

All these tasks can also be done using the UI.