Release Notes

Here, there be dragons more foxes. What did you expect?

BETA NOTICE

fennecs will remain in Beta until version 1.0.0, which is expected in Q1 2025. Breaking API changes as well as bugs are likely to occur without warning in these beta builds. You are nonetheless encouraged to try fennecs out, play around and experiment with the package freely; our resident foxes aim to keep it it as useful and stable as possible! Please report issues and feedback on the GitHub Issues board.

Upcoming

Collapsed for brevity and likely changes before release.

• Stream runners return their own Stream, allowing chaining operations.

• Chunked Component Storage (global, or maybe each World may have its own chunk size)

• Match.Object becomes internal / deprecated, use Link.Any instead.

• Has(params Comp[]) will be added to QueryBuilders to check for multiple components at once. (as well as Any(params Comp[])and Not(params Comp[])). These will be much more performant and low-allocation starting with .NET 9.0, and will use Span<Comp> in the future.

• Breaking for HasVirtual, GetVirtual, adding Match expression support. (breaking means that the old methods will currently match Any, but the new versions will match Plain by default)

• Stream.Raw(EntitySpanAction action) will be added to allow for processing all Entities in a Stream at maximum performance. ...

• There's now a hard limit of Worlds per Domain/Process.

"256 Worlds should be enough for anyone!"
~ Fox Gates, circa 2024

Deprecations

• Comp<...>.Plain is deprecated. Switch to using Comp<T>.Data and Comp<T>.Data<K> instead.

New Features

• ✨Void Components!✨
  (true zero-storage components)

  • Comp<T>.Tag
    Creates a Component of type T with no backing storage (zero size). This is better than using Comp<T>.Plain with 'zero' size, as the .NET Marshal would treat the latter as 1 byte, and moving it in memory isn't free. Type T won't store any data, so we recommend using empty structs for Tags.
  • Comp<T>.Tag<K> is its analog for Keyed Tags (see below)

• ✨Keyed Components!✨
  (unified secondary key semantics)

  • Comp<T>.Tag<K>(K key)
  • Comp<T>.Data<K>(K key)
  • Entity.Add<T, K>(T data, K key)
  • Entity.Tag<T, K>(K key)
    These create unique component Types for attaching to Entities or query in your World. They work similarly to Relations but use a Key based on the GetHashCode of the key parameter. Keys are strongly typed, so even if hashes match, there's no collision unless the Key Types are the same.

How is this different from Relations?

Unlike Entity-Entity Relations that clean up when their target Entity is removed, Keys (based on a momentary hash code) don't expire if their "source" is destroyed. You can still remove or access all Keyed components by querying with appropriate Wildcards. This allows for soft relations by using an Entity as a Key.

• Object Links now legally support re-seating (I'm such a fox! I turned a bug into a feature!)

Are Keyed Components backed by a Class just Object Links?

Almost! Object Links are a special shorthand using a Keyed Component under the hood. The Key Type is the same as the Backing Data type on creation and must be a reference type (class).

Changing the ref L component data of an Entity with an Object Link won't affect the Component's Type Identity. This behaves like changing the Object (but not the Key) of a Keyed type.

For swapping out Object Links for all holders, we recommend using a Batch Operation on an appropriate Query: remove the old Link, add the new Link, and submit the Batch.

• Disposing a World returns it to the end of the pool of available Worlds, after despawning all Entities inside its archetypes. This will clean up cross-world relations.

• Worlds can now be constructed with an explicit byte worldIndex parameter, allowing fine control over world creation order. (e.g. World 0 can become your client world, and World 1 your network/server world, etc.).

• Stream<...> now provides named elements in its ValueTuples, improving LINQ readability and reducing boilerplate.

• Stream<...> now provides named elements in its constituent ValueTuples, this improves LINQ readability and reduces boilerplate:

new api

var found = mystream.FirstOrDefault(x => x.comp0 > mousePosition).entity;

old api

var found1 = mystream.Where(((Entity, float pos) tuple) => tuple.pos > mousePosition).Select(tuple => tuple.Item1).FirstOrDefault();
var found2 = mystream.FirstOrDefault(((Entity, float pos) tuple) => tuple.pos > mousePosition).Item1;
var found3 = mystream.FirstOrDefault((tuple) => tuple.Item2 > mousePosition).Item1;

• Fixed Issue #20 Stream<...>.Truncate(int) has been removed (there was no semantically clear way implement it, and it was forwarding to the Underlying Query without applying filters). Instead, just use Stream.Query.Truncate(int) if you want to cut down on the number of entities in a Stream, but Filtering logic will not be applied (since it operates on the underlying Query, not the Stream). You can still use Stream<...>.Despawn() to Despawn all entities from the Stream according to its current filter state.

• Entities now intrinsically know the World they belong to. This allows for safe Cross-World-Relations.

• Entity structs now are just 64 bits (very tight).

• Entity structs and (internal) Identity structs are now value-identical and have been unified.

• Stream (a Stream View without any type parameters) has been added. This allows for Filtering bare Queries, and also exposes a few Runners, such as Stream.For(EntityAction action) and Stream.For<in U>(U uniform, UniformEntityAction action).

• Some new Delegate Types for Streams and Entity Spawners, not all are used (yet):

  • EntityAction - process one Entity
  • UniformEntityAction<in U> - process one Entity with a uniform parameter
  • EntitySpanAction - process a Span of Entities
  • UniformEntitySpanAction<in U> - process a Span of Entities with a uniform parameter

Version 0.5.11-beta

• Fixed Issue #23 Data Integrity Issue Following Despawn. Thanks to Penny for the Issue and PR to fix it!
• Fixed Issue #21 Streams Documentation Example was mixed up.

Version 0.5.10-beta

• Added bool Entity.HasVirtual(object) extension method to fennecs.reflection
• Fixed Issue #17 Entities that have self-referencing relations on themselves can now be despawned and bulk-despawned without crashing / potentially undefined behaviour.
• Queries and Streams now use a SortedSet of Archetypes, which speeds up removals of Archetypes when they get Disposed from the World. (Experimental - this may get changed to a HashSet in the future)

Version 0.5.9-beta

• Added new namespace for some use cases using reflection: fennecs.reflection
• Added Extension methods for Entity:

namespace fennecs.reflection;

/// <summary>
/// Extension Methods that use some sort of Reflection under the hood.
/// </summary>
/// <summary>
/// These are generally against fennecs design principles, but they do have their use cases, for instance when you have to work with contravariant and covariant component types, such as Lists.
/// </summary>
public static class ReflectionExtensions
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Experimental method to add a specific Component identified via RTTI 
    /// (dynamically retrieved at runtime).
    /// This helps with contravariant and covariant component types, such as Lists.
    /// Only this call uses the dynamic logic, the component itself is as any normal 
    /// Component type.
    /// </summary>
    /// <remarks>
    /// This will attempt to create a component type of exactly the object's 
    /// <see cref="object.GetType"/> returned <c>System.Type</c>.
    /// Note that <c>QueryBuilders</c> will need to use the specific type to 
    /// match the Component! (e.g. <c>Query<List<int>></c>)
    /// </remarks>
    public static Entity AddVirtual(this Entity entity, object value, Match match = default);


    /// <summary>
    /// Returns all Components on the Entity that are 
    /// <see cref="Type.IsAssignableTo"/> to the Type Parameter <c>T</c>,
    /// statically cast to this specific type.
    /// </summary>
    /// <remarks>
    /// The array is empty if there are no matching components.
    /// </remarks>
    public static T[] GetVirtual<T>(this Entity entity);
}

Version 0.5.8-beta

• Component factory class has most of its members deprecated. It is now a storage for a Boxed Component. (updated documentation)
• Comp<T> is a new factory class for Component Expressions. (updated documentation)
• get (read) a specific component using entity.Get<T>(Match match), e.g. entity.Get<MyLinkType>(Link.Any) to get all the Links

Upgrading

old api

var thanosStream = population.Stream<Alive>() with
{
    Subset = [Component.PlainComponent<Unlucky>()],    
    Exclude = [Component.PlainComponent<Lucky>()],
};

new api

var thanosStream = population.Stream<Alive>() with
{
    Subset = [Comp<Unlucky>.Plain],    
    Exclude = [Comp<Lucky>.Plain],
};

Version 0.5.7-beta

• bugfix - Stream Filters (Subset/Exclude) now affect the Count property of the Stream.
• bugfix - Stream<>.Despawn respects current filters instead of despawning the entire underyling Query
• reinstated the Thanos appetizer's functionality! OH SNAP!

Version 0.5.6-beta

• Link.Any is a Match Target that can be used to match any Link target in a Query. It's value-identical to Match.Object, but makes the code more readable and reads in line with Entity.Any.
• lots of documentation updates and fixes

Version 0.5.5-beta

• /www/misc/Changelog.md added 🦊
• IBatch renamed to IBatchBegin, since it is not the "Batch" itself, just the ability to create (begin) batches.
• IBatchBegin now has all the overloads with AddConflict and RemoveConflict parameters formerly only available in Query, and thus are now available in Stream<>.

public interface IBatchBegin
{
    public Batch Batch(Batch.AddConflict add, Batch.RemoveConflict remove);
    public Batch Batch();   
    public Batch Batch(Batch.AddConflict add);
    public Batch Batch(Batch.RemoveConflict remove);    
}

• submission must still be done by calling Batch.Submit(), which is not on this Interface.
• World.GCBehaviour is now init only.

Upgrade Steps

• You no longer need to call Stream<>.Query.Batch(...), just use Stream<>.Batch(...) to access the overloads with AddConflict and RemoveConflict parameters.

Breaking Changes

• Entity.Ref<C> no longer automatically adds the component to the Entity if it does not exist. The syntax was too muddled, and certain degenerate types, such as string, could not match any overloads and could no longer be used with Ref<C>.

New Features

• Stream<> can be cloned with Subset and Exclude filters:

 var filtered = myStream with 
    { 
        Subset = [Component.PlainComponent<ComponentA>()], 
        Exclude = [Component.AnyAny<ComponentB>(), Component.SpecificEntity<ComponentC>(notYou)] 
    };

• a new Component helper class exists to express strictly typed Match expressions, for these and other filters

public readonly record struct Component
{
    public static Component AnyAny<T>();
    public static Component AnyRelation<T>();
    public static Component AnyEntity<T>();
    public static Component AnyObject<T>();
    public static Component PlainComponent<T>();
    public static Component SpecificEntity<T>(Entity target);
    public static Component SpecificLink<T>(T target) where T : class;
}

Performance Improvements

• Several accidental allocation leaks plugged.

Other Changes

• Temporary Restriction: Cannot run Jobs on Queries with Wildcards. (an exception will be thrown)
• default(Match) is Match.Plain, not Match.Any (otherwise it would be annoying to write Queries/Streams and run Jobs on them)

Known Issues

• Entity-Entity Relations with an Entity that resides in the same Archetype (i.e. the relation is PART of the Archetype's signature) crashes when bulk Despawning entities.
• Entity-Entity Relations with an Entity itself are a special case of the above, that can additionally face crash problems when despawning the entity itself.
• Streams can no longer be warmed up (Stream.Warmup()) (like queries used to - this is an oversight). This results in one or several one-time 40 byte allocations to show up in BenchmarkDotNet output.

Version 0.5.4-beta

• Stream<> is a lightweight View that can be created for any Query, and is what wraps zip_view-like enumeration and iteration over the Query (especiall For, Job, and Raw)
• Stream<...> is IEnumerable<ValueTuple<Entity, ...>>, which is great for Unit Testing and simple, read-only enumeration of Queries.
• Stream<C1, C2, ...> expose all the runner functions from Stream<C1, C2> and Stream<C1>.
• Entity.Ref<C> creates the component if it is not present on an entity.

Breaking Changes

• Query does no longer expose Runners; and no longer has intrinsic type parameters. Instead, Stream<> is used to access the same functionality.
• Query enumerates ONLY to Entities, and no longer has an IEnumerator of component types.

Upgrade Steps

• instead of World.Query<...>().Compile(), you can use the shorthand World.Query<...>().Stream() or World.Stream<...>() to get a Stream<> instance to use.

Known Issues

• the old StreamFilters on Queries have not been correctly ported to the Stream<> API, and won't wok.
• Entity.Ref<C> in these versions is impossible to invoke with certain type parameters.

Legacy Releases

Version 0.5.3-beta

Version 0.5.2-beta

Version 0.5.0-beta

Version 0.4.6-beta

Version 0.4.5-beta

Version 0.4.2-beta

Version 0.4.0-beta

Version 0.3.5-beta

Version 0.2.0-beta

Version 0.1.1-beta

Version 0.1.0-beta

Version 0.0.3-pre

Version 0.0.1-pre