Entity handling

you can use a stack based memory class, that allocates a block big enough for all your entities, and then allocates something like

class Manager
{
   unsigned char * Buffer;
   DWORD           Capacity;
   DWORD           Position;
...
   Manager(DWORD Cap)
   { 
      Buffer = NULL;
      Buffer = new unsigned char[Cap]; 
      if(!Buffer)
         //not enough memory
      Capacity = Cap;
      Position = 0;
   }
   ~Manager()
   {
      delete [] Buffer;
   }
};

void * Manager::Alloc(DWORD size)
{
   if(Position + Size > Capacity)   //not enough room for object
      return NULL;
   Position += Size;
   return Buffer[Position - Size];  
}

void Manager::Free(DWORD Size)
{
   Position -= Size;
}
  

that might not be right (probably isn't) but you get the idea. the problem is you have to deallocate in the opposite order you allocated, which might be hard with entities. this works better for something like a resource manager, that can delete things on its own after the resource manager is deleted.

edit: this also doesn't call the constructor

[edited by - billybob on March 7, 2003 1:00:41 AM]

I guess I should have mentioned that I want to use C++ based inheritance too. I''m not really looking for a memory management method really as much as a good way to handle entitys (if I did want good mm I would override the new operator and throw in my own memory manager similar to yours).

As of right now I have a list of entity pointers, and you have to allocate a new entity (of the inherited type), set it up, then add it to the entity list. This is used for collision detection and such. If you want to render an entity, I have another list of entity pointers that is reset every frame, so in order to render something, you just add to this list. The problem is (in my mind) that the entity needs to know how to render itself (does it have a model, a sprite, a 3d line, etc...?). I suppose I could keep something in the entity so it knows how it renders itself, but it seems to take away from the point that an entity ''contains'' a model or sprite or whatever.

Also, in contrast to a c++, should I make the renderer the actual thing that can render a model (instead of this: Model->Render;, this: Renderer->RenderModel( Model );

Thanks again for your input!

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