Designing Entity systems without global pointers to subsystems

This is only a suggestion, so think what I say over a bit and modify it as needed.

Try using virtual templates with vectors as the means of passing variable number of arguments. Only assign the virtual functions you need to use for each object.


template<typename T>
virtual void Entity::draw(const std::vector<T>&);


Not sure that would work because I'm looping through all the entities drawing each one. It wouldn't know what to pass in

Another problem I see with a entity based design is that sometimes entities need to be drawn before others like for opaque and translucent drawing. One way around that is to have 2 methods in the base class but that means you're calling a virtual method for things that may not need it.
Maybe I should be queuing up all drawing to be sorted and executed instead.

There's so many situations like that I don't know how to handle with entity based design but the way I'm handling game objects currently is way too much work. To add a new game object I need to write methods to iterate through them for drawing, updating and cleanup in my game state class but I have much more control over what they do.


I'm open to the idea of having global pointers to subsystems because I've seen multiple engines do it that way but I still can't persuade myself to do it. I've always been told it should be avoided.

Not sure that would work because I'm looping through all the entities drawing each one. It wouldn't know what to pass in

Another problem I see with a entity based design is that sometimes entities need to be drawn before others like for opaque and translucent drawing. One way around that is to have 2 methods in the base class but that means you're calling a virtual method for things that may not need it.
Maybe I should be queuing up all drawing to be sorted and executed instead.

There's so many situations like that I don't know how to handle with entity based design but the way I'm handling game objects currently is way too much work. To add a new game object I need to write methods to iterate through them for drawing, updating and cleanup in my game state class but I have much more control over what they do.


I'm open to the idea of having global pointers to subsystems because I've seen multiple engines do it that way but I still can't persuade myself to do it. I've always been told it should be avoided.

Why have two methods, simply pass in an int ID with the vector. This id will tell the draw method how to draw the entity. As far as knowing what to pass in the vector, that is entirely up to you. You could set all virtual methods to return a bool, if false then that method was never needed by this entity. You are actually going to have to tinker with this for a while, this sort of thing takes a little planning and time. Cheating and using globals to save time, is only going to complicate things down the road.


// Updater template class
template <typename T>
class EntityUpdater {
public:

// Need to inherit to override this
virtual void Draw();

// Make this a singleton
static EntityUpdater<T> hInstance;
private:
std::vector<Entity> entities;

};

// Inherit it and override the update
class UpdateCat : public EntityUpdater<Cat> {

};


template <typename T>
void Register( void * entity ) {
// If the singleton for the update of this entity type exists, then add this object
if( EntityUpdate<T>::hInstance ) {
// Add entity to the entities in EntityUpdate<T>
}
}



You can then register each entity with Register or you can use the template in a function pointer thing.

typedef void (*RegisterFunc)( void* );

struct TypeDefinition {
RegisterFunc reg;
};



then later, and this is if you're using a reflection thing with your entity factory in the constructor for the type's reflection defition

cat.reg = Register;

I might me missing an & there or something.

if your entities has different update and render method. you would like to divive them in to several subsystems.
each kind of your entities keep the subsystem's pointer it would like to use.

and.
each subsystems have their own queue to render and udpate. maybe they have the same base class. it's depend on your design.

maybe it wlll looks like this.


class SubSystemBase{};


class SubSystem0:public SubSystemBase{};
class SubSystem1:public SubSystemBase{};
....
class EnityBase{};

class EntityBaseClass0:publc EntityBase
{
SubSytem0* mSubSystem;
};
class EntityBaseClass1:public EnityBase
{
SubSytem1* mSubSystem;
};


it's only my suggestion. decide buy yourself.