bytenecs

Networking focused entity component system (ECS) for TypeScript.

Features

• Optimized for networking with serialization
• First class TypeScript support
• Cached queries
• Typed components with ArrayBuffer support
• Enter/Exit query support
• Change detection
• 0 dependencies

Installation

npm install bytenecs

Quick Start

import {
  createWorld,
  defineComponent,
  addEntity,
  addComponent,
  Types,
} from "bytenecs";
// Create a world where entities are stored and queries are run
const world = createWorld("game");

// Define components, the first argument is the name of the component which is used for serialization
const Position = defineComponent("position", {
  x: Types.f32,
  y: Types.f32,
});
const Velocity = defineComponent("velocity", {
  x: Types.f32,
  y: Types.f32,
});
// Register components
registerComponents(world, [Position, Velocity]);

// Create an entity
const player = addEntity(world);

// Add registered components to entity
addComponent(world, Position, player);
addComponent(world, Velocity, player);

// Set component values
Position.x[player] = 100;
Position.y[player] = 200;
Velocity.x[player] = 5;
Velocity.y[player] = 10;

Core Concepts

Components

Components are defined using defineComponent with a schema that specifies the type of each field:

const Position = defineComponent("position", {
  x: Types.f32,
  y: Types.f32,
});

// Array types are also supported
const Inventory = defineComponent("inventory", {
  items: [Types.ui8, 10], // Array of 10 uint8 values
});

Available types:

• i8, i16, i32 - Signed integers
• ui8, ui16, ui32 - Unsigned integers
• f32, f64 - Floating point numbers

Queries

Query entities based on their components:

import { defineQuery, Not, Changed } from "bytenecs";

// Query entities with both Position and Velocity
const movingEntities = defineQuery(Position, Velocity);

// Query entities with Position but without Velocity
const staticEntities = defineQuery(Position, Not(Velocity));

// Query entities with changed Position values
const changedPositions = defineQuery(Changed(Position));

// Use queries
const entities = movingEntities(world);

Enter/Exit Queries

Track when entities enter or leave a query:

const query = defineQuery(Position, Velocity);
const enterQuery = enterQuery(query);
const exitQuery = exitQuery(query);

function gameLoop() {
  const newEntities = enterQuery(world); // Entities that just matched the query
  const removedEntities = exitQuery(world); // Entities that no longer match

  const currentEntities = query(world); // All current matching entities
}

Networking & Serialization

Serialize and deserialize entities for networking:

// Serialize a single entity
const data = serializeEntity(world, entityId);

// Deserialize entity data
deserializeEntity(world, data);

// Create custom serializers for specific components
const serializePosition = defineSerializer([Position]);
const deserializePosition = defineDeserializer([Position]);

// Serialize multiple entities
const data = serializePosition(world, entities);
deserializePosition(world, data); // this will deserialize the entities into the world

const serialized = serialize(world, entity);
const deserialized = deserialize(world, serialized);

Systems

Systems are pure functions that operate on entities:

import { defineSystem } from "bytenecs";
const movementSystem = defineSystem((state) => {
  const entities = movingEntities(world);
  for (const eid of entities) {
    Position.x[eid] += Velocity.x[eid];
    Position.y[eid] += Velocity.y[eid];
  }
  return state;
});

Performance

• Uses TypedArrays for component storage
• Query caching
• Optimized for bulk operations
• Maximum 3000 entities per world

License

MIT