AAA ARCHITECTURE IN

Speaker: Anatolii Landyshev

• Founder, CTO of Patriotic Games

• 6 years of experience in

http://patriotic.games

Anatolii Landyshev

Agenda• The goals of game architecture

• Unity architecture analysis• Components vs Inheritance• Singletons and Encapsulation

• Entity Component System (ECS)• Definition and advantages• ECS in Unity

Agenda• The goals of game architecture

• Unity architecture analysis• Components vs Inheritance• Singletons and Encapsulation

• Entity Component System (ECS)• Definition and advantages• ECS in Unity

Games vs Apps

Lots of real-time

simulations on single

screen

Look & feel

Experience

Fun

Content is over 50%

of the game

Perfect Game Architecture• Flexible

• Rapid prototyping

• “No Engineer required”

Agenda• The goals of game architecture

• Unity architecture analysis• Components vs Inheritance• Singletons and Encapsulation

• Entity Component System (ECS)• Definition and advantages• ECS in Unity

The easiest architecture in Unity

The easiest architecture in Unity

Check Zombie Toys on Asset Store

Agenda• The goals of game architecture

• Unity architecture analysis• Components vs Inheritance• Singletons and Encapsulation

• Entity Component System (ECS)• Definition and advantages• ECS in Unity

Components instead of Inheritance

Introducing Space Wars

MonoBehaviour

Player Spaceship

AIPlayer

HumanPlayer

Scout

Defender

Cruiser

MonoBehaviour

Player Spaceship

AIPlayer

HumanPlayer

Scout

Defender

Cruiser

MonoBehaviour

Player Spaceship

AIPlayer

HumanPlayer

Scout

Defender

Cruiser

AIPlayer

Defender

Gun

Composition over inheritance

AIPlayer

Defender

Gun

Composition over inheritance

AIPlayer

PlayerAI

RenderHealthTeam

Defender

MoveRenderHealthTeamGun

Components instead of inheritance

AIPlayer

PlayerAI

RenderHealthTeam

Defender

MoveRenderHealthTeamGun

Components instead of inheritance

AIPlayer

PlayerAI

RenderHealthTeamGun

Defender

MoveRenderHealthTeamGun

Components instead of inheritance

Components instead of Inheritance

Pros: flexibility

Cons: !code-sharing

Agenda• The goals of game architecture

• Unity architecture analysis• Components vs Inheritance• Singletons and Encapsulation

• Entity Component System (ECS)• Definition and advantages• ECS in Unity

Singleton GameManager

Singleton GameManager

breaksEncapsulatio

n

Data Instructions

Application

Data Instructions

Application Code

Variables

Functions (Methods)

Variables + Functions = Procedural Programming

- the goal of OOP

Modularity

Goals of OOP

Scalability

Modularity

Goals of OOP

Scalability

Encapsulation

What is an object?

What is an object?

What is an object?

Object-oriented program

Messages may read and modify state

Messages may read and modify state

Messages may read and modify state

The moment objects are sharedwe lose Encapsulation

Only way to encapsulate objects = strict hierarchy of references/messages

Only way to encapsulate objects = strict hierarchy of references/messages

Use of singleton GameManager

Expectation Reality

Singleton GameManager

Pros: simple

Cons: non-modular code

What to use instead:strict hierarchy of references/messages?

Pros: modularity

Cons: lack of flexibility

What about cross-cutting concerns?

What about cross-cutting concerns?

Expectation Reality

What to use instead:strict hierarchy of references/messages?

Pros: modularity

Cons: lack of flexibility

Absence of structure is better than bad structure

Data Instructions

Application

Agenda• The goals of game architecture

• Unity architecture analysis• Components vs Inheritance• Singletons and Encapsulation

• Entity Component System (ECS)• Definition and advantages• ECS in Unity

ECS is mainstream in

MMO & AAA games

Unity

SceneGameObjectGameObjectGameObject

GameObject

MonoBehaviourMonoBehaviourMonoBehaviour

MonoBehaviour

DataBehaviour

Unity

SceneGameObjectGameObjectGameObject

GameObject

MonoBehaviourMonoBehaviourMonoBehaviour

MonoBehaviour

DataBehaviour

Context

EntityEntityEntity

EntityComponentComponentComponent

Component

Data

ECS

Unity

SceneGameObjectGameObjectGameObject

GameObject

MonoBehaviourMonoBehaviourMonoBehaviour

MonoBehaviour

DataBehaviour

Context

EntityEntityEntity

EntityComponentComponentComponent

Component

Data

ECS No Behaviour in Components!

OK, WHAT ABOUT LOGIC?

Systemschain of responsibility

Systemschain of responsibility

ECS advantages

• Testability

• Co-dependent logic

• Co-dependent logic

• Querying

OK, WHAT ABOUT PERFORMANCE?

OK, WHAT ABOUT PERFORMANCE?•Multithreading almost for free•Data locality

Agenda• The goals of game architecture

• Unity architecture analysis• Components vs Inheritance• Singletons and Encapsulation

• Entity Component System (ECS)• Definition and advantages• ECS in Unity

“Entity Systems are the future of MMOG development”

Adam Martin (t-machine.org)

ECS frameworks for Unity• Entitas C# -

https://github.com/sschmid/Entitas-CSharp

• Artemis C# - https://github.com/thelinuxlich/artemis_CSharp

• uFrame ECS – https://github.com/uFrame/ECS

• EgoCS - https://github.com/andoowhy/EgoCS

ECS Framework for Unitytinyurl.com/entitas

or search for ENTITAS UNITY on YouTube

Entitas advantages:

is open sourcegithub.com/sschmid/Entitas-

CSharp

Entitas advantages:

• It’s open-source

Excellent community & support

Entitas advantages:

• It’s open-source• Excellent community & support

Entitas advantages:

• It’s open-source• Excellent community & support• Code-sharing

Unity Visual Debug

Entitas advantages:

• It’s open-source• Excellent community & support• Code-sharing• Special debug features for Unity

Entitas advantages:

• It’s open-source• Excellent community & support• Code-sharing• Special debug features for Unity• Great performance

Unity vs Entitas Performance1000 objects with 2 components

• Memory: 9x (2.9MB vs 0.32MB)

• CPU: 17x (105ms vs 6ms)

Unity vs Entitas Performance1000 objects with 2 components

• reuses Entities• reuses Components• caches Groups• can index Components

Entitas…

• Initialize Systems• Execute Systems• Reactive Systems• only processes changed

entities

Systems in Entitas

#madeWithEntitas

Agenda• The goals of game architecture

• Unity architecture analysis• Components vs Inheritance• Singletons and Encapsulation

• Entity Component System (ECS)• Definition and advantages• ECS in Unity

Questions?