Entity Component System for HUD and GUI

Posted by Jason L. on Game Development See other posts from Game Development or by Jason L.
Published on 2014-03-08T15:10:57Z Indexed on 2014/06/07 15:41 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 330

Filed under:

architecture

|

entity-system

|

component-based

|

hud

This is a very rough sketch of how I currently have things designed. It should, at least, give an idea of how my ECS is currently designed.

current architecture

If you notice in that diagram, I have basically split the HUD out of the ECS. They have their own set of things (HudLayer, HudComponent, etc) and are handled differently. This is where I'm struggling, though.

There are many different instances in which the HUD will need to know about entities. Not just data changing (I have an event dispatcher for that), but the actual entity and all it encompasses. There are also situations where entities will need to be able to query the HUD for data. Let's take a couple examples:

First, my equipment screen. On here I can change the equipment on a character (Entity). In order for this to happen, I need to know about the entity. At least I think I do? How can I handle this?
The second scenario involves my Systems needing to query a HudComponent for data. A specific example would be my battle system. Each "team" is given a 3x3 grid they can move around in. See here:

Skills target these cells, and not the player, so I would need a way for my systems to determine which cells are occupied and which are not. Basically I need a way for two way communication between Systems and my HUD. I know it's recommended (by some people, anyways) to take your HUD out of the ECS. Is that appropriate in my case?

© Game Development or respective owner

Related posts about architecture

3-tier architecture v. 3-server architecture

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I'm building a traditional .NET MVC site, so I've got a natural 3-tier software architecture setup (presentation in the form of Views, business layer in the controller, and data layer in the models and data access layer). When I've deployed such sites, it usually goes either on one server (where… >>> More
"cloud architecture" concepts in a system architecture diagrams

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
If you design a distributed application for easy scale-out, or you just want to make use of any of the new “cloud computing” offerings by Amazon, Google or Microsoft, there are some typical concepts or components you usually end up using: distributed blob storage (aka S3) asynchronous, durable message… >>> More
Is the PowerPC (G4) architecture better than Intel x86 architecture for certain types of application

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I have a PowerMac G4 from around the year 2000. It's a serviceable Unix machine but I don't do much with it since I have plenty of Pentium 4 machines around with Linux on them. I was wondering if the PowerPC based machine is capable of handling certain tasks faster or "better" than Intel based machines… >>> More
SAAS architecture and salesforce database architecture

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hello all, I am architecting a software project and I want to create a SAAS (Software As a service) one. I want to model my application along the lines of Salesforce. I really like there customization features but I am not sure how they really go about it. I read that they create an ID for every… >>> More
Is there a Telecommunications Reference Architecture?

as seen on Oracle Blogs - Search for 'Oracle Blogs'
@font-face { font-family: "Arial"; }@font-face { font-family: "Courier New"; }@font-face { font-family: "Wingdings"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraph… >>> More

Related posts about entity-system

How to code UI / HUD in Entity System?

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
I think I already got the idea of the Entity System inspired by Adam Martin (t-machine). I want to start using this for my next project. I already know the basic of Entity, Components, and Systems. My problem is how to handle UI / HUD. For example, a quest window, skill window, character info window… >>> More
Texture switching with a entity system

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
I'm using thinking of using an entity system in my game. So far I've been using Artemis with success. However, I have a question about texture switching. I read that switching textures too often is bad. So I load all the textures when the game loads like so: import org.newdawn.slick.opengl.TextureLoader; … >>> More
Organizing an entity system with external component managers?

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
I'm designing a game engine for a top-down multiplayer 2D shooter game, which I want to be reasonably reuseable for other top-down shooter games. At the moment I'm thinking about how something like an entity system in it should be designed. First I thought about this: I have a class called EntityManager… >>> More
Entity System with C++

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
I'm working on a game engine using the Entity System and I have some questions. How I see Entity System : Components : A class with attributs, set and get. Sprite Physicbody SpaceShip ... System : A class with a list of components. (Component logic) EntityManager Renderer Input Camera ... Entity… >>> More
Implementing features in an Entity System

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
After asking two questions on Entity Systems (1, 2), and reading some articles on them, I think that I understand them much better than before. But, I still have some uncertainties, and mainly they are about building a Particle Emitter, an Input system, and a Camera. I obviously still have some problems… >>> More