So caveat, I've never actually used an ECS system, but I've read about the pattern, and I would say it definitely seems better suited to the kind of situation you're describing than interfaces (or inheritence).
(I would say interfaces/inheritence are useful for simple high level abstraction of basic concepts with multiple implementations (here's an interface for a compression algorithm, or a RNG, or whatever), not so useful for trying to model complex game-world relationships. And to me, the useful part is the interface, whereas inheritence mixes in two unrelated concepts: implemementation-sharing and interface.)
But you don't need either of those for ECS, right?
If I understand it correctly, ECS at its core is basically an optimization of the struct-of-arrays datastructure. E.g., something like this is a super-basic ECS:
struct World {
Comp1[] Comp1
bool[] HasComp1
Comp2[] Comp2
bool[] HasComp2
...
int NumEntities // all arrays have this length
}
I'm a big fan in general of struct-of-arrays vs collection-disparate-structs-with-pointers. Besides being way faster, it tends to make code clearer, too. ECS seems like a more efficient and convenient evolution of that pattern.
At least from what I've read. No real experience. Take with 13 grains of salt. :-)
P.S. If you feel like it, I'd be happy to explore some concrete code (you first!). It's always very interesting to me to try to explore all possible ways to express some concept in code.
(I would say interfaces/inheritence are useful for simple high level abstraction of basic concepts with multiple implementations (here's an interface for a compression algorithm, or a RNG, or whatever), not so useful for trying to model complex game-world relationships. And to me, the useful part is the interface, whereas inheritence mixes in two unrelated concepts: implemementation-sharing and interface.)
But you don't need either of those for ECS, right?
If I understand it correctly, ECS at its core is basically an optimization of the struct-of-arrays datastructure. E.g., something like this is a super-basic ECS:
I'm a big fan in general of struct-of-arrays vs collection-disparate-structs-with-pointers. Besides being way faster, it tends to make code clearer, too. ECS seems like a more efficient and convenient evolution of that pattern.At least from what I've read. No real experience. Take with 13 grains of salt. :-)
P.S. If you feel like it, I'd be happy to explore some concrete code (you first!). It's always very interesting to me to try to explore all possible ways to express some concept in code.