Flecs v4.1.1

Highlights

• 2x faster trivial set() calls (no hooks, observers or change detection)
• 5x faster trivial modified() calls (no hooks, observers or change detection)
• 3x faster prefab instantiation due to new component overriding design
• Lots of reflection improvements for arrays, vectors and enums with custom underlying types
• Lots of explorer improvements (better autocomplete, drag-to-change values in inspector, pane resizing, script saving and more!)
• New script features that introduce more flexible ways to refer to entities:

// Create anonymous entity that is referred to later (previously impossible)
const alice: new {
  Position: {10, 20}
}

bob {
  // Alice variable can now be used without $ prefix
  (Likes, alice)
}

for i in 0..10 {
  "spaceship_{i}" { }

  "shuttle_{i}" {
    // Interpolated strings can now also be used in component/pair expressions
    (DockedTo, "spaceship_{i}")
  }
}

Release notes

This version includes the following bugfixes:

• [cpp] Don't move lvalue during component assignment (thanks @ColoredCarrot!)
• [cpp] Fix issue where flecs::Script component couldn't be used when defining FLECS_CPP_NO_AUTO_REGISTRATION
• [core] Fix issue where component hooks were not correctly called on world.shrink()
• [core] Fix fatal assert with OrderedChildren test in release mode
• [core] Fix issue where .get<Rel>(Wildcard) did not work for sparse components
• [core] Fix issue where children weren't correctly populated for instance of prefab with OrderedChildren
• [observers] Fix issue where ecs_field_is_set didn't work for single term observers
• [queries] Fix issue where queries sometimes returned entities with NotQueryable tag
• [meta] Fix issues with deserializing inline arrays and vectors
• [meta] Fix issue in cursor API where it assumed int32_t for underlying enum type
• [meta] Fix issues with serializing enums with custom underlying type
• [rest] Fix issue where REST API would not restore correct log function after endpoint
• [script] Fix crashes when using script annotations for invalid targets
• [script] Fix "can't serialize" errors when serializing script AST
• [script] Fix issue where value of script variable was incorrectly cached
• [script] Fix incorrect type check for component expressions used in initializer

This version includes the following improvements:

• [cpp] Implement type traits in library to support older versions of gcc (thanks @AnonimiAngels!)
• [cpp] Implement world::id_if_registered method
• [cpp] Implement world::type_info()
• [cpp] Remove redundant FLECS_META check for to_constant()
• [cpp] Make world::to_json() methods const
• [cpp] Allow using APIs that accept enum constants in builds with FLECS_CPP_NO_ENUM_REFLECTION
• [core] Implement ecs_table_has_traversable() function
• [core] Implement on_replace hook
• [core] Don't emit OnSet events for operations when there are no hooks/observers
• [core] Improve performance of set/ensure/emplace
• [core] Remove redundant cr field from command struct
• [core] Improve error messages
• [core] Add checks that prevent making invalid modifications to core entities
• [core] Change table_record_t.hdr.cache type to ecs_component_record_t
• [core] Improve performance of component overriding
• [core] Remove redundant New command
• [core] Add new size argument to ecs_emplace_id and ecs_ensure_id
• [core] Implement new Singleton trait
• [core] Add more ecs_ref_t tests
• [core] Turn setting both FLECS_DEBUG/NDEBUG error into warning
• [core] Assert when passing alive ids to .entities member of ecs_bulk_desc_t
• [meta] Split up push serializer operation into struct, array, vector
• [meta] Split up opaque type serializer operation into value, struct, array, vector
• [meta] Add underlying_kind field to serializer operation for serializing enums
• [meta] Add constants field to serializer operation for serializing enums/bitmasks
• [meta] Change meaning of ecs_member_t::count so that it's interpreted as inline array when >= 0
• [meta] Split off constants member from EcsEnum/EcsBitmask into separate EcsConstants component
• [meta] Split up meta addon code into smaller files
• [json] Don't serialize schema to JSON for none fields
• [script] Add script tests for CRLF line endings
• [script] Don't reset script code for managed scripts after error
• [script] Store errors on managed script
• [script] Implement new expressions
• [script] Implement exported variables
• [script] Allow for using variable names without $ prefix as components, relationships and targets
• [script] Allow for using interpolated string expressions as components
• [script] Inheritance statements now require a scope
• [rest] Allow managed scripts to be saved from the REST API/explorer
• [rest] Always store build info on world so it is available for the explorer
• [cmake] Bump cmake_minimum_required_version (thanks @niceEli!)
• [docs] Fix issues in script examples
• [docs] Remove outdated section on pipelines from system manual
• [docs] Add Gloam vault to README
• [docs] Fix source documentation for is_alive()/is_valid()
• [docs] Fix query section in design with flecs manual
• [docs] Fix broken link in quickstart (thanks @ZaddikDev!)
• [docs] Add custom_serializer example
• [docs] Fix issues in queries and prefab manual (thanks @Chetco!)
• [docs] Fix outdated examples in change detection section of query manual
• [docs] Update incorrect is_enabled to enabled in manuals (thanks @ericjeker!)
• [docs] Add hooks section to entities and components manual

Breaking changes:

• ecs_emplace_id and ecs_ensure_id now accept an additional size argument: #466 (comment)
• The singleton API has been changed to use a component trait: #466 (comment)
• Script evaluation APIs now have a result argument for capturing errors: #466 (comment)
• Inheritance statements in flecs script now require a scope: #466 (comment)
• The serializer data structures have been updated to allow for vector deserialization, enums with underlying types and more: #466 (comment) and #466 (comment)

New Contributors

• @AnonimiAngels made their first contribution in #1714
• @niceEli made their first contribution in #1731
• @ZaddikDev made their first contribution in #1734
• @ColoredCarrot made their first contribution in #1715
• @Chetco made their first contribution in #1754
• @ericjeker made their first contribution in #1768

Full Changelog: v4.1.0...v4.1.1