IGeComponentDef

15.22 Interface

Inheritance 41 descendants

IGeComponentDefcurrent

Class Documentation

A component definition: the authored half of a game entity component. Definitions sit in the fields of a GameEntityTemplate. Each definition class creates one runtime component class, a GameEntityComponent, for example AttackableUnitGeComponentDef creates AttackableUnitGeComponent.

Role-named fields. A template has one field per role, such as Networking, Team, Character, AttackableUnit, Light or Sequencer. When the template loads, the client walks every field of the template whose value is a component definition:

An embedded definition always becomes a component. It exists even when the bin does not write the field, so every entity of the template gets that component.
A pointer definition becomes a component only when the field is set. A null pointer adds no component.

The class of the value decides which component is built, not the name of the field.

Calls from the client. The client calls each definition at these points:

When	What the definition does
the template loads	adds its runtime component class to the template's list of component types
every template of the map is registered	only HierarchyGeComponentDef acts on this call
every placed entity of the map is spawned	a call with no entity; only the barracks, skin character and VFX definitions act on it
an entity is created from the template	creates the component for that entity

The template sorts its definitions by their runtime component class. GameEntityTemplate describes the resulting component order. A definition that creates no component leaves an empty slot in the entity's component list, and the other components are not affected.

Every entity made from one template shares the template's definitions. A component keeps a reference to the definition that created it and reads its values from it.