Welcome to ZenECS Documentation

ZenECS is a pure C# Entity-Component-System (ECS) runtime designed for clarity, determinism, and zero dependencies. It offers a robust foundation for building scalable and maintainable game logic, with an optional Unity integration layer.

What is ZenECS?

ZenECS provides a powerful, engine-agnostic ECS framework that promotes a clean architecture and reactive programming patterns. It separates your game logic into distinct layers:

  • Data (Components): Pure data structures defining your game state.
  • Simulation (Systems): Logic that transforms data, operating on queries of components.
  • Presentation (Binders): Connects ECS data to your view layer (Unity GameObjects, UI, etc.) reactively.

This strict separation ensures high testability, maintainability, and scalability for complex projects.

Why ZenECS?

🏗️ Clean Architecture

  • Layered Separation: Achieve strict boundaries between data, simulation, and presentation.
  • Multi-World Kernel: Manage multiple isolated simulation spaces for advanced scenarios.
  • Zero Dependencies: A lightweight, pure .NET Standard 2.1 core, adaptable to any engine.
  • Testable by Design: Systems are pure functions, making your game logic easy to test.
  • Dependency Injection: Extensible internal DI for flexible service composition.

⚡ Reactive Programming

  • Message Bus: Build event-driven architectures with struct-based pub/sub messaging.
  • ComponentDelta Bindings: Automatically react to component changes and update views efficiently.
  • Unidirectional Data Flow: Enforce clear data flow from view (messages) → simulation (state mutation) → presentation (read-only).
  • UniRx Integration: Seamlessly integrate with UniRx for powerful reactive compositions.

🎯 Production Ready

  • Deterministic Stepping: Ensure reproducible simulations with explicit frame structures and topological system ordering.
  • Command Buffers: Safely batch and apply structural changes in multi-threaded or deterministic environments.
  • Snapshot I/O: Save and load world states with pluggable backends and post-load migrations for version compatibility.
  • Thread Safety: Built-in patterns for safe multi-threaded access to core ECS elements.

Quick Start

For Unity Developers

Integrate ZenECS into your Unity project with the ZenECS Adapter for Unity package.

  1. Install: Add com.zenecs.core and com.zenecs.adapter.unity via Unity Package Manager (Git URL).
  2. EcsDriver: Add an EcsDriver component to your scene for automatic kernel lifecycle management.
  3. EntityLink: Use EntityLink to connect Unity GameObjects to ECS entities.
  4. EntityBlueprint: Create ScriptableObject blueprints to define and spawn pre-configured entities.

Learn more about ZenECS Adapter for Unity

For .NET Standalone Applications

ZenECS Core is a pure .NET library, perfect for server-side logic, simulations, or custom engine development.

  1. Install: Add ZenECS.Core via NuGet.
  2. Kernel & World: Instantiate Kernel and World to set up your simulation environment.
  3. Systems & Components: Define your struct components and ISystem logic.
  4. Game Loop: Drive your simulation with kernel.PumpAndLateFrame().

Learn more about ZenECS Core

Documentation Structure

This documentation site includes:

Packages Overview

  • ZenECS Core: The foundational, engine-agnostic ECS runtime. Provides the core concepts of entities, components, systems, queries, message bus, and binding.
  • ZenECS Adapter for Unity: An optional layer that seamlessly integrates ZenECS Core with the Unity engine, offering MonoBehaviour-based lifecycle management, editor tools, and Unity-specific data-driven workflows.

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