Entity component system. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entity_component_system

Slightly off topic, but does anyone know what the status is of Unity's patent on ECS? I remember this thread [0] from a few years ago, and it looks like the patent is still valid [1], but I still see ECS all over the place outside of Unity contexts. Is Unity just not interested in enforcing the patent? Do they know they'd lose if they tried? Or am I missing a recent development?

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28447672

[1] https://patents.google.com/patent/US10599560B2/en

The patent abstract indicates it's not a patent on ECS, but a patent on methods to improve performance with ECS systems. The patent was filed in 2018, which is far after ECS was already in commercial use.

As sibling points out, it's about a specific way of optimizing an ECS style program. That's typical corporate software patent stuff - building a moat with patents that aren't inventive. It's like firing a shotgun into the solution space to create off-limits areas and impede newcomers.

Here's cart's analysis: https://i.imgur.com/Kmokcmq.png

Cart is the creator of Bevy (ECS engine in Rust) and Sander is the creator of Flecs (ECS engine in C)

Assume they lose if they try to enforce it, but don't know of any attempts yet.

So, uh, am I reading that right? One part is “use array of structs for ECS” and the other is “use struct of arrays for ECS”? Really?

Yeah the optimization is similar to the realization that array-of-structs can be the faster memory layout if you use all/most of the members of the struct. So you organize memory by archetype rather than keeping the components separately.

The Wikipedia article provides a broad overview, while this FAQ offers a more systematic exploration: https://github.com/SanderMertens/ecs-faq