5.3 - Component Systems

A collection of related DtSimComponents can be organized into a DtComponentSystem (compSystem.h).

A DtComponentSystem is a class that may contain zero or more sensors, controllers, and actuators, and systems. Within a DtComponentSystem, components and subsystems are ticked the same way as components that belong directly to the DtSimComponentManager. Each DtComponentSystem has a DtSimResourceManager that maintains any resources associated with the system. The DtSimComponentManager has a ‘base’ DtComponentSystem that holds all DtSimComponents and DtComponentSystems for the entity.

Systems are used to represent some logical subsystem of an entity, such as a weapon or its movement capabilities. To see which systems have been defined for use in VR-Forces, use the Entity Editor and OPD Editor, or go to the ./data/simulationModelSets/default/vrfSim/systems directory to examine the system definition files (.sysdef) directly.

You can create an entity without any explicit systems defined by configuring the entity with sensors, controllers, and actuators directly. The ‘base’ DtComponentSystem will be created implicitly for the components when the entity is created. However, you can create larger, reusable ‘building blocks’ if you organize components into systems.

Note

Only components contained in the same system can share process state repositories.

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