ECS Library Comparison Project

A comprehensive comparison of 6 different Entity Component System (ECS) libraries in Rust, demonstrating production-ready patterns with type-safe entity handles and command systems.

Overview

This project implements the same pane-dataset management system across multiple ECS libraries, each enhanced with production-ready patterns to provide a realistic comparison of real-world usage.

Featured Libraries

Library	Approach	Key Features
Flax	Relations-based	Type-safe handles, modular components, built-in relations, command system
Evenio	Event-driven	Type-safe handles, command system, registry pattern, event architecture
Hecs + Hierarchy	Hierarchy-based	Type-safe handles, command system, parent-child relationships
Bevy ECS	Component-based	Type-safe handles, command system, modern API, wrapper relationships
Sparsey	Group-based	Type-safe handles, component groups
Flecs	Limited Rust API	Type-safe handles, simulated command system

Running Examples

Each library implementation is available as a separate binary:

# Run individual examples
cargo run --bin flax_example
cargo run --bin evenio_example  
cargo run --bin hecs_example
cargo run --bin bevy_ecs_example
cargo run --bin sparsey_example
cargo run --bin flecs_example

Production Patterns Demonstrated

All examples showcase production-ready patterns:

• Type-Safe Entity Handles: Compile-time prevention of entity type mixing
• Command Systems: Queue-based deferred execution for safer entity lifecycle management
• Realistic Data: Sensor data examples instead of artificial test data
• Comprehensive Functionality: Beyond basic component storage and queries

Detailed Analysis

See ECS_COMPARISON.md for an in-depth analysis of each library including:

• Code examples with production patterns
• Performance characteristics
• Readability and maintainability assessment
• Production-readiness evaluation
• Detailed recommendations for different use cases

Key Findings

The comparison reveals that Flax Enhanced provides the best combination of type safety, semantic relations, modular organization, and zero-cost abstractions, making it the most suitable choice for large-scale production applications.

Requirements

• Rust 2024 edition
• See Cargo.toml for specific dependency versions

License

This project is for educational and comparison purposes, demonstrating different approaches to ECS architecture in Rust.