unity-ecs-patterns

Master Unity ECS (Entity Component System) with DOTS, Jobs, and Burst for high-performance game development. Use when building data-oriented games, optimizing performance, or working with large entity counts.

Unity ECS Patterns

Production patterns for Unity's Data-Oriented Technology Stack (DOTS) including Entity Component System, Job System, and Burst Compiler.

When to Use This Skill

Building high-performance Unity games
Managing thousands of entities efficiently
Implementing data-oriented game systems
Optimizing CPU-bound game logic
Converting OOP game code to ECS
Using Jobs and Burst for parallelization

Core Concepts

1. ECS vs OOP

Aspect	Traditional OOP	ECS/DOTS
Data layout	Object-oriented	Data-oriented
Memory	Scattered	Contiguous
Processing	Per-object	Batched
Scaling	Poor with count	Linear scaling
Best for	Complex behaviors	Mass simulation

2. DOTS Components

Entity: Lightweight ID (no data)
Component: Pure data (no behavior)
System: Logic that processes components
World: Container for entities
Archetype: Unique combination of components
Chunk: Memory block for same-archetype entities

Detailed patterns and worked examples

Detailed pattern documentation lives in references/details.md. Read that file when the navigation tier above is insufficient.

Best Practices

Do's

Use ISystem over SystemBase - Better performance
Burst compile everything - Massive speedup
Batch structural changes - Use ECB
Profile with Profiler - Identify bottlenecks
Use Aspects - Clean component grouping

Don'ts

Don't use managed types - Breaks Burst
Don't structural change in jobs - Use ECB
Don't over-architect - Start simple
Don't ignore chunk utilization - Group similar entities
Don't forget disposal - Native collections leak