Serializing worlds without using the reflection framework

[firesgc]

Hello!

I'm curious about the feasibility of serializing and deserializing a world into a binary file. I've noticed that there's a new serialization feature built on the reflection framework in Flecs 3.2, but my situation is unique. I'm using the Flecs C99 interface with C# and I'm adding components by ID, size, and pointer. Is it possible to load and save component data without needing a definition in the reflection framework?

Thanks for your help!

[SanderMertens]

That is possible, as long as you implement your own reflection solution. If you want to serialize components for a subset of entities in the world, one thing you can do is iterate a query that matches those entities and serialize their components. This is what the JSON world serializer does: https://github.com/SanderMertens/flecs/blob/master/src/addons/json/serialize.c#L2076

If you want to serialize components of a specific entity, you can iterate the component ids/values of that entity. The iterate_components example shows how to do this: https://github.com/SanderMertens/flecs/blob/master/examples/c/entities/iterate_components/src/main.c

[firesgc]

Thank you for the quick response!