Astra 2.0.0

Astra ECS v2.0 - System Scheduling, Parallel Execution & Advanced Architecture

🎉 Major Release Highlights

Astra 2.0 is a massive update introducing system scheduling, parallel execution, command buffers, batch operations, and a complete architectural overhaul for production-ready performance.

New Parallel Performance

• 17x speedup on 20 cores for single component iteration
• ParallelForEach with automatic work distribution across cores
• Thread-safe chunk-based parallelization

🚀 Major New Features

System Scheduling Architecture (NEW)

• SystemScheduler class for organizing and executing ECS systems
• Automatic parallelization based on component access patterns
• Lambda system support with automatic Read/Write detection via const qualifiers
• System traits for declaring component dependencies (Reads/Writes)
• Custom executor interface for job system integration
• Dependency analysis for safe parallel execution

Command Buffer Architecture (NEW)

• Deferred operations for safe modifications during iteration
• Thread-safe command recording from multiple sources
• Batch command execution with minimal overhead
• Entity remapping for cloning and prefab instantiation
• Undo/redo support foundation

Parallel Execution in Views (NEW)

• ParallelForEach method for automatic parallelization
• Chunk-based work distribution for load balancing
• Thread-safe iteration with per-chunk processing
• Configurable executor support

Const Components in Views (NEW)

• Type-safe const components - View<Position, const Velocity>
• Compile-time enforcement preventing accidental modifications

Batch Component Operations (NEW)

• AddComponentBatch for efficient bulk additions
• RemoveComponentBatch for bulk removals

FlatSet Container (NEW)

• Open-addressing hash set with cache-friendly layout
• SIMD-accelerated lookups using metadata bytes
• Swiss table algorithm for efficient probing

📦 Architectural Restructuring

Entity Management Overhaul

• EntityManager with for entity orchestration/lifecycle
• EntityTable for version lookups/state management
• EntityIDStack managing free/recycled IDs

Archetype System Redesign

• ArchetypeManager as central archetype controller
• ArchetypeGraph for efficient archetype transitions
• ArchetypeChunkPool for optimized chunk allocation/reuse

🛠️ Requirements

• C++20 compatible compiler (GCC 11+, Clang 13+, MSVC 2022+)
• Premake5 for project generation
• Optional: GoogleTest, Google Benchmark

📝 License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details

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Full Changelog: v1.0.0...v2.0.0

Astra 1.0.0

Astra ECS v1.0 - High-Performance Entity Component System

🚀 Overview

Astra is a header-only Entity Component System (ECS) library for modern C++20, delivering high performance through archetype-based storage and aggressive optimization techniques.

⚡ Performance Highlights

• ~1.04B entities/second single-component iteration (hot cache)
• ~465M entities/second dual-component iteration
• Sub-nanosecond per-entity overhead in tight loops
• 2x faster batch entity creation vs individual creation

🎯 Key Features

Core Architecture

• Archetype-based storage with automatic entity grouping by component composition
• Structure-of-Arrays (SoA) layout for optimal cache utilization
• 16KB chunk-based allocation aligned to modern CPU cache hierarchies
• O(1) component access via direct ComponentID indexing

Advanced Capabilities

• Relationship graphs - Hierarchical parent-child and bidirectional entity links
• Query system with compile-time iteration optimizations
  • Optional components (Optional<T>)
  • Exclusion filters (Not<T>)
  • Any-of queries (Any<T...>)
  • One-of constraints (OneOf<T...>)
• Memory defragmentation - Configurable chunk coalescing and archetype cleanup
• Binary serialization with compression support (LZ4/ZSTD)
• Cross-platform SIMD abstractions (SSE2/SSE4.2/AVX2/NEON)

🛠️ Requirements

• C++20 compatible compiler (GCC 11+, Clang 13+, MSVC 2022+)
• Premake5
• Optional: GoogleTest for tests, Google Benchmark for benchmarks

📝 License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details

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Full Changelog: https://github.com/T3mps/Astra/commits/1.0.0