encompass-cs-docs/content/concepts/component.md

title	date	weight
Component	2019-05-22T12:51:29-07:00	5

A Component is a collection of related data.

To define a Component, declare a struct which implements the IComponent interface.

using Encompass;
using System.Numerics;

public struct VelocityComponent : IComponent {
    public Vector2 velocity;
}

Components are attached to Entities with the SetComponent method.

using Encompass;

...

var worldBuilder = new WorldBuilder();
var entity = worldBuilder.CreateEntity();
worldBuilder.SetComponent(entity, new VelocityComponent { velocity = Vector2.Zero });

SetComponent can also be used from within an Engine. We will talk more about this later.

Components cannot exist apart from an Entity and are automagically destroyed when they are removed or their Entity is destroyed.

{{% notice warning %}} Components should never reference other Components directly. This breaks the principle of loose coupling. You will regret it if you do this. {{% /notice %}}