ECS Performance Audit

ECS Performance Audit

Overview

This skill performs comprehensive performance analysis of Entity Component System implementations in the C#/​.NET 10.0 game engine. It identifies bottlenecks, memory allocation issues, and cache coherency problems that impact frame time.

When to Use

Invoke this skill when encountering:

• Frame rate drops related to entity processing
• Slow iteration over large entity collections
• Questions about system execution order optimization
• Memory allocation concerns in hot paths (OnUpdate, rendering)
• Cache coherency issues with component layouts
• Performance regressions after ECS changes
• System initialization or update performance issues

Analysis Process

1. System Iteration Patterns

• Identify systems iterating without proper component filtering
• Check for O(n²) algorithms in entity loops
• Verify LINQ usage doesn't cause unnecessary allocations - always prefer zlinq library
• Look for GetEntitiesWith<T>() calls in hot paths
• Check for unnecessary component lookups (cache component references when possible)

2. Priority & Ordering

• Validate system execution order via SceneSystemRegistry and SystemManager
• Check for implicit update order dependencies
• Verify priority values align with execution requirements:
  • ScriptUpdateSystem: Priority 100
  • AnimationSystem: Priority 198
  • TileMapRenderSystem: Priority 200
  • SpriteRenderingSystem, ModelRenderingSystem: Default
• Suggest priority adjustments for better parallelization potential

3. Memory Allocation

• Flag allocations in OnUpdate(), Render(), OnEvent() loops
• Identify boxing, LINQ materializations (.ToList(), .ToArray())
• Check for closure captures creating heap allocations
• Look for string concatenation in hot paths
• Identify lambda allocations in frequent operations
• Recommend object pooling strategies for frequently created objects
• Suggest Span<T> and stackalloc and Memory<T> where appropriate

4. Data Locality & Cache Coherency

• Evaluate component data layout (prefer value types when small)
• Check for Structure of Arrays vs Array of Structures opportunities
• Suggest cache-friendly component packing

5. Reflection & Dynamic Dispatch

• Flag reflection usage in hot paths (use static caching like ScriptableEntity)
• Check for virtual method calls that could be devirtualized
• Identify dictionary lookups that could use faster alternatives
• Verify factory pattern usage for appropriate caching

6. Profiling Recommendations

• Suggest specific dotnet-trace or profiler commands
• Recommend benchmark scenarios for validation
• Provide before/​after measurement guidance
• Reference Benchmark project and docs/​specifications/​physics-benchmark-design.md

Output Format

Provide findings in this structure:

Issue: [Clear description of the problem] Impact: [Performance cost - frame budget impact, allocation rate, cache misses] Location: [File path with line numbers, e.g., Engine/​Scene/​Systems/​MySystem.cs:42] Recommendation: [Specific optimization with code example] Priority: [Critical/​High/​Medium/​Low based on frame time impact]

Example Output

**Issue**: LINQ materialization in OnUpdate() loop
**Impact**: ~5,000 allocations per frame (60fps = 300k/​sec), causing GC pressure
**Location**: Engine/​Scene/​Systems/​RenderingSystem.cs:156
**Recommendation**: Replace `.ToList()` with direct iteration:
// Before
foreach (var entity in scene.GetEntitiesWith<SpriteRendererComponent>().ToList())

// After
foreach (var entity in scene.GetEntitiesWith<SpriteRendererComponent>())

**Priority**: High