Mixing component based design and the model-view(-controller) pattern

Question

'm developing a 2D game and I want separate the game engine from the graphics. I decided to use the model-view pattern in the following way: the game engine owns game's entities (EnemyModel, BulletModel, ExplosionModel) which implement interfaces (Enemy, Bullet, Explosion).

The View receives events when entities are created, getting the pointer to the interface: in this way the View can only use the interface methods (i.e. ask for informations to perform the drawing) and cannot change the object state. The View has its onw classes (EnemyView, BulletView, ExplosionView) which own pointers to the interfaces. (There is also an event-base pattern involved so that the Model can notify the View about entity changes, since a pure query approach is impraticable but I wont' discuss it here).

*Model classes use a compile-time component approach: they use the boost::fusion library to store different state componets, like PositionComponent, HealthComponent and so on.

At present moment the View isn't aware of the component based design but only of the model-view part: to get the position of an enemy it calls the Enemy::get_xy() method. The EnemyModel, which implements the interface, forwards this call to the PositionComponent and returns the result.

Since the bullet has position too, I have to add the get_xy method to Bullet too. BulletModel uses then the same implementation as the EnemyModel class (i.e. it forwards the call).

This approch then leads to have a lot of duplicate code: interfaces have a lot of similar methods and *Model classes are full of forward-methods.

So I have basically two options:

1) Expose the compoment based design so that each component has an interface as well: the View can use this interface to directly query the component. It keeps the View and the Model separated, only at a component level instead of a entity level.

2) Abandon the model-view part and go for pure component based design: the View is just a component (the RenderableComponent part) which has basically full access to the game engine.

Based on your experience which approach would be best?

Answer 1

MVC isn't easy for games as when the game becomes larger (including menu, enemies, levels, GUI...) and transitions, it'll break.

Component or entity-system are pretty good for games.

As a simpler case for you, you may consider using a HMVC. You'll still have issues with transitions, but at least your code will be grouped together in a more clean manner. You probably want your tank's code (rendering and logic) to get close together.

Answer 2

I'll give my two cents worth. From the problem you're describing, it seems to me that you need an abstract class that will do the operations that are common amongst all of your classes (like the get_xy, which should apply to bullet, enemy, explosion, etc.). This class is a game entity that does the basic grunt work. Inheriting classes can override it if they want.

This abstract class should be the core of all your interfaces (luckily you're in C++ where there is no physical difference between a class, and abstract class and an interface). Thus the Views will know about the specific interfaces, and still have the generic entity methods.

A rule of thumb I have for design - if more than one class has the same data members or methods, it should probably be a single class from which they inherit.

Anyway, exposing the internal structure of your Model classes is not a good idea. Say you'll want to replace boost with something else? You'd have to re-write the entire program, not just the relevant parts.