Rust Bevy Standards

⚠️ Bevy 0.17+ Breaking Changes

• Material handles wrapped in MeshMaterial3d<T>, not Handle<T>

• Observer pattern replaces event system (commands.trigger(), add_observer())

• Event split into Message (buffered) and Event (observers)

• EventWriter/EventReader replaced by MessageWriter/MessageReader (message.write() / messages.read())

• Observer trigger API changed:

  // Old
  commands.add_observer(|trigger: Trigger<OnAdd, Player>| {
      info!("Spawned player {}", trigger.target());
  });
  
  // New
  commands.add_observer(|add: On<Add, Player>| {
      info!("Spawned player {}", add.entity);
  });
  

• Color arithmetic removed; use component extraction instead

⚠️ Bevy 0.18+ Breaking Changes

• RenderTarget is now a required component on Camera, not a Camera field:

  // Old
  Camera { target: RenderTarget::Image(handle.into()), ..default() }
  // New
  commands.spawn((Camera3d::default(), RenderTarget::Image(handle.into())));
  

• BorderRadius is now a field on Node, not a component
• LineHeight is now a required component on Text/Text2d/TextSpan; removed from TextFont
• AmbientLight resource renamed to GlobalAmbientLight; AmbientLight is now a component on Camera
• clear_children → detach_all_children, remove_children → detach_children, remove_child → detach_child (same on EntityCommands and EntityWorldMut)
• AnimationTarget { id, player } replaced by separate AnimationTargetId(id) and AnimatedBy(player_entity) components
• next_state.set(...) now always fires OnEnter/OnExit; use set_if_neq for the old behaviour
• MaterialPlugin fields prepass_enabled/shadows_enabled replaced by Material trait methods enable_prepass()/enable_shadows()
• SimpleExecutor removed; use SingleThreadedExecutor instead
• #[reflect(...)] now only supports parentheses, not braces or brackets
• AssetLoader, AssetSaver, AssetTransformer, Process now require #[derive(TypePath)]
• ron no longer re-exported from bevy_scene or bevy_asset; add it as a direct dependency
• Feature renames: animation → gltf_animation, bevy_sprite_picking_backend → sprite_picking, bevy_ui_picking_backend → ui_picking, bevy_mesh_picking_backend → mesh_picking

General

• Never delete target binaries — Bevy rebuilds take minutes

Footguns

• despawn() orphans children, consider despawn_recursive() instead
• Commands are deferred — world mutations apply at end of schedule; don't read back in the same system what you wrote via commands
• Use Changed<T> and Added<T> query filters to skip unchanged components — omitting these is the most common Bevy performance mistake
• Use observers (OnAdd, OnRemove) for component lifecycle reactions; don't poll for these in Update

Naming

• No unnecessary abbreviations: position not pos
• ECS systems: name ends in _system
• Message handlers: name starts with handle_, ends in _message

ECS

• Think in data (components) and transformations (systems), not objects and methods
• Components = pure data, no logic
• Systems = pure logic, operate on components
• Events/Messages = communication between systems
• Resources = global state; use sparingly
• Keep components small and focused; one large component defeats ECS cache locality

System Design

Plugin structure

• Break the app into discrete modules using plugins
• All plugin structs must have a /// doc comment explaining their purpose and scope

/// Handles damage processing and death detection.
pub struct CombatPlugin;

impl Plugin for CombatPlugin {
    fn build(&self, app: &mut App) {
        app
            .add_event::<DamageEvent>()
            .add_systems(Update, (process_damage, check_death));
    }
}

System sets

• Use run conditions (run_if(in_state(...))) to skip whole systems
• Use OnEnter/OnExit schedules for state transitions, not flags checked in Update

System ordering

.add_systems(
    Update,
    (
        // 1. Input
        handle_input,

        // 2. State changes
        process_events,
        update_state,

        // 3. Derived values
        calculate_derived_values,

        // 4. Visuals
        update_materials,
        update_animations,

        // 5. UI (last)
        update_ui_displays,
    ),
)