Entity index

An entity index is a unique integer given to every entity by the engine. It allows the same entity to be referred to across library boundaries, but will be different on the client and server unless an edict is used. Within the client and server, pointers to CBaseEntity are more useful.

There can be up to 4096 entities in the index. The first 2048 entries are reserved for entities with edicts, which cross the client/server divide.

Tip:Worldspawn is always entity 0, while indices 1 to <maxplayers> are reserved for players.

Tip:Use ent_text command to find out what index specific entities have. It's displayed in round brackets.

Note:An entity index is not reliable between frames, as it can be freed from one entity and and reallocated to another at any time. Use CHandle for long-term storage.

Usage

Shared

int CBaseEntity::entindex()

Server

edict_t* INDEXENT( int iEdictNum )

int ENTINDEX( edict_t* pEdict )

CEntInfo* gEntList.GetEntInfoPtrByIndex(int)

Functions below are not available in Alien Swarm:

int engine->IndexOfEdict(edict_t)

edict_t engine->PEntityOfEntIndex(int) (networked ents only)

Client

C_BaseEntity ClientEntityList().GetBaseEntity(int)

See also

• Edict
• Entity limit
• ent_text