temporary-baking-type

TemporaryBakingType

Intent

Mark a component as a single-pass baking signal — present during Baker execution and baking system processing within one baking pass, then automatically removed before the next pass.

Use When

Change-detection markers ("this entity was modified in this pass"), processing flags, or any intermediate state that must NOT persist across incremental baking passes.

Avoid When

The data must survive across multiple baking system updates within a multi-pass pipeline — use [BakingType] instead.

Senior Pattern

• [TemporaryBakingType] attribute on IComponentData struct.
• Baker adds the component to signal "this entity changed this pass."
• Baking system reads the component to identify entities requiring reprocessing.
• Component is automatically removed at the end of the baking pass — no explicit cleanup.
• Combine with [BakingType] ICleanupComponentData for multi-pass incremental detection.

Code Template

// Change signal — automatically removed after each baking pass
[TemporaryBakingType]
public struct EntityModifiedThisPass : IComponentData { }

// Baker adds it to flag changed entities:
class Baker : Baker<SomeAuthoring>
{
    public override void Bake(SomeAuthoring authoring)
    {
        var entity = GetEntity(TransformUsageFlags.None);
        AddComponent(entity, new SomeComponent { Value = authoring.Value });
        AddComponent<EntityModifiedThisPass>(entity);  // signals "reprocess me"
    }
}

// Baking system reads only changed entities:
[WorldSystemFilter(WorldSystemFilterFlags.BakingSystem)]
public partial struct IncrementalProcessSystem : ISystem
{
    public void OnUpdate(ref SystemState state)
    {
        foreach (var data in
            SystemAPI.Query<RefRO<SomeComponent>>()
                .WithAll<EntityModifiedThisPass>())
        {
            // Only processes entities modified in this pass
        }
    }
}

Anti-Patterns

• Using [TemporaryBakingType] for data a baking system needs to persist across passes — it gets stripped, causing data loss and incorrect incremental results.
• Assuming [TemporaryBakingType] components are present in subsequent baking system OnUpdate calls — they are stripped after the first pass.