Add default_no_render #20741

atlv24 · 2025-08-25T02:16:13Z

Objective

easily switch to bevy without a renderer
make it clear which crates/features require rendering still

Solution

feature group

Testing

building with no-default + default no render and running works

atlv24 · 2025-08-25T02:34:18Z

Hmm, the delineation between default and optional features seems to be really weird and wrong even on main, im not sure why it changed here either. I don't know if this is a good idea anyways, but i'd like something that let me easily build "bevy sans render"

mockersf · 2025-08-25T21:35:09Z

Not sure I like having default_no_render as a feature that is enabled by default.

Maybe this is some kind of "meta" feature that we shouldn't document

alice-i-cecile · 2025-08-25T21:49:23Z

I think the naming could use some work, but I like the core idea. This needs to be easy to test, and it's very useful for end users testing their projects.

mockersf · 2025-08-25T21:53:16Z

it's very useful for end users testing their projects.

Like we don't recommend users to enable default features, I wouldn't recommend them to enable default_no_render either, there's too much of everything to be tailored to a project

atlv24 · 2025-08-26T00:56:42Z

we have a default_no_std, a no_render is at least equally useful

# Objective - We currently specify transitive feature dependencies in two places: bevy and bevy_internal Cargo.tomls - This means they get out of sync often, accumulate unnecessary duplication, and sometimes forget certain transitive deps. ## Solution - Standardize on bevy_internal. Why: this makes it impossible to use it incorrectly if you depend on bevy_internal directly for some reason. If we standardized on bevy Cargo.toml holding these, it would mean that they could be bypassed by depending on bevy_internal. Not sure why someone would do that, but this feels right. - Move the few transitive feature dependency specifications that are still in bevy to bevy_internal - clean up a lot of duplicates - add a few missing dependencies - add top level bevy_mesh, bevy_camera, bevy_light, and bevy_shader features. ## Testing - this stuff is hard to test automatically or comprehensively. #20741 might make it easy to have a no-render test suite we can maintain coverage for, but other than that its just manual verification.

github-actions · 2025-08-27T01:15:49Z

You added a new feature but didn't update the readme. Please run cargo run -p build-templated-pages -- update features to update it, and commit the file change.

# Objective - We currently specify transitive feature dependencies in two places: bevy and bevy_internal Cargo.tomls - This means they get out of sync often, accumulate unnecessary duplication, and sometimes forget certain transitive deps. ## Solution - Standardize on bevy_internal. Why: this makes it impossible to use it incorrectly if you depend on bevy_internal directly for some reason. If we standardized on bevy Cargo.toml holding these, it would mean that they could be bypassed by depending on bevy_internal. Not sure why someone would do that, but this feels right. - Move the few transitive feature dependency specifications that are still in bevy to bevy_internal - clean up a lot of duplicates - add a few missing dependencies - add top level bevy_mesh, bevy_camera, bevy_light, and bevy_shader features. ## Testing - this stuff is hard to test automatically or comprehensively. bevyengine#20741 might make it easy to have a no-render test suite we can maintain coverage for, but other than that its just manual verification.

cart · 2025-10-08T22:48:11Z

#21472 will resolve this in a more complete way, so I'm closing this

## Objective Users of the `bevy` crate currently live one of two lifestyles: 1. Use all of Bevy's default features, potentially compiling many features you don't need or don't want. If there is a feature you _cannot have_ in your app, you must move on to option (2) 2. Disable Bevy's default features, and compose the complete list of features yourself. Living in the world of (2) is an exercise in frustration, as the list of required features to accomplish a given task changes regularly across releases as we add and change features. This is an _expert level_ task that requires intimate knowledge of engine internals to get right. Even I, Bevy's lead developer, would struggle here. To the point that I would never voluntarily choose to disable Bevy's default features. Most games/apps are 2D-only, 3D-only, or UI-only and don't require the full set of features. We cannot currently in good conscience recommend that those developers live in the "no default features" world. That is a fast track to pain, suffering, and perhaps a quick exit from the Bevy ecosystem. The same problem exists for developers that want to build their own Bevy renderer or replace Bevy UI with their own framework. Once again, we _cannot_ recommend that those developers manage every Bevy feature themselves. Fixes: #21369 Alternative to: #20741 #21236 ## Solution Define a "standalone" set of features that enable Bevy developers to disable default features, then opt in to the funtionality they want. The "default" `bevy` feature set is now just: ```toml default = ["2d", "3d", "ui"] ``` This enables developers to select only the features they need. For example, a UI-only app would look like this: ```toml bevy = { version = "0.17", default-features = false, features = [ "ui" ] } ``` "2d", "3d", and "ui" each contain the "full" Bevy experience for that domain. This also includes: - `default_platform`: the default "platform support" features (see docs) - `default_app`: the default "app framework" features (see docs) For developers that do not want the default bevy render / platform / app functionality, this breaks down further into: - `common_api`: common / core backend-less user-facing Bevy render api - `2d_api`: common / core backend-less user-facing Bevy 2d api - `3d_api`: common / core backend-less user-facing Bevy 3d api - `ui_api`: common / core backend-less user-facing Bevy ui api (and many others) I've also added the `dev` feature to this PR, which enables the recommended "dev only" features like dynamic linking, asset watching / hot reloading, and dev / debug tools. Including dynamic linking is a bit controversial here given that it doesn't work everywhere. But I'd like to aggressively push people into the dynamic linking workflow wherever possible, as developing without it is signficantly worse. And removing a single `dev` feature is a much simpler release workflow. --------- Co-authored-by: atlv <[email protected]>

## Objective Users of the `bevy` crate currently live one of two lifestyles: 1. Use all of Bevy's default features, potentially compiling many features you don't need or don't want. If there is a feature you _cannot have_ in your app, you must move on to option (2) 2. Disable Bevy's default features, and compose the complete list of features yourself. Living in the world of (2) is an exercise in frustration, as the list of required features to accomplish a given task changes regularly across releases as we add and change features. This is an _expert level_ task that requires intimate knowledge of engine internals to get right. Even I, Bevy's lead developer, would struggle here. To the point that I would never voluntarily choose to disable Bevy's default features. Most games/apps are 2D-only, 3D-only, or UI-only and don't require the full set of features. We cannot currently in good conscience recommend that those developers live in the "no default features" world. That is a fast track to pain, suffering, and perhaps a quick exit from the Bevy ecosystem. The same problem exists for developers that want to build their own Bevy renderer or replace Bevy UI with their own framework. Once again, we _cannot_ recommend that those developers manage every Bevy feature themselves. Fixes: bevyengine#21369 Alternative to: bevyengine#20741 bevyengine#21236 ## Solution Define a "standalone" set of features that enable Bevy developers to disable default features, then opt in to the funtionality they want. The "default" `bevy` feature set is now just: ```toml default = ["2d", "3d", "ui"] ``` This enables developers to select only the features they need. For example, a UI-only app would look like this: ```toml bevy = { version = "0.17", default-features = false, features = [ "ui" ] } ``` "2d", "3d", and "ui" each contain the "full" Bevy experience for that domain. This also includes: - `default_platform`: the default "platform support" features (see docs) - `default_app`: the default "app framework" features (see docs) For developers that do not want the default bevy render / platform / app functionality, this breaks down further into: - `common_api`: common / core backend-less user-facing Bevy render api - `2d_api`: common / core backend-less user-facing Bevy 2d api - `3d_api`: common / core backend-less user-facing Bevy 3d api - `ui_api`: common / core backend-less user-facing Bevy ui api (and many others) I've also added the `dev` feature to this PR, which enables the recommended "dev only" features like dynamic linking, asset watching / hot reloading, and dev / debug tools. Including dynamic linking is a bit controversial here given that it doesn't work everywhere. But I'd like to aggressively push people into the dynamic linking workflow wherever possible, as developing without it is signficantly worse. And removing a single `dev` feature is a much simpler release workflow. --------- Co-authored-by: atlv <[email protected]>

atlv24 force-pushed the ad/default-no-render branch from 3e62651 to 95e17f9 Compare August 25, 2025 02:17

Add default_no_render

27207dd

atlv24 force-pushed the ad/default-no-render branch from 95e17f9 to 27207dd Compare August 25, 2025 02:18

ci

e3e8fab

Zeophlite approved these changes Aug 25, 2025

View reviewed changes

atlv24 added C-Dependencies A change to the crates that Bevy depends on S-Needs-Review Needs reviewer attention (from anyone!) to move forward labels Aug 25, 2025

atlv24 mentioned this pull request Aug 25, 2025

Clean up root toml features #20752

Merged

alice-i-cecile approved these changes Aug 25, 2025

View reviewed changes

Merge branch 'main' into ad/default-no-render

2625cb7

atlv24 added 2 commits August 26, 2025 21:45

ci

436fc63

animation

f3b8202

atlv24 mentioned this pull request Oct 7, 2025

Shrink default feature set dramatically #21369

Closed

cart mentioned this pull request Oct 8, 2025

Cargo Feature Collections #21472

Merged

cart closed this Oct 8, 2025

atlv24 deleted the ad/default-no-render branch December 17, 2025 22:14

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Add default_no_render #20741

Add default_no_render #20741

Uh oh!

atlv24 commented Aug 25, 2025

Uh oh!

atlv24 commented Aug 25, 2025

Uh oh!

mockersf commented Aug 25, 2025

Uh oh!

alice-i-cecile commented Aug 25, 2025

Uh oh!

mockersf commented Aug 25, 2025

Uh oh!

atlv24 commented Aug 26, 2025

Uh oh!

github-actions bot commented Aug 27, 2025

Uh oh!

cart commented Oct 8, 2025

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

5 participants

Uh oh!

Add default_no_render #20741

Add default_no_render #20741

Uh oh!

Conversation

atlv24 commented Aug 25, 2025

Objective

Solution

Testing

Uh oh!

atlv24 commented Aug 25, 2025

Uh oh!

mockersf commented Aug 25, 2025

Uh oh!

alice-i-cecile commented Aug 25, 2025

Uh oh!

mockersf commented Aug 25, 2025

Uh oh!

atlv24 commented Aug 26, 2025

Uh oh!

github-actions bot commented Aug 27, 2025

Uh oh!

cart commented Oct 8, 2025

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

5 participants