Instantiating converted entities with child transforms

I'm converting a prefab into an entity using ConvertToEntity with mode "Convert and Destroy". This creates 5 different entities at runtime: 1 with a Child component (the parent): https://cl.ly/3ddb4668dbe2, and 4 with a Parent component (the children). This all corresponds with how the prefab is designed and seems fine.

However, when I try to do EntityManager.Instantiate on the parent entity to create a copy, none of the Child data is transferred.

The Child component is of type ISystemStateBufferElementData, so it doesn't seem possible to set this data using SetComponentData or SetSharedComponentData. I am able to get this data by doing EntityManager.GetBuffer<Child>, but I don't see any way of setting this buffer data to another entity.

Is there a known/preferred way of instantiating prefabs converted to entities at runtime while also maintaining information about the transform hierarchy?

 

I came up with a solution for this, but if anyone has a better solution, I'd love to hear it.

Code (CSharp):

1.                 Unity.Entities.EntityManager mgr = Unity.Entities.World.Active.EntityManager;
2.                 Unity.Entities.Entity originalEntity = OriginalEntities[0];
3.                 Unity.Entities.Entity parentEntityCopy = mgr.Instantiate(OriginalEntities[0]);
4.  
5.                 DynamicBuffer<Child> childs = mgr.GetBuffer<Child>(originalEntity);
6.                 foreach (var child in childs) {
7.                     Unity.Entities.Entity childEntityCopy = mgr.Instantiate(child.Value);
8.                     Parent parentData = new Parent() { Value = parentEntityCopy };
9.                     mgr.SetComponentData(childEntityCopy, parentData);
10.                 }

 

Do you actually have 4 child GameObjects on your prefab? Your prefab Entity should have a LinkedEntityGroup with all the children.

 

Thanks for that. I was only using the ConvertToEntity component, and not GameObjectConversionUtility.ConvertGameObjectHierarchy, as done in the ECS Demos. Only using the component does not create a LinkedEntityGroup.