Add value type validation and improved error handling for custom components

[coderabbitai]

Description

The current implementation in ComponentBase.cs needs enhanced error handling and validation to ensure custom components meet ECS requirements.

Why Value Type Validation is Critical for ECS Components

In Entity-Component-System architectures, components must be value types (structs) for several important reasons:

1. Memory Layout and Performance

• Components are stored in contiguous memory arrays (ComponentArray) for cache efficiency
• Value types ensure predictable memory layouts without indirection
• Reference types would introduce pointer chasing and memory fragmentation

2. Native Interop Requirements

• The engine uses native interop with C++ code that expects fixed-size, POD (Plain Old Data) types
• Reference types have unpredictable memory layouts and garbage collection concerns
• Native code needs to safely read/write component data using raw pointers

3. Copy Semantics

• ECS operations frequently copy components (e.g., when moving entities between archetypes)
• Value types have well-defined copy semantics
• Reference types would share state unexpectedly across component instances

4. Serialization and Networking

• Components need to be serializable for save/load and networking
• Value types can be directly serialized as binary blobs
• Reference types require complex serialization handling

5. Thread Safety

• Multiple systems may access the same component type concurrently
• Value types eliminate shared mutable state concerns
• Reference types would require synchronization mechanisms

Proposed Improvements

1. Add value type validation - Reject reference types during component registration
2. Improve exception handling - Catch specific reflection exceptions
3. Add performance optimization - Cache discovered component types

Current Issues

• Broad exception catching hides specific reflection errors
• No validation ensures components are structs
• Repeated reflection calls impact performance

References

• PR: feat: add custom components to .NET scripts #352
• Comment: feat: add custom components to .NET scripts #352 (comment)

Implementation Priority

High - This validation prevents runtime errors and ensures ECS performance characteristics.