Reduce internal system order ambiguities, and add an example explaining them (#7383)

# Objective

- Bevy should not have any "internal" execution order ambiguities. These clutter the output of user-facing error reporting, and can result in nasty, nondetermistic, very difficult to solve bugs.
- Verifying this currently involves repeated non-trivial manual work. 

## Solution

- [x] add an example to quickly check this
- ~~[ ] ensure that this example panics if there are any unresolved ambiguities~~
- ~~[ ] run the example in CI 😈~~

There's one tricky ambiguity left, between UI and animation. I don't have the tools to fix this without system set configuration, so the remaining work is going to be left to #7267 or another PR after that.

```
2023-01-27T18:38:42.989405Z  INFO bevy_ecs::schedule::ambiguity_detection: Execution order ambiguities detected, you might want to add an explicit dependency relation between some of these systems:
 * Parallel systems:
 -- "bevy_animation::animation_player" and "bevy_ui::flex::flex_node_system"
    conflicts: ["bevy_transform::components::transform::Transform"]
  ```

## Changelog

Resolved internal execution order ambiguities for:
1. Transform propagation (ignored, we need smarter filter checking).
2. Gamepad processing (fixed).
3. bevy_winit's window handling (fixed).
4. Cascaded shadow maps and perspectives (fixed).

Also fixed a desynchronized state bug that could occur when the `Window` component is removed and then added to the same entity in a single frame.

Author: alice-i-cecile

Cargo.toml

@@ -1454,6 +1454,16 @@ description = "Shows a visualization of gamepad buttons, sticks, and triggers"
 category = "Tools"
 wasm = false
 
+[[example]]
+name = "nondeterministic_system_order"
+path = "examples/ecs/nondeterministic_system_order.rs"
+
+[package.metadata.example.nondeterministic_system_order]
+name = "Nondeterministic System Order"
+description = "Systems run in paralell, but their order isn't always deteriministic. Here's how to detect and fix this."
+category = "ECS (Entity Component System)"
+wasm = false
+
 [[example]]
 name = "3d_rotation"
 path = "examples/transforms/3d_rotation.rs"

crates/bevy_input/src/lib.rs

@@ -83,9 +83,17 @@ impl Plugin for InputPlugin {
                 CoreStage::PreUpdate,
                 SystemSet::new()
                     .with_system(gamepad_event_system)
-                    .with_system(gamepad_button_event_system.after(gamepad_event_system))
-                    .with_system(gamepad_axis_event_system.after(gamepad_event_system))
                     .with_system(gamepad_connection_system.after(gamepad_event_system))
+                    .with_system(
+                        gamepad_button_event_system
+                            .after(gamepad_event_system)
+                            .after(gamepad_connection_system),
+                    )
+                    .with_system(
+                        gamepad_axis_event_system
+                            .after(gamepad_event_system)
+                            .after(gamepad_connection_system),
+                    )
                     .label(InputSystem),
             )
             // touch

crates/bevy_pbr/src/lib.rs

@@ -194,7 +194,8 @@ impl Plugin for PbrPlugin {
                 CoreStage::PostUpdate,
                 update_directional_light_cascades
                     .label(SimulationLightSystems::UpdateDirectionalLightCascades)
-                    .after(TransformSystem::TransformPropagate),
+                    .after(TransformSystem::TransformPropagate)
+                    .after(CameraUpdateSystem),
             )
             .add_system_to_stage(
                 CoreStage::PostUpdate,

crates/bevy_transform/src/lib.rs

@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ use bevy_app::prelude::*;
 use bevy_ecs::prelude::*;
 use bevy_hierarchy::ValidParentCheckPlugin;
 use prelude::{GlobalTransform, Transform};
+use systems::{propagate_transforms, sync_simple_transforms};
 
 /// A [`Bundle`] of the [`Transform`] and [`GlobalTransform`]
 /// [`Component`](bevy_ecs::component::Component)s, which describe the position of an entity.
@@ -101,19 +102,26 @@ impl Plugin for TransformPlugin {
             // add transform systems to startup so the first update is "correct"
             .add_startup_system_to_stage(
                 StartupStage::PostStartup,
-                systems::sync_simple_transforms.label(TransformSystem::TransformPropagate),
+                sync_simple_transforms
+                    .label(TransformSystem::TransformPropagate)
+                    // FIXME: https://github.com/bevyengine/bevy/issues/4381
+                    // These systems cannot access the same entities,
+                    // due to subtle query filtering that is not yet correctly computed in the ambiguity detector
+                    .ambiguous_with(propagate_transforms),
             )
             .add_startup_system_to_stage(
                 StartupStage::PostStartup,
-                systems::propagate_transforms.label(TransformSystem::TransformPropagate),
+                propagate_transforms.label(TransformSystem::TransformPropagate),
             )
             .add_system_to_stage(
                 CoreStage::PostUpdate,
-                systems::sync_simple_transforms.label(TransformSystem::TransformPropagate),
+                sync_simple_transforms
+                    .label(TransformSystem::TransformPropagate)
+                    .ambiguous_with(propagate_transforms),
             )
             .add_system_to_stage(
                 CoreStage::PostUpdate,
-                systems::propagate_transforms.label(TransformSystem::TransformPropagate),
+                propagate_transforms.label(TransformSystem::TransformPropagate),
             );
     }
 }

crates/bevy_winit/src/lib.rs

@@ -25,8 +25,8 @@ use bevy_utils::{
     Instant,
 };
 use bevy_window::{
-    CursorEntered, CursorLeft, CursorMoved, FileDragAndDrop, Ime, ModifiesWindows,
-    ReceivedCharacter, RequestRedraw, Window, WindowBackendScaleFactorChanged,
+    exit_on_all_closed, CursorEntered, CursorLeft, CursorMoved, FileDragAndDrop, Ime,
+    ModifiesWindows, ReceivedCharacter, RequestRedraw, Window, WindowBackendScaleFactorChanged,
     WindowCloseRequested, WindowCreated, WindowFocused, WindowMoved, WindowResized,
     WindowScaleFactorChanged,
 };
@@ -55,8 +55,11 @@ impl Plugin for WinitPlugin {
                 CoreStage::PostUpdate,
                 SystemSet::new()
                     .label(ModifiesWindows)
-                    .with_system(changed_window)
-                    .with_system(despawn_window),
+                    // exit_on_all_closed only uses the query to determine if the query is empty,
+                    // and so doesn't care about ordering relative to changed_window
+                    .with_system(changed_window.ambiguous_with(exit_on_all_closed))
+                    // Update the state of the window before attempting to despawn to ensure consistent event ordering
+                    .with_system(despawn_window.after(changed_window)),
             );
 
         #[cfg(target_arch = "wasm32")]

crates/bevy_winit/src/system.rs

@@ -87,14 +87,18 @@ pub struct WindowTitleCache(HashMap<Entity, String>);
 
 pub(crate) fn despawn_window(
     closed: RemovedComponents<Window>,
+    window_entities: Query<&Window>,
     mut close_events: EventWriter<WindowClosed>,
     mut winit_windows: NonSendMut<WinitWindows>,
 ) {
     for window in closed.iter() {
         info!("Closing window {:?}", window);
-
-        winit_windows.remove_window(window);
-        close_events.send(WindowClosed { window });
+        // Guard to verify that the window is in fact actually gone,
+        // rather than having the component added and removed in the same frame.
+        if !window_entities.contains(window) {
+            winit_windows.remove_window(window);
+            close_events.send(WindowClosed { window });
+        }
     }
 }
 

examples/README.md

@@ -202,6 +202,7 @@ Example | Description
 [Generic System](../examples/ecs/generic_system.rs) | Shows how to create systems that can be reused with different types
 [Hierarchy](../examples/ecs/hierarchy.rs) | Creates a hierarchy of parents and children entities
 [Iter Combinations](../examples/ecs/iter_combinations.rs) | Shows how to iterate over combinations of query results
+[Nondeterministic System Order](../examples/ecs/nondeterministic_system_order.rs) | Systems run in paralell, but their order isn't always deteriministic. Here's how to detect and fix this.
 [Parallel Query](../examples/ecs/parallel_query.rs) | Illustrates parallel queries with `ParallelIterator`
 [Removal Detection](../examples/ecs/removal_detection.rs) | Query for entities that had a specific component removed in a previous stage during the current frame
 [Startup System](../examples/ecs/startup_system.rs) | Demonstrates a startup system (one that runs once when the app starts up)

examples/ecs/nondeterministic_system_order.rs

@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+//! By default, Bevy systems run in parallel with each other.
+//! Unless the order is explicitly specified, their relative order is nondeterministic.
+//!
+//! In many cases, this doesn't matter and is in fact desirable!
+//! Consider two systems, one which writes to resource A, and the other which writes to resource B.
+//! By allowing their order to be arbitrary, we can evaluate them greedily, based on the data that is free.
+//! Because their data accesses are **compatible**, there is no **observable** difference created based on the order they are run.
+//!
+//! But if instead we have two systems mutating the same data, or one reading it and the other mutating,
+//! then the actual observed value will vary based on the nondeterministic order of evaluation.
+//! These observable conflicts are called **system execution order ambiguities**.
+//!
+//! This example demonstrates how you might detect and resolve (or silence) these ambiguities.
+
+use bevy::{ecs::schedule::ReportExecutionOrderAmbiguities, prelude::*};
+
+fn main() {
+    App::new()
+        // This resource controls the reporting strategy for system execution order ambiguities
+        .insert_resource(ReportExecutionOrderAmbiguities)
+        .init_resource::<A>()
+        .init_resource::<B>()
+        // This pair of systems has an ambiguous order,
+        // as their data access conflicts, and there's no order between them.
+        .add_system(reads_a)
+        .add_system(writes_a)
+        // This pair of systems has conflicting data access,
+        // but it's resolved with an explicit ordering:
+        // the .after relationship here means that we will always double after adding.
+        .add_system(adds_one_to_b)
+        .add_system(doubles_b.after(adds_one_to_b))
+        // This system isn't ambiguous with adds_one_to_b,
+        // due to the transitive ordering created by our constraints:
+        // if A is before B is before C, then A must be before C as well.
+        .add_system(reads_b.after(doubles_b))
+        // This system will conflict with all of our writing systems
+        // but we've silenced its ambiguity with adds_one_to_b.
+        // This should only be done in the case of clear false positives:
+        // leave a comment in your code justifying the decision!
+        .add_system(reads_a_and_b.ambiguous_with(adds_one_to_b))
+        // Be mindful, internal ambiguities are reported too!
+        // If there are any ambiguities due solely to DefaultPlugins,
+        // or between DefaultPlugins and any of your third party plugins,
+        // please file a bug with the repo responsible!
+        // Only *you* can prevent nondeterministic bugs due to greedy parallelism.
+        .add_plugins(DefaultPlugins)
+        .run();
+}
+
+#[derive(Resource, Debug, Default)]
+struct A(usize);
+
+#[derive(Resource, Debug, Default)]
+struct B(usize);
+
+// Data access is determined solely on the basis of the types of the system's parameters
+// Every implementation of the `SystemParam` and `WorldQuery` traits must declare which data is used
+// and whether or not it is mutably accessed.
+fn reads_a(_a: Res<A>) {}
+
+fn writes_a(mut a: ResMut<A>) {
+    a.0 += 1;
+}
+
+fn adds_one_to_b(mut b: ResMut<B>) {
+    b.0 = b.0.saturating_add(1);
+}
+
+fn doubles_b(mut b: ResMut<B>) {
+    // This will overflow pretty rapidly otherwise
+    b.0 = b.0.saturating_mul(2);
+}
+
+fn reads_b(b: Res<B>) {
+    // This invariant is always true,
+    // because we've fixed the system order so doubling always occurs after adding.
+    assert!((b.0 % 2 == 0) || (b.0 == usize::MAX));
+}
+
+fn reads_a_and_b(a: Res<A>, b: Res<B>) {
+    // Only display the first few steps to avoid burying the ambiguities in the console
+    if b.0 < 10 {
+        info!("{}, {}", a.0, b.0);
+    }
+}