Today we’ll make a new type that addresses some of the deficiencies in Nullable<T>. We’ll end up with a good tool for dealing with operations that may or may not produce a result or take a parameter, even in Burst-compiled code. Read on to see how it works!
Posts Tagged GC
In last week’s tips for using collections like List<T>, we saw how struct types are sometimes boxed resulting in GC allocations. This week we’ll see how to avoid boxing and learn some of the clever tricks that .NET collection types use to make this possible.
Collection types like List<T> and Dictionary<TKey, TValue> are fundamental tools in C#. Sadly, I keep seeing the same misuses of them in codebase after codebase. Today we’ll look at the top 5 problems and learn how to easily avoid them!
NativeArray<T> is great, but very limited in functionality. We can fix this surprisingly easily! Today we revive a two year old series that created the iterator project. Iterators are like a no-GC version of IEnumerable<T> and LINQ which have a lot of power but only support managed arrays (T[]) and List<T>. Today we’ll add support for NativeArray<T> and inherit support for the same functionality. We’ll also spruce up the project with proper unit tests, assembly definitions, and runtime tests to confirm that zero garbage is created. Read on to see how this was done and how to use iterators with NativeArray<T>.
LINQ’s CPU performance is quite poor, but how is it with memory? Does every LINQ function always create tons of garbage for the GC to collect, or are there exceptions that aren’t so bad? Today’s article tests out lots of LINQ functions to find out!
Unity’s GC is a continual thorn in our sides. We’re constantly working around it by pooling objects, limiting use of language features, and avoiding APIs. We even call GC.Collect on load screens in the hopes that the GC won’t run during gameplay. Today’s article goes one step further and shows how to disable the GC completely so there’s zero chance it’ll run. We’ll also see how to turn it back on when we’re ready for it again.
Value types like int, structs, and enums seem simple, but much of what we think we know about them just isn’t true. This article explores how value types actually work in C# and uses that knowledge to improve how they’re implemented in the C++ scripting system.
C# generics are weak. The where clause allows you to know a little about the generic (“T“) types you’re given, but that’s just scratching the surface of what you can do with code generation. Today’s article will show you how easy it is to add a little code generation to a project and the power that brings.
Sometimes it seems like Unity programming is a minefield. Plenty of innocuous-looking code secretly creates garbage and eventually the GC runs and causes a frame hitch. Today’s article is about some of those less-obvious ways to create garbage.
It’s extremely common to see somebody ask a question about avoiding the garbage collector only to be answered with “just use a pool” as if that immediately and totally solved the problem. While pools will often keep the garbage collector at bay, they’ll also introduce a whole slew of new problems that you’ve got to deal with instead. Today’s article goes through several of these problems so you’ll be aware of the tradeoffs involved and hopefully avoid some pitfalls.