Overview
Learn essential game programming optimization techniques in this university lecture covering critical performance aspects for game development. Explore profiling methods, data structure optimization, and memory management strategies including memory pooling and cache-friendly programming. Dive deep into cache memory concepts with practical examples demonstrating performance impacts. Examine how Entity Component System (ECS) architecture relates to cache optimization and memory pooling, with detailed explanations of access patterns and implementation examples. Master techniques for minimizing dynamic memory allocation, reducing data structure size, and writing efficient code while maintaining modularity. Gain practical insights into identifying non-obvious performance bottlenecks and implementing important optimizations for game development using C++ and SFML graphics library.
Syllabus
- Intro
- Game Performance
- Profiling Code
- Non-Obvious Performance Hits
- Important Optimizations
- Minimizing Data Structure Size
- Code Reuse and Modularity
- Minimize Dynamic Memory Allocation
- What is a Memory Pool?
- Cache Memory
- Cache Performance Example
- Cache Friendly Data
- ECS and Caching
- ECS Systems / Access Patterns
- ECS Memory Pool
- Memory Pool Example
Taught by
Dave Churchill