Search icon CANCEL
Arrow left icon
Explore Products
Best Sellers
New Releases
Books
Videos
Audiobooks
Learning Hub
Conferences
Free Learning
Arrow right icon
Arrow up icon
GO TO TOP
Game Development Patterns and Best Practices

You're reading from   Game Development Patterns and Best Practices Better games, less hassle

Arrow left icon
Product type Paperback
Published in Apr 2017
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781787127838
Length 394 pages
Edition 1st Edition
Languages
Arrow right icon
Authors (2):
Arrow left icon
John P. Doran John P. Doran
Author Profile Icon John P. Doran
John P. Doran
Matt Casanova Matt Casanova
Author Profile Icon Matt Casanova
Matt Casanova
Arrow right icon
View More author details
Toc

Table of Contents (13) Chapters Close

Preface 1. Introduction to Design Patterns 2. One Instance to Rule Them All - Singletons FREE CHAPTER 3. Creating Flexibility with the Component Object Model 4. Artificial Intelligence Using the State Pattern 5. Decoupling Code via the Factory Method Pattern 6. Creating Objects with the Prototype Pattern 7. Improving Performance with Object Pools 8. Controlling the UI via the Command Pattern 9. Decoupling Gameplay via the Observer Pattern 10. Sharing Objects with the Flyweight Pattern 11. Understanding Graphics and Animation 12. Best Practices

Issues with object pools


Now, as great as object pools are, we should take some time to talk about times when you would not want to use object pools, and the alternatives out there.

First of all, you need to remember that when you are using a memory manager, you are telling the computer that you are smarter than them and that you know how the data should be handled. This is more power than other languages tend to give you, and using Uncle Ben's famous line, "with great power comes great responsibility" as we mentioned previously in this book in Chapter 2, One Instance to Rule Them All - Singletons. When using an object pool, you typically want to use it when objects only have a limited lifetime and a lot of them will be created, but not all at the same time. If at one point in time you'll have 10,000 on the screen, but the rest of the game you'll have 30 max, that 9,970 other objects' worth of memory will just be standing there waiting for you in the unlikely event that you want to use it...

lock icon The rest of the chapter is locked
Register for a free Packt account to unlock a world of extra content!
A free Packt account unlocks extra newsletters, articles, discounted offers, and much more. Start advancing your knowledge today.
Unlock this book and the full library FREE for 7 days
Get unlimited access to 7000+ expert-authored eBooks and videos courses covering every tech area you can think of
Renews at €18.99/month. Cancel anytime