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BufferPool Overview

BufferPool is a powerful feature of the Best HTTP package designed to optimize memory management in your applications. By minimizing the frequent allocation and deallocation of byte arrays, it significantly reduces dynamic memory overhead and improves overall performance. This guide provides an overview of BufferPool's importance, its benefits, and a brief introduction to its usage.

Why Use BufferPool?

  • Memory Efficiency: Dynamic memory allocations in computer applications can be resource-intensive. Each time you allocate and deallocate memory, it consumes valuable time and system resources. BufferPool optimizes this by reusing memory allocations, offering a more streamlined and efficient runtime experience.
  • Performance Boost: The reduced overhead from repetitive memory operations means applications execute faster and more responsively. Furthermore, in environments like Unity that use C# for scripting, Garbage Collection (GC) can cause noticeable CPU spikes, especially when dealing with frequent memory allocations. By utilizing memory pooling through BufferPool, the frequency of these garbage collection events can be decreased, leading to smoother performance and fewer CPU hitches.
  • Versatility: While BufferPool is a component of the Best HTTP package, its advantages are not limited to just HTTP tasks. BufferPool is integrated across all protocols and packages that are built on top of Best HTTP. This ensures uniform memory optimization benefits across your application.
  • Garbage Collection Efficiency: Unity/C# environments rely on garbage collection to manage memory. While garbage collection helps in managing memory automatically, it can lead to performance hitches, especially if there's frequent memory churn. By using BufferPool, you reduce the workload on the garbage collector. Fewer allocations mean fewer GC events, resulting in reduced CPU spikes and a smoother user experience.

Key Features:

  • Adaptive Memory Pooling: BufferPool can serve requests of varying byte array sizes. Depending on specific parameters, it might even provide a larger buffer than requested to anticipate future needs.
  • Memory Management: With built-in maintenance cycles, BufferPool can automatically remove older buffers that haven't been reused for a specified duration to further reduce memory usage of the application.
  • Error Checks: The pool has a double release check feature. If the same byte array is released to the pool more than once, it can log an error, helping to identify potential code issues. However, do note that this check is resource-intensive, so use it judiciously. This feature is automatically used while running in the Unity Editor.
  • Size Restrictions: You can define the minimum and maximum sizes of buffers that BufferPool handles, ensuring it's tuned to your application's specific needs.

How to Use?

Fetching Buffers

Use the Get function to fetch a byte array.

Remember, depending on the canBeLarger parameter, the returned buffer might be larger than what you asked for! This is by design to provide potential additional space without another memory request.

byte[] buffer = BufferPool.Get(size, canBeLarger);

Releasing Buffers

Once done with a byte array, release it back to the pool using the Release method.

BufferPool.Release(buffer);

For bulk operations, you can use the ReleaseBulk method to release a list of buffer segments back to the pool in one go.

Resizing Buffers

If you find that a buffer's size is no longer adequate, you can resize it using the Resize function.

var resizedBuffer = BufferPool.Resize(buffer, newSize);

Clearing the Pool

If, for any reason, you want to clear all stored entries and free up the memory, use the Clear method.

BufferPool.Clear();

Final Thoughts

BufferPool is an essential tool for developers aiming to maximize the efficiency and performance of their applications. By understanding its benefits and features, you can harness its power to optimize memory usage and enhance the user experience. Consider integrating BufferPool in your projects, and witness a noticeable boost in application responsiveness and efficiency.

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