When programming high performance applications, such as video games, you learn neat tricks for writing fast code that makes the most of limited resources.

Memory allocation is a huge topic for performance critical code that needs a variable amount of memory.

When you hear “stack allocator” you might think of “alloca” which lets you allocate memory from the actual program stack. That is super useful in a pinch, but that is not what today’s post is about. Another name for the type of stack allocator we are talking about today is “bump allocator”.

Around 2010 I was working at Surreal Software (Midway Seattle) on an open world game “This is Vegas” which unfortunately was cancelled when Midway went out of business.