[PrototypeNM1]

> A lot of game engines use a mark-and-release per-frame allocation buffer.

I've heard of this concept but a search for "mark-and-release per-frame allocation buffer" returned this thread. Is there something else I could search?

[theresistor]

It’s just a variation of arena allocation. You allocate everything for the current frame in an arena. When the frame is complete. You free the entire arena, without needing any heap walking.

A generational GC achieves a similar end result, but has to heuristically discover the generations, whereas an arena allocator achieves the same result deterministically And without extra heap walking.

[meheleventyone]

Linear or stack allocator are other common terms. Just a memory arena where an allocation is just a pointer bump and you free the whole buffer at once by returning the pointer to the start of the arena.