Memory and C++ debugging at Electronic Arts
summary
Electronic Arts uses a mix of custom and platform features: a stomp allocator that uses virtual memory to crash on buffer overruns, an EA::STL replacement that wins 71 of 188 benchmarks by inlining/cut‑and‑paste, and a logging pipeline that streams every alloc/free to disk. An internal Delta viewer unifies load/IO, frame and memory views so teams spot leaks and hot frames. Traces show ~2.2M allocations (2.1M <512B) while just 208 large blocks total ~2 GB, so big assets, not code, drive peak memory.
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chapters (9)
- 0:00Introduction to memory debugging
- 1:03Defining allocators and arenas
- 2:27PS2 era memory debugging
- 5:42Xbox 360 and PS3 advancements
- 17:27EA STL performance gains
- 24:13Modern memory debugging tools
- 29:30Delta Delta viewer overview
- 44:11Debugging strategies and ownership
- 46:07Q&A session
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