I'm developing an Xbox 360 game with XNA. I'd really like to use C#'s yield return construct in a couple of places, but it seems to create a lot of garbage. Have a look at this code:
class ComponentPool<T> where T : DrawableGameComponent
{
List<T> preallocatedComponents;
public IEnumerable<T> Components
{
get
{
foreach (T component in this.preallocatedComponents)
{
// Enabled often changes during iteration over Components
// for example, it's not uncommon for bullet components to get
// disabled during collision testing
// sorry I didn't make that clear originally
if (component.Enabled)
{
yield return component;
}
}
}
}
...
I use these component pools everywhere - for bullets, enemies, explosions; anything numerous and transient. I often need to loop over their contents, and I'm only ever interested in components that are active (i.e., Enabled == true), hence the behavior of the Components property.
Currently, I'm seeing as much as ~800K per second of additional garbage when using this technique. Is this avoidable? Is there another way to use yield return?
Edit: I found this question about the broader issue of how to iterate over a resource pool without creating garbage. A lot of commenters were dismissive, apparently not understanding the limitations of the Compact Framework, but this commenter was more sympathetic and suggested creating an iterator pool.