<s>
FlatBuffers	B-Protocol
is	O
a	O
free	B-Application
software	I-Application
library	B-Library
implementing	O
a	O
serialization	B-Application
format	O
similar	O
to	O
Protocol	B-Protocol
Buffers	I-Protocol
,	O
Thrift	B-Protocol
,	O
Apache	B-Operating_System
Avro	I-Operating_System
,	O
SBE	O
,	O
and	O
Cap'n	B-Operating_System
Proto	I-Operating_System
,	O
primarily	O
written	O
by	O
Wouter	O
van	O
Oortmerssen	O
and	O
open-sourced	O
by	O
Google	B-Application
.	I-Application
</s>
<s>
It	O
supports	O
“	O
zero-copy	O
”	O
deserialization	B-Application
,	O
so	O
that	O
accessing	O
the	O
serialized	O
data	O
does	O
not	O
require	O
first	O
copying	O
it	O
into	O
a	O
separate	O
part	O
of	O
memory	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
makes	O
accessing	O
data	O
in	O
these	O
formats	O
much	O
faster	O
than	O
data	O
in	O
formats	O
requiring	O
more	O
extensive	O
processing	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
JSON	B-General_Concept
,	O
CSV	O
,	O
and	O
in	O
many	O
cases	O
Protocol	B-Protocol
Buffers	I-Protocol
.	O
</s>
<s>
Compared	O
to	O
other	O
serialization	B-Application
formats	O
however	O
,	O
the	O
handling	O
of	O
FlatBuffers	B-Protocol
requires	O
usually	O
more	O
code	O
,	O
and	O
some	O
operations	O
are	O
not	O
possible	O
(	O
like	O
some	O
mutation	O
operations	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
allows	O
random	B-General_Concept
access	I-General_Concept
to	O
specific	O
data	O
elements	O
(	O
e.g.	O
</s>
<s>
Unlike	O
Protocol	B-Protocol
Buffers	I-Protocol
,	O
which	O
uses	O
variable	O
length	O
integers	O
,	O
FlatBuffers	B-Protocol
encodes	O
integers	O
in	O
their	O
native	O
size	O
,	O
which	O
favors	O
performance	O
but	O
leads	O
to	O
longer	O
encoded	O
representations	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
FlatBuffers	B-Protocol
can	O
be	O
used	O
in	O
software	O
written	O
in	O
C++	B-Language
,	O
C#	B-Application
,	O
C	B-Language
,	O
Go	B-Application
,	O
Java	B-Language
,	O
JavaScript	B-Language
,	O
Kotlin	B-Language
,	O
Lobster	O
,	O
Lua	B-Language
,	O
PHP	B-Application
,	O
Python	B-Language
,	O
Rust	B-Application
,	O
Swift	B-Application
,	O
and	O
TypeScript	B-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
schema	O
compiler	O
runs	O
on	O
Android	B-Application
,	O
Microsoft	B-Application
Windows	I-Application
,	O
Mac	B-Operating_System
OS	I-Operating_System
X	I-Operating_System
,	O
and	O
Linux	B-Application
,	O
but	O
games	O
and	O
other	O
programs	O
use	O
FlatBuffers	B-Protocol
for	O
serialization	B-Application
work	O
on	O
many	O
other	O
operating	O
systems	O
as	O
well	O
,	O
including	O
iOS	B-Application
,	O
Amazon	B-Application
's	O
Fire	B-Application
OS	I-Application
,	O
and	O
Windows	B-Protocol
Phone	I-Protocol
.	O
</s>
<s>
Van	O
Oortmerssen	O
originally	O
developed	O
FlatBuffers	B-Protocol
for	O
game	O
development	O
and	O
similar	O
applications	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Although	O
FlatBuffers	B-Protocol
has	O
its	O
own	O
interface	B-General_Concept
definition	I-General_Concept
language	I-General_Concept
to	O
define	O
the	O
data	O
to	O
be	O
serialized	O
with	O
it	O
,	O
it	O
also	O
supports	O
schemas	O
defined	O
in	O
the	O
Protocol	B-Protocol
Buffers	I-Protocol
.proto	O
format	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Some	O
notable	O
users	O
of	O
FlatBuffers	B-Protocol
:	O
</s>
<s>
Cocos2d-x	B-Application
,	O
the	O
popular	O
free-software	B-Application
2-D	O
game	O
programming	B-Library
library	I-Library
,	O
uses	O
FlatBuffers	B-Protocol
to	O
serialize	B-Application
all	O
of	O
its	O
game	O
data	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Facebook	B-Application
Android	B-Application
Client	I-Application
uses	O
FlatBuffers	B-Protocol
for	O
disk	O
storage	O
and	O
communication	O
with	O
Facebook	B-Application
servers	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
previously	O
used	O
JSON	B-General_Concept
format	O
was	O
performing	O
poorly	O
.	O
</s>
