Memory - Where's the leak coming from?

sam_m · July 2019

Hi all,

I'm fairly new here and utilizing this very useful forum, have managed to put together a very simple match-3 game. It works well enough, except for a memory leak. Even if I play the same level, the memory creeps up. When I exit the game level and I go back to the menu level, I never completely get back the memory occupied by the game level.

I'd be very grateful for any help to figure this out.

So these are the steps I've already taken to prevent a leak -

1)Removing all children before removing the parent sprite.

2) Pausing gtween after it is completed, so it can be garbage collected.

3) I've removed references to objects before removing them.

So what else can I do remove this leak? I haven't used any advanced features like box2d.

Thanks.

keszegh · July 2019

first put some garbagecollect after exiting the level if you want to be sure that it's a leak, otherwise it may be only waiting for later to collect the garbage as the memory manager does not think that it is necessary to do it right away.

oleg · July 2019

@sam_m output messages in 'output' - takes memory.
the more messages you output, the more memory is involved

ps\\ https://wiki.giderosmobile.com/index.php/Profiling

sam_m · July 2019

I'm garbage collecting at the beginning of every scene and at the beginning of every level. Still getting the leak though.

oleg · July 2019

sam_m said:
I'm garbage collecting at the beginning of every scene and at the beginning of every level. Still getting the leak though.

garbagecollecting - does not collect garbage from the 'output' console

sam_m · July 2019

I'm printing the memory in a textField that I created in main.lua.

oleg · July 2019

event listeners deleted?

Apollo14 · July 2019

Do event listeners keep objects from being garbage collected?

sam_m · July 2019

@oleg Yes.I'm removing attached event listeners before removing any sprite or bitmap.

Apollo14 · July 2019

Probably you should try profiling:
https://wiki.giderosmobile.com/index.php/Profiling

hgy29 · July 2019

I would use leaky for such issues: http://forum.giderosmobile.com/discussion/comment/20247/#Comment_20247

Apollo14 · July 2019

sam_m said:
So these are the steps I've already taken to prevent a leak -

1)Removing all children before removing the parent sprite.

2) Pausing gtween after it is completed, so it can be garbage collected.

3) I've removed references to objects before removing them.

So what else can I do remove this leak?

4) Make everything nil? (if you didn't already)

Pls let us know what caused leak (I guess you'll find it with BhLeaky class), it's interesting.

sam_m · July 2019

@Apollo14 - Thanks for the link on profiling. I am using it right now. And if I can ever find the leak, I'll definitely post about it. I'm making all objects nil before removal.

@hgy29 - Using leaky.lua now. Thanks for the link.

sam_m · July 2019

@hgy29 - I ran leaky.lua and this is what I am getting in the gamelevel.

"*** OBJECT SNAPSHOT message here ***
SceneManager has 1 instances
GTween has 6 instances
*** OBJECT SNAPSHOT END ****

I think Gtween is the problem as the number of instances increases as the game progresses. This has completely stumped me as I thought I was removing gtween instances properly. Curious thing is that most of the gtween instances are getting removed except for a few. This is how I'm using gtween -

local function groundF()
 
     if background and background.t then
 
           background.t:setPaused(true)
            background.t = nil
 
        end
 
end
 
background.t = GTween.new(background, 0.5, {y = 0}, {ease = easing.inOutBack, onComplete=groundF})

Any idea as to what is going on is deeply appreciated.

hgy29 · July 2019

Could it be that you launch several tweens in parallel, overriding the background.t variable with the last laucnhed one and losing track of the unfinished previous ones ?

sam_m · July 2019

background.t is an example. I've tried to give every tween its own name. Maybe I missed one? Time to go through the code again. Thank you for taking an interest in my problem.

sam_m · August 2019

@Apollo14 - I figured out the leak. I had referenced a bunch of bitmaps in a table, after creating them in a loop. I'm using them to create a sort of a confetti effect. Anyways, I wasn't removing the reference from the table. Feel like such an idiot.

Apollo14 · August 2019

For confetti effects probably Particles are better.

sam_m · August 2019

@Apollo14 - No doubt, Particles would do the job better. My confetti effect is very simple and works well enough with only bitmaps and gtween. If my game is ready for release ever, I'll probably use Particle effects.

Thank you so much for taking an interest in my issue and helping me out. Gideros has the nicest community I've ever encountered.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Top Posters

Memory - Where's the leak coming from?

Comments

Howdy, Stranger!

Quick Links

Categories

In this Discussion

Top Posters

Memory - Where's the leak coming from?

Comments