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jonathan0382
Member
Good evening all,
Am I correct in thinking that dealloc is called when a scene is replaced? If so, are there things you need to get rid of, such as schedules/timers, before this will happen?
Reason I ask is because I just realized that none of my deallocs are getting called except the one in my menuScene (simplest scene with nothing else going on).
Thanks for any info or tips,
Jonathan0382
I ran into a similar problem when I had scheduled some timers on a scene. The timer retained the scene and therefore the scene never got deallocated. By unscheduling the timer in an overridden onExit method I managed to release the object and logged a call to dealloc on the scene.
I think this must be a bug in cocos as onExit is supposed to unschedule all the timers and my unschedule call should have no effect but it solved my memory leaks.
jonathan0382
Member
@johannth: thanks for the tip. I've tried the same, unscheduling everything within onExit. Doesn't seem to make much of a difference. There is definitely something else that is being retained...
@codemmatic: thank you. Is there anything that could retain a scene other than a schedule?
jonathan0382
Member
Ok, I've done some extensive looking into this and am starting to get frustrated that my deallocs are not getting called. I unschedule all schedules, but is there anything else? Do I need to wait until the end of all actions, or animations, or anything like that? It is causing a problem because after about 20 restarts of my main game scene I'm getting crashes which (I think) are due to the memory getting overloaded.
Does anyone have any other suggestions or things to look out for?
You can start by adding the COCOS2D_DEBUG flag and see the output from the CCLOG calls placed in the dealloc method of every cocos object. Maybe it'll give an idea of what's going on.
Do you subclass cocos classes ? Do you call [super dealloc]; in your dealloc methods ?
jonathan0382
Member
@Frank84: ok, so I had an hour and went through my whole code checking for schedules and unscheduling everything before calling a method (on a delay) to replace the scene. Still no luck, so there must be something else.
I've just COCOS2D_DEBUG up and running (couldn't for the life of me figure it out without downloading and installing the 8.1 template and then looking in the target properties!) so I'll be looking at that for the next few hours :D
applehund
Member
Hey I just wanted to chime in that I'm experiencing this too. I call replaceScene on my main GameScene and it still it not being dealloc'd.
I do have a lot of schedule and unschedule calls, but I'm making sure they are all unscheduled before replaceScene is called. I've tried onExit as well.
I'm not retaining my GameScene anywhere else.
applehund
Member
Hmm I seem to have fixed it. My problem was that I was unscheduling selectors immediately before replacing the scene...
Now I do that way before -- I guess replaceScene was pausing the scene and so the selectors weren't able to be unscheduled, and those were retaining my GameScene.
hope that helps :)
jonathan0382
Member
@applehund: Thanks for the tip. I did the same thing last night, and finally have everything unscheduling as I'd like
Still though the scenes are not dealloc'ing. If I have subclassed sprites do I need to release these first. I thought sprites were auto-released...? What about labels etc? This is starting to get a little tedious :D
So you do subclass some cocos classes... Let me repeat my question : do you call [super dealloc] in the dealloc method of your subclass ?
Also, are you sure you've correctly subclassed Sprite ? Is your custom sprite of type Sprite or of type YourCustomSprite ? Show us some code.
jonathan0382
Member
@Clain: Sorry, I missed your question before about subclassing. Yes, I do have subclassed sprites. Here is some code:
In my gameLayer.m I run this in the init:
//circle manager
circles = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];
for(int n=0; n<numberOfCircles; n++) {
CGPoint pos = ccp(arc4random()%450 + 15, arc4random()%290 + 15);
circle[n] = [self addNewCirclePosition:pos scale:1.0];
[circles addObject: circle[n]];
[circle[n] setVisible:NO];
[circle[n] runAction:[FadeOut actionWithDuration:0.01]];
}
and outside of the init I have the method addNewCirclePosition:
-(CircleSprite *) addNewCirclePosition:(CGPoint)pos scale:(double)scle
{
CircleSprite *b = [[CircleSprite alloc] initWith:(NSInteger) cUpgradeLevel];
[self addChild:b z:1];
[b setScale: (float) scle];
[b setPosition: pos ];
return b;
}
- (void) dealloc {
NSLog(@"gameLayer dealloc called");
[self removeAllChildrenWithCleanup:YES];
[super dealloc];
}
and all the other game logic...
In the gameLayer.h I have this:
#define kNumberOfCircles 30
@interface GameLayer : Layer {
NSMutableArray *circles;
CircleSprite *circle[kNumberOfCircles]; //note kNumberOfCircles != numberOfCircles. Is this a problem?
//other stuff
}
-(CircleSprite *) addNewCirclePosition:(CGPoint)pos scale:(double)scle;
And then in circleSprite, which is a subclass of sprite, I basically set up an animation in the init, set an integer framecount, and then run a timer which updates framecount and sets the animation frame. The timer is unscheduled at the end of the level, or when it is restarted. In the dealloc I have:
- (void) dealloc
{
[explodeAnimation release];
[super dealloc];
}
I am most likely wrong, since I only started coding anything in about April, but I was under the impression that as long as all schedules were unscheduled (which I can confirm they are before running replaceScene with transition) then the scene should release and dealloc. I'm probably overlooking something stupid, like an alloc/release somewhere.
Any suggestions?
Do you ever release circles? It should be done in your game layer's dealloc after the call to removeAllChildrenWithCleanup.
Your CircleSprite alloc results in a retain count of 1. The addChild call raises its retain count to 2. Your call to removeAllChildrenWithCleanup will only get rid of one those retains, so this should be:
CircleSprite *b = [[[CircleSprite alloc] initWith:(NSInteger) cUpgradeLevel] autorelease];
[self addChild:b z:1];You shouldn't need both a C array and NSMutableArray of sprites. You could replace the code with this:
CircleSprite* tempCircle = [self addNewCirclePosition:pos scale:1.0];
[circles addObject: tempCircle];
[tempCircle setVisible:NO];
[tempCircle runAction:[FadeOut actionWithDuration:0.01]];
jonathan0382
Member
@Frank84: thank you for the help. I've gotten rid of the c array and am doing it with just the NSMutableArray of circleSprites, called testSpritesArray. They're all loading up fine but I'm having no fun accessing them later.
I've amended part of my init to:
for(int n=0; n<4; n++){
CGPoint pos = ccp(randomized coords - don't want to type! blah);
CircleSprite* tempSprite = [self addNewCirclePosition:pos scale:1.0];
[testSpritesArray addObject: tempCircle];
}
In my main game loop I'm calling this method to iterate through the array.
-(void) updateTestSpritesPositions
{
CircleSprite *tempSprite;
int index = 0;
for(index = 0; index < [testSpritesArray count]; index++){
tempSprite = [testSpritesArray objectAtIndex:index];
tempSprite.position = ccp(tempSprite.position.x + 2, tempSprite.position.y + 2);
}
}
It compiles, and I'm expecting the sprites to move, but no luck, and I don't see why.
Any suggestions?
Codemattic
Moderator
looks ok - are you sure -updateTestSpritesPositions is getting called? Are you sure all the objects in testSpritesArray are sprites and that they are also in your animation.
also another cleaner less-known way to iterate arrays:
for (CircleSprite *tempSprite in testSpritesArray) {
tempSprite.position = ccp(tempSprite.position.x + 2, tempSprite.position.y + 2);
}
jonathan0382
Member
@Codemattic: thanks for the cleaner way to iterate arrays. I like 'minimalizing' my code. Concerning the non-moving sprites, the method is definitely being called. They are all circleSprites, a subclass of sprite. I should have posted everything last time, so I'll do it now. This is the relevant stuff:
gameLayer.h
NSMutableArray *testSpritesArray;
gameLayer.m
In the init:
for(int n=0; n<4; n++) {
CGPoint pos = ccp(arc4random()%450 + 15, arc4random()%290 + 15);
CircleSprite* tempCircle = [self addNewCirclePosition:pos scale:1.0];
[testSpritesArray addObject: tempCircle];
[tempCircle setFrameCount:0];
}
Outside of the init:
-(CircleSprite *) addNewCirclePosition:(CGPoint)pos scale:(double)scle
{
CircleSprite *b = [[[CircleSprite alloc] initWith:(NSInteger) cUpgradeLevel] autorelease];
[self addChild:b z:1];
[b setScale: (float) scle];
[b setPosition: pos ];
// [b release];//should I release b?
return b;
}
And then in a schedule that is confirmed via NSLog to be called every 1/30;
for (CircleSprite *tempSprite in testSpritesArray) {
tempSprite.position = ccp(tempSprite.position.x + 2, tempSprite.position.y + 2);
}
This code is mixed in with a whole bunch of other (irrelevant) stuff, and so this is the first time I've seen it altogether, but I can't for the life of me see what the problem is...
Codemattic
Moderator
this looks ok to me.
"This code is mixed in with a whole bunch of other (irrelevant) stuff"
ah yes, but sometimes its that irrelevant stuff that gets you :)
"// [b release];//should I release b?"
[edit] no, you already autoreleased it earlier - thankyou atze for pointing that out!
b is already autoreleased!
CircleSprite *b = [[[CircleSprite alloc] initWith:(NSInteger) cUpgradeLevel] autorelease];
THE SIMPLE RULE for objects:
you get it with new, alloc, copy -> you release or autorelease (if you give it away) it.
all other objects you get -> are already autoreleased.
Simple!
Codemattic
Moderator
create a new project w/o all the irrelevant stuff. Just put in circles in a layer in a scene and an array that tracks them and moves them and see if that works. If it does, then the "irrelevant" stuff is the problem. If it still doesnt work - post that project and let us take a look. good luck!
jonathan0382
Member
@Codemattic: again, thanks for your help. Best community ever. I feel like a spaz though not being able to make this work.
Here's the project, started using the 8.1 template. There is a problem accessing the circleSprites in the array.
http://rapidshare.com/files/276138418/testProject.zip
*thank you* for taking a look at this. My game is on the app store, and this whole issue is the only bug I'm currently aware of.
Codemattic
Moderator
@jonathan0382 - that is one of the surprising things about ObjectiveC, you can send messages to nil and the runtime wont complain!
jonathan0382
Member
@atze: cool. Thanks for the link - a good read. Got to love Apple documentation :D
@clain & codemattic: *thank you* for the help. I rewrote the majority of my game code over the last two days, using NSMutableArrays properly, and generally finding better (cleaner and more efficient) ways of doing things. I finally managed to get all of the deallocs in my game being called properly, and instruments is showing everything to be working as I'd like. This has fixed a major crash in my game, so your help has been really appreciated. I've updated my binary, and as soon as it is approved I'll post a ton of download codes on the forum in your honor. As they say in the movies, you two are the sh*t.
jonathan0382
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