cocos2d for iPhone

A fast, easy to use, free, and community supported 2D game engine

1. 

   MikeSz
   Member

   Ok, so I've been thinking for some time about a small lightweight class that would help me keep track of what's been dealloced and what has been not. Additionally, the class keeps track of how many objects of a specific class have been used in the app, as well as a maximum amount of them used in any given moment

   The principle is very simple - whenever our own object is initialized, we add a macro MEMORY_MONITOR_CLASS_ALLOC; in it's init method. Similarly, MEMORY_MONITOR_CLASS_DEALLOC; is placed in dealloc method

   To make it even easier, those methods can be placed in init/dealloc methods of the CCNode class and everything will work absolutely fine. If you have any other classes NOT of Cocos2d origins - just add those macros as I explained above

   To print the results, after the app is terminated - [MEMORY_MONITOR printMe]; needs to be added in applicationWillTerminate function

   And that's basically it ;)

   Here is an example of the output - not that I am (on purpose) NOT cleaning my code too well:
   

   Class CCBitmapFontAtlas - 18 instances not dealloced, total : 90, maximum : 66
   Class CCLabel - 41 instances not dealloced, total : 41, maximum : 41
   Class CCLabelAtlas - 0 instances not dealloced, total : 1, maximum : 1
   Class CCMenu - 8 instances not dealloced, total : 8, maximum : 8
   Class CCMenuItemFont - 31 instances not dealloced, total : 31, maximum : 31
   Class CCSprite - 201 instances not dealloced, total : 561, maximum : 457
   Class CCSpriteSheet - 8 instances not dealloced, total : 8, maximum : 8

   And now when I clean things properly:
   

   Class CCBitmapFontAtlas - 0 instances not dealloced, total : 90, maximum : 66
   Class CCLabel - 0 instances not dealloced, total : 41, maximum : 41
   Class CCLabelAtlas - 0 instances not dealloced, total : 1, maximum : 1
   Class CCMenu - 0 instances not dealloced, total : 8, maximum : 8
   Class CCMenuItemFont - 0 instances not dealloced, total : 31, maximum : 31
   Class CCSprite - 0 instances not dealloced, total : 561, maximum : 457
   Class CCSpriteSheet - 0 instances not dealloced, total : 8, maximum : 8

   Code follows in next post

   Posted 1 year ago #
2. 

   MikeSz
   Member

   Now the code:

   Header - there needs to be a safeguard added so that the code will not be run when the app is compiled for Release or Distribution:

   #import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
   
   #define MEMORY_MONITOR	[MemoryMonitor getSingleton]
   #define	MONITOR			MEMORY_MONITOR
   
   #define MEMORY_MONITOR_CLASS_ALLOC		[MEMORY_MONITOR classAlloced:self]
   #define MEMORY_MONITOR_CLASS_DEALLOC	[MEMORY_MONITOR classDealloced:self]
   
   #define MONITOR_CLASS_ALLOC			MEMORY_MONITOR_CLASS_ALLOC
   #define MONITOR_CLASS_DEALLOC		MEMORY_MONITOR_CLASS_DEALLOC
   
   #define MM_CLASS_ALLOC			MEMORY_MONITOR_CLASS_ALLOC
   #define MM_CLASS_DEALLOC		MEMORY_MONITOR_CLASS_DEALLOC
   
   @interface MemoryMonitor : NSObject
   {
   	NSMutableDictionary * dict;
   }
   
   +(MemoryMonitor*) getSingleton;
   -(void) printMe;
   -(void) classDealloced:(id) cl;
   -(void) classAlloced:(id) cl;
   
   @end

   .mm file:
   

   #import "MemoryMonitor.h"
   
   @implementation MemoryMonitor
   
   static MemoryMonitor * myInstance = nil;
   
   +(MemoryMonitor*) getSingleton
   {
   	if(myInstance==nil)
   		myInstance = [[self alloc] init];
   	return myInstance;
   }
   
   -(id) init
   {
   	if( (self=[super init]) )
   	{
   		dict = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] init];
   		NSLog(@"Initialized %@", self);
   	}
   	return self;
   }
   
   -(void) classAlloced:(id) cl
   {
   	NSString * className = NSStringFromClass([cl class]);
   
   	NSMutableDictionary * prevDict = [dict objectForKey:className];
   
   	if(prevDict)
   	{
   		NSNumber * val = [prevDict objectForKey:@"instances"];
   		NSNumber * maxVal = [prevDict objectForKey:@"maxInstances"];
   		NSNumber * total = [prevDict objectForKey:@"totalInstances"];
   
   		NSNumber * newVal = [NSNumber numberWithInt:( [val intValue] + 1)];
   		NSNumber * newTotal = [NSNumber numberWithInt:( [total intValue] + 1)];
   
   		[prevDict setObject:newVal forKey:@"instances"];
   		[prevDict setObject:newTotal forKey:@"totalInstances"];
   
   		if([newVal intValue] > [maxVal intValue])
   			[prevDict setObject:newVal forKey:@"maxInstances"];
   	}
   
   	else
   	{
   		NSMutableDictionary * newDict = [[NSMutableDictionary alloc] initWithCapacity:3];
   
   		[newDict setObject:[NSNumber numberWithInt:1] forKey:@"instances"];
   		[newDict setObject:[NSNumber numberWithInt:1] forKey:@"maxInstances"];
   		[newDict setObject:[NSNumber numberWithInt:1] forKey:@"totalInstances"];
   
   		[dict setObject:newDict forKey:className];
   	}
   
   }
   
   -(void) classDealloced:(id) cl
   {
   	NSString * className = NSStringFromClass([cl class]);
   
   	NSMutableDictionary * prevDict = [dict objectForKey:className];
   
   	if(prevDict)
   	{
   		NSNumber * val = [prevDict objectForKey:@"instances"];
   
   		NSNumber * newVal = [NSNumber numberWithInt:( [val intValue] - 1)];
   
   		[prevDict setObject:newVal forKey:@"instances"];
   	}
   
   	else
   	{
   		NSLog(@"This class has not been monitored before");
   	}
   }
   
   -(void) printMe
   {
   	NSLog(@"PRINTING MEMORY MONITOR INFORMATION");
   
   	NSArray * keys = [dict allKeys];
   	NSArray * sortedArray = [keys sortedArrayUsingSelector:@selector(localizedCaseInsensitiveCompare:)];
   
   	bool showAll = true;
   
   	for(NSString *dictKey in sortedArray)
   	{
   		NSMutableDictionary * currDict = [dict objectForKey:dictKey];
   		int instances = [[currDict objectForKey:@"instances"] intValue];
   		int maxInstances = [[currDict objectForKey:@"maxInstances"] intValue];
   		int totalInstances = [[currDict objectForKey:@"totalInstances"] intValue];
   
   		if(showAll)
   		{
   			NSString * bla = [NSString stringWithFormat: @"Class %@ - %d instances not dealloced, total : %d, maximum : %d\n", dictKey, instances, totalInstances, maxInstances];
   			printf([bla UTF8String]);
   		}
   		else // will only instances of which classes have not been fully dealloced
   		{
   			if(instances != 0)
   			{
   				NSString * bla = [NSString stringWithFormat: @"Class %@ - %d instances not dealloced, total : %d, maximum : %d\n", dictKey, instances, totalInstances, maxInstances];
   				printf([bla UTF8String]);
   			}
   		}
   
   	}
   
   	NSLog(@"FINISHED PRINTING MEMORY MONITOR INFORMATION");
   }
   
   -(void) dealloc
   {
   	[dict removeAllObjects];
   	NSLog(@"Dealloced %@", self);
   	[super dealloc];
   }
   
   @end

   Posted 1 year ago #
3. 

   asinesio
   Member

   @MikeSz -- this is a neat idea and gets my vote.

   I'd propose two enhancements:

   1) It is enabled/disabled with a flag in ccConfig instead of automatically running when you do a Debug build (not everyone may want this feature)
   2) Only print instances that have allocations > 0 in "printMe". If all are zero, could print something like 'No deallocated objects found.'

   What do you think?

   Also, something like this would be pretty neat to have in the shared caches in cocos2d such as the texture cache, so you could know at any time what textures you had in memory.

   Posted 1 year ago #
4. 

   CJ
   Moderator

   It's a good start. I'd like to see it track the actual memory used though, per instance and per class would be great. Something specialized for textures too so it can track how much texture memory used and such.

   Posted 1 year ago #
5. 

   MikeSz
   Member

   @ asinesio
   1) I agree
   2) bool showAll = false; will print exactly what you asked for

   @ CJ
   I agree. But I don't really have a clue on how to approach that, sorry

   Overall my proposal was something extremely simple that wouldn't require too much work (actually it took me maybe 20 mins to get it all done). It's not supposed to give you a full information about allocated objects but rather to point you in the right direction. For example, if you see that your GameScene was not dealloced - you should work on it. That's all ;)

   I'd be willing to help with anything more serious as well of course :)

   What do you think about it Riq ?

   Posted 1 year ago #
6. 

   Joethemonkey101
   On probation

   Looks great! It'd be even more awesome if you could see memory being used.

   Posted 1 year ago #
7. 

   pfg2009
   Member

   If you just need to look at a snapshot of how much memory is being used at a particular point in your program, you can use the Xcode Allocations instrument. From Xcode, select "Run With Instruments -> Allocations" and watch your program's memory footprint in real-time. In the statistics window, you can sort by "Category" and look for all objects that begin with CC*. That gives you an instant clue on how many objects are active and how much memory they take up.

   However, the tool does not aggregate (ie. if an object creates a texture, the texture and the parent object will be listed as separate items). Perhaps there is a checkbox somewhere I don't know about.

   Posted 1 year ago #
8. 

   kevinj
   Member

   I just wanted to say thanks for this. I have used the Allocations tool in the past to watch my memory and object allocations, but I find that the tools are questionable at best in terms of longevity of run time.

   In my quest for better understanding of the memory usage of my app I came across a post by GamingHorror who referenced a friend of his that I found pretty useful:

   http://www.learn-cocos2d.com/tag/memory-management/

   Basically there's a section where it describes how to have your available virtual memory (texture memory?) displayed on the screen along with the FPS given by cocos2d. This has been very helpful and also brought to my attention

   [[CCDirector sharedDirector] purgeCachedData];

   I didn't think I'd need to do this much, but apparently Cocos is pretty aggressive on caching (which is probably good, but when you start watching your memory with the above code you'll often get worried if you don't purge often :) -- even between runs it seems.)

   Posted 1 year ago #

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