How should I clean up/delete after Sprite::create("myfile.png")

cocos2d-x C++
#1

My code has progressed to me encapsulating a sprite in my class. I notice that none of the examples ever bother to delete or free anymore although I did chance upon something like a safe_delete macro/call the other day. As my sprite containing objects can frequently go out of scope and then be recreated is there anything I should be doing in my destructor?

#2

Got off to a bad start with 48 of:

07-11 11:01:23.433: E/cocos2d-x assert(1027): MyProjPath\proj.android…/cocos2d/cocos/./2d/CCNode.cpp
function:~Node line:182
07-11 11:01:23.433: D/cocos2d-x debug info(1027): Assert
failed: Node still marked as running on node destruction! Was base class
onExit() called in derived class onExit() implementations?

all because didn’t call super class onExit()…

But otherwise everything works great, no more memory errors.

#3

Cocos2d-x use the retain/release model.

When you use the “create” methods, they are assumed (by convention) to do 2 things:

  • Instantiate the object, with a retain count of 1 (basic behavior of cocos2d-x objects)
  • autorelease the object, which decrease the retain count to 0 and increase the autorelease count to 1, meaning it will be released the next time objects are autoreleased (something similar from a high level perspective to a garbage collector)

In that case, your app should retain the object if you intend to use it later (or add it to a data store that retain children).

#4

thanks @fraddow
owing to the traditionally sequential nature of programing i would imagine i would be using it later. how much later are we talking here? next frame or whenever memory is required to be released? i guess by data store you’re including an in memory array?

#5

Consider it to be next frame (that’s a rough estimation, I don’t know the specifics)

By data store I mean cocos2d-x provided data structures, for example Array or Dictionary (the cocos2d-x ones).

C-style arrays (for example Sprite[] or using malloc/new) or std data structures (for example std::vector) are not going to retain anything for you, since they do not follow the retain/release model.