Need to release memory from unused images (Dispose?)

Question

Hello,

I am making a game, and want to unload images when they aren't needed.

For now I am just setting their sources to null:

 

imgExample.Source = null;

 

But this isn't enough.

 

I already tried Freezing, but it doesn't seem to help much.

 

I read that their is such thing like "Dispose()" that seem to unload all the memory, in such cases, but I don't know how to use it.

 

I tried:

 

imgExample.Dispose();

 

But it didn't work, it seems I am missing either some kind of variable, or a using directive.

 

What can be done in this situation? 

Answer 1

Hi Evgenie,

 

You need to call the GC's finalizer to get the unrefreed-symbols from the cahe and this actually does the process to free the memoy. Refer the below code snippet:

 

public class YourClass : IDisposable
{
    private bool disposed = false;

    protected virtual void Dispose(bool disposing)
    {
        if (!disposed)
        {
            if (disposing)
            {
                // Set Null values to your unused variables here
            }
            disposed = true;
        }
    }

    public void Dispose() // Implement IDisposable
    {
        Dispose(true);
        GC.SuppressFinalize(this);
    }

 Hope this helps.

 

Regards,

Amresh S. 

Answer 2

Hi @Evgenie,

 

Yes, thats enough to clear-up the memory used up. Also, you can specify the null vaues to any kind of return type variables in that part

 

//-set null vaues here.

 

Regards,

Amresh S. 

Answer 3

@Amresh S

 

My many thanks, that worked perfectly! This reduced about 200M of RAM. God bless you! 

Answer 4

I need to test it at home, but have a question for now.

 

About this line: 

 GC.SuppressFinalize(this);   

 

I am using GC.Collect in my code, can those two garbage collectors both work when used together?

 

And to make sure: 

I can use any kind of objects here, right? Except images I also have MediaElements. I guess that also works on them? So, all things I want to dispose, I need to put inside this? I can put them all here, together?

 

Sorry if my questions are silly. 

 

 

            if (disposing)
            {
                // Set Null values to your unused variables here
            }