timelinelite memory leak unloading external swfs [SOLVED]

[doodledude]

Hi, I have a main (application) swf which loads and unloads pages (other swfs).

each load/unload has a page transition.

 

where i use:

public function transitionOut():void{
var time:Number=1.1;
TweenLite.to(this, time, {x:1000, alpha:0, onComplete:transitionOutComplete})
}

everything works as expected

 

however i need to be able to use TimelineLite/Max for more complex sequences

so, if i swap the code above for:

private var _pageTweener:TimelineLite;
//---------
public function transitionOut():void{
var time:Number=1.1;
_pageTweener = new TimelineLite({onComplete:transitionOutComplete});
_pageTweener.insert(TweenLite.to(this, time, {x:1000, alpha:0}));
}

now, if i'm patient and let the transition timeline complete everything again is as expected.

however should i try to remove a page before the timeline completes the whole page gets trapped in memory.

 

to explain further the situation is when another page load happens mid-transition ie. user clicking rapidly and a page loads from cache.

at which point i dispose of the oldest page to make room for the newer page.

this memory leak does not happen at all where i just use tweens without the timeline.

 

i am very careful not to tie anything down and each page calls a dispose function to clear itself ready for garbage collection before unload.

here is everything i call to try and clear the timelinelite:

try{_pageTweener.stop()}catch(e:*){};
try{_pageTweener.killTweensOf(this);}catch(e:*){};
try{_pageTweener.clear();}catch(e:*){};
try{_pageTweener.invalidate();}catch(e:*){};
try{_pageTweener.kill();}catch(e:*){};
try{_pageTweener.vars.onComplete=null;}catch(e:*){}
_pageTweener = null;

 

it seems as though timelinelite is not clearing all references/listeners immedialty when i try to dispose of it.

 

any ideas?

[GreenSock]

Hmmm, no, I'm not aware of any gc issues and I was pretty careful about it. Could you post a simple example FLA that demonstrates the issue? That would be VERY helpful. Was TimelineLite the only difference between your two tests?

[GreenSock]

Aha! I believe I have solved it. There were two issues - one was in your code and one was in the GreenSock code. Your code used the same variable for both the transitionIn() and transitionOut() TimelineLite instances, so one was orphaned in the scenario where it animates in and before it finishes, transitionOut() gets called. Then on the destroy() call, it would kill() the last TimelineLite instance (the out one) but not the first.

 

There was also an adjustment I needed to make in SimpleTimeline and TimelineLite to prevent a very particular (rare) gc issue. I've posted an update of the classes, so please download the latest version from http://www.TweenLite.com and run your test again (after you adjust your code as well) - I think you'll see that there are no gc issues.

 

Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

 

Oh, and by the way, you should only need to kill() the TimelineLite and null your variable - no need to killTweensOf(), invalidate(), clear(), etc.

[doodledude]

brilliant, that all works fine for me now too

and thank you for looking in to and sorting this so quickly