Disposing stuff - lazy but safe

[Doofus]

I understand that AssetManager with pause/resume loading unloading is the optimal way; I want to use the "lazy way"
But I dont want to have like undisposed resources that block memory even when my app is killed - should this even be possible? =/

Anyway, not using the AssetManager and stuff; I dispose everything in dispose().
When I close the app manually by using Gdx.app.exit(), dispose() is called, all fine.
But when the user presses the home button, only pause() is called.
Later Android may kill the app, and dispose() may actually be called, not sure, but the point is: most people like me are using task killer or launchers with task killers in them, like I use Go Launcher - and they will "kill all processes" -> dispose() is not called.

So is this alright ? Just disposing everything in dispose() ?

[sephirothrx7]

As far as I know, Android behave just like Windows, Linux and etc. When a process is terminated, all the memory reserved for him wii be released, there's no need to worry. If I wrong, please someone correct me.

[sforzando]

I've notice that if I dismiss an app by sliding it off the open apps screen in Android 4.0, dispose is not called. Does this cause memory leaks or should I not worry about it?

[navossoc]

I've notice that if I dismiss an app by sliding it off the open apps screen in Android 4.0, dispose is not called. Does this cause memory leaks or should I not worry about it?

I think you should not worry with memory leaks, because Android has a Garbage Collector too, so when more memory will be needed, it will be released.

I recommend that you try to dispose the resources whenever its possible, but, in the worst case, GC will do the job for you.

[]'s

[mzechner]

It should not cause memory leaks if the app is killed without invoking your dispose() method. I have a very resource intensive app going with 200mb of memory used on average and never had a problem. Once the app is gone, all resources (including GLES objects) are reclaimed by the OS.

[sforzando]

Alright thanks.

[Doofus]

Thats what we wanted to hear =D