Ability to clean memory of static geometries

[YousefED]

Description of the problem

I'm using multiple PlaneBufferGeometry objects. I noticed when creating 10 + meshes based on this, with 255x255 segments, the memory usage can quickly jump to 100mb+.

The memory in use is mainly composed by the .array attribute in the various BufferAttributes. When running:

mesh.geometry.getAttribute("position").array = [];
mesh.geometry.getAttribute("normal").array = [];
mesh.geometry.getAttribute("uv").array = [];

For all meshes, everything still renders fine (and I can freely rotate, etc.). Memory in use drops back to 10mb. I have no intention of altering the geometries after initializing. It feels like a hack though;

• Is there a recommended way of freeing javascript memory after the attributes have been allocated in webgl?
• Does my workaround have any downsides? Am I missing something important here?

Three.js version

• Dev
• r82
• ...

Browser

• All of them
• Chrome
• Firefox
• Internet Explorer

OS

• All of them
• Windows
• Linux
• Android
• IOS

Hardware Requirements (graphics card, VR Device, ...)

[aardgoose]

Hi,

I came across similar issues. see #9512 ... nice to see someone with the same issues, saved a lot of heap exhaustion and crashes for me,

Your solution works more by luck (the renderer defaults to Float32), and some of the mods iv'e made since I put in that PR (not accepted). The PR #9972 would remove the luck element.

The above PR puts the removal of the large arrays in a call back so there is certainty that the buffer has been uploaded. I can imagine situations where an object is out of visibility and not passed to the GPU when you expect it to be otherwise.

[mrdoob]

#9512 and #9972 has been merged. You should be able to do this now:

attribute.onUpload( function () {

    this.array = null;

} );