I'm trying to destroy (or destruct or dispose) an 'instance' of Three.JS using this:
Full example: https://jsfiddle.net/v7oLzs4m/58/
function kill() {
const rendererDomWas = renderer.domElement;
renderer.dispose();
controls.dispose();
renderer = scene = camera = controls = null;
document.body.removeChild( rendererDomWas );
shouldRender = false;
}
function animate() {
if(!shouldRender) {return} // no more requesting animation frames if 'shouldRender' is false
frameID = window.requestAnimationFrame( animate );
renderer.render( scene, camera );
}
(i.e. disposing, setting references to null, and stopping the draw loop from touching renderer while shouldRender is false)
It appears to work at first (The renderer content stops showing) but when I re-create the instance, it never comes back.
It's as if something is still... holding onto the GLContext which prevents it from being invoked again.
Why can't I re-create a new instance of Three.JS?
I'm not sure why this works (since I was already doing this in my Fiddle...)
But it turns out the secret ingredient (for me) to letting Three.JS get GC'd/disposed is this:
window.cancelAnimationFrame(frameID);
I suppose that this stops the render function from being stored in the hardware-level draw loop, which holds references to GLContext (and the chain)
The GC can't ever happen unless the 'loop is broken'
(Correct me if I'm wrong please)