Terminated due to memory issue - ViewControllers taking up memory - swift

Question

I'm developing a game using sprite kit and have various view controllers for different scenes. Like story mode, multiplayer etc...
I've noticed a problem where every time I open up a view controller with a SpriteKit scene, the memory usage for my app increases. And when the view is dismissed, that memory isn't allocated back?
Is there something I need to be doing in my code to return the memory the ViewController or SpriteKit scene used up upon loading?
EDIT: As requested, here is some code from when the VC loads up with a SpriteKit scene & the code used to dismiss the VC:
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
if let view = self.view as! SKView? {
if let scene = SKScene(fileNamed: "GameScene.sks") {
scene.scaleMode = .aspectFill
view.presentScene(scene)
(scene as! GameScene).parentVC = self
}
}
}
For the view dismissal, I first present a loading screen over the UIApplication.shared.keyWindow and then dismiss:
dismiss(animated: true) {
LoadingScreen?.removeFromSuperview()
}
The loading screen class is handled in the AppDelegate.

Answer 1

I think it's an issue of retain cycles
1 if let view = self.view as! SKView? {
2 if let scene = SKScene(fileNamed: "GameScene.sks") {
3 scene.scaleMode = .aspectFill
4 view.presentScene(scene)
5 (scene as! GameScene).parentVC = self
}
}
if line 5, inside the closure, you're referencing self, so when the viewcontroller should be deallocated, the reference on line 5 is stopping the deallocation, Can you try this :
if let view = self.view as! SKView? {
if let scene = SKScene(fileNamed: "GameScene.sks") {
scene.scaleMode = .aspectFill
view.presentScene(scene)
guard let scene = scene as? GameScene else { return }
guard let scencePVC = scene.parentVC else { return }
scencePVC = self
}
}
I'm trying to fix the issue without knowing the object hierarchy but it's hard. Basically the issue is that you have 2 objects( viewcontrollers) referencing each other that would stop the deallocation.
You can read more about this issue here & here