Crash resulting from releasing a RenderTexture

Unity Engine
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1

Alright, rewriting this post after additional digging… As can be seen in the crash report, everything goes belly up when I try to release a RenderTexture that I have created. I have no idea why this is dying here. Does anyone know a scenario where releasing a RenderTexture causes things to crash?

Thanks in advance!

Mono path[0] = '/Users/draquethompson/Unity/Transience/SteamUploadTools/content/Transience.app/Contents/Resources/Data/Managed'
Mono config path = '/Users/draquethompson/Unity/Transience/SteamUploadTools/content/Transience.app/Contents/MonoBleedingEdge/etc'
[Physics::Module] Initialized MultithreadedJobDispatcher with 9 workers.
New input system (experimental) initialized
Initialize engine version: 2022.3.12f1 (4fe6e059c7ef)
[Subsystems] Discovering subsystems at path /Users/draquethompson/Unity/Transience/SteamUploadTools/content/Transience.app/Contents/Resources/Data/UnitySubsystems
GfxDevice: creating device client; threaded=1; jobified=0
 preferred device: Apple M1 Pro (high power)
Metal devices available: 1
0: Apple M1 Pro (high power)
Using device Apple M1 Pro (high power)
Initializing Metal device caps: Apple M1 Pro
Begin MonoManager ReloadAssembly
- Loaded All Assemblies, in  0.069 seconds
- Finished resetting the current domain, in  0.001 seconds
2025-02-20 17:43:57.998 Transience[97011:27430653] +[IMKClient subclass]: chose IMKClient_Modern
UnloadTime: 0.596333 ms
[S_API] SteamAPI_Init(): Loaded '/Users/draquethompson/Library/Application Support/Steam/Steam.AppBundle/Steam/Contents/MacOS/steamclient.dylib' OK.
Setting breakpad minidump AppID = 3364630
SteamInternal_SetMinidumpSteamID:  Caching Steam ID:  76561197976560116 [API loaded no]
2025-02-20 17:44:03.643 Transience[97011:27430653] +[IMKInputSession subclass]: chose IMKInputSession_Modern
Unloading 5 Unused Serialized files (Serialized files now loaded: 0)
UnloadTime: 3.483042 ms
Unloading 587 unused Assets to reduce memory usage. Loaded Objects now: 2019.
Total: 1.492042 ms (FindLiveObjects: 0.060125 ms CreateObjectMapping: 0.035250 ms MarkObjects: 1.256875 ms  DeleteObjects: 0.139666 ms)

Unloading 4 Unused Serialized files (Serialized files now loaded: 0)
UnloadTime: 1.380625 ms
Unloading 1 unused Assets to reduce memory usage. Loaded Objects now: 2953.
Total: 2.017375 ms (FindLiveObjects: 0.154667 ms CreateObjectMapping: 0.076958 ms MarkObjects: 1.777041 ms  DeleteObjects: 0.008625 ms)

Unloading 6 Unused Serialized files (Serialized files now loaded: 0)
UnloadTime: 20.428791 ms
Graphics device is null.
Obtained 19 stack frames.
#0  0x00000189ce7720 in __pthread_kill
#1  0x00000189bf4c18 in raise
#2  0x00000109207cb8 in operator delete[](void*, std::nothrow_t const&)
#3  0x000001092080d8 in operator delete[](void*, std::nothrow_t const&)
#4  0x00000108b091d8 in operator delete[](void*, std::nothrow_t const&)
#5  0x000001088af324 in operator delete[](void*, std::nothrow_t const&)
#6  0x000001085831a0 in (Unknown)
#7  0x00000163a8c898 in  (wrapper managed-to-native) UnityEngine.RenderTexture:Release (UnityEngine.RenderTexture) [{0x12d3faca8} + 0x70]  (0x163a8c828 0x163a8c908) [0x11879ed20 - Unity Root Domain]
#8  0x0000030a07ea8c in  Assets.Scripts.ShaderAnimation:Dispose () [{0x10d0f12d0} + 0x84]  (0x30a07ea08 0x30a07ebbc) [0x11879ed20 - Unity Root Domain]
#9  0x0000030a07e95c in  Assets.Scripts.CharConvShaderAnimation:Finalize () [{0x12d4c2b68} + 0x14]  (0x30a07e948 0x30a07e994) [0x11879ed20 - Unity Root Domain]
#10 0x0000011b132a04 in  (wrapper runtime-invoke) object:runtime_invoke_virtual_void__this__ (object,intptr,intptr,intptr) [{0x12dac2a10} + 0x74]  (0x11b132990 0x11b132aa4) [0x11879ed20 - Unity Root Domain]
#11 0x0000011c2c4734 in mono_marshal_ilgen_init
#12 0x0000011c3047cc in GC_invoke_finalizers
#13 0x0000011c2c6534 in mono_gc_reference_queue_free
#14 0x0000011c28d448 in mono_thread_has_sufficient_execution_stack
#15 0x0000011c28d2f4 in mono_thread_has_sufficient_execution_stack
#16 0x0000011c30cdc8 in GC_inner_start_routine
#17 0x0000011c30cd50 in GC_start_routine
#18 0x00000189d202e4 in _pthread_start

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2

Alright, I found my own solution here, and I am not sure if I just missed something in documentation or what, but…

You can release a RenderTexture from within a destructor in any debug enabled environment. You can also call Destroy on them. But if you do it a non-debug enabled environment it ends the universe. I got around this by tossing the needed releases/destroys into coroutines that are run within the current scene.

Yowza, though. I would have thought that C style management here would be good practice, given how RenderTextures work with GPU memory. What a headache.