Instantiate SkinnedMeshRenderer.sharedMesh copy, need to call Destroy?

Scripting
1

Hi, I am doing the following:

private Mesh mesh;

private void Awake()
{
    var skin = GetComponent<SkinnedMeshRenderer>();
  
    mesh = Instantiate(skin.sharedMesh) as Mesh;
    // modifying mesh in some way...
  
    skin.sharedMesh = mesh;
}

private void OnDestroy()
{
    // Do I need to destroy the mesh or will Unity take care of it when the SkinnedMeshRenderer is destroyed?
    Destroy(mesh);
}

I’ve seen some Unity editor crashes since writing this code and I am not sure if it’s a coincidence or if it’s because I am double-destroying the mesh. Do I need to destroy this mesh copy myself or will the SkinnedMeshRenderer do it for me?

Also, the “sharedMesh” property itself is confusing. I have multiple SkinnedMeshRenderers that are each being modified in this way, what is even being shared that justifies calling it a “sharedMesh”?

2

Unity will take care of it during garbage collection - as long as no other references to the Mesh remain. It should be safe to leave it alone and not Destroy() it.

3

You sure about this? Unity makes you explicitly destroy materials or render targets that you instantiate so I’m wondering what would make the mesh any different in this case.

4

Materials will garbage collect as well - render targets you do need to explicitly free (although I have a feeling they may GC as well actually – it just might take a couple of frames before the lock is released)

5

I will note - in your example, you maintain the reference as a private variable in the class (“mesh”) – if you want it to be freed, make sure to assign null to it; otherwise the reference will keep it alive.