Disposing Three.js Objects

When working with Three.js, proper resource management is important to avoid memory leaks, especially when creating and destroying objects frequently.

For WebGLRenderer instances, Three.js provides a specific dispose() method:

JAVASCRIPTCopied
renderer.dispose();

This method frees GPU-related resources allocated by the renderer instance and should be called whenever the instance is no longer needed in your application.

However, for simpler objects like Box3 (which represents an axis-aligned bounding box), there is no specific dispose method because these are lightweight JavaScript objects that don't directly allocate GPU resources. The JavaScript garbage collector will handle these objects when they're no longer referenced.

To efficiently manage Box3 instances in your application:

1. Instead of creating and disposing of many Box3 instances, consider reusing the same instance:

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// Instead of creating multiple instances
const box = new THREE.Box3();

// Reuse the same box by updating its properties
box.setFromObject(object1);
// Use the box...

// Later, update the same box for another object
box.setFromObject(object2);
// Use the box again...

2. If you need to clone a Box3 to add padding or margins, you can also reuse the clone:

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const contentBox = new THREE.Box3();
const paddedBox = new THREE.Box3();

// Update the content box
contentBox.setFromObject(myObject);

// Clone and add padding
paddedBox.copy(contentBox);
paddedBox.expandByScalar(paddingAmount);

By reusing objects rather than creating new ones repeatedly, you'll reduce the garbage collection overhead and improve performance.