Memory management

Mirroring load and unload

When working with Addressable Assets, the primary way to ensure proper memory management is to mirror your load and unload calls correctly. How you do so depends on your asset types and load methods. In all cases, however, the release method can either take the loaded asset, or an operation handle returned by the load. For example, during Scene creation (described below) the load returns a AsyncOperationHandle<SceneInstance>, which you can release via this returned handle, or by keeping up with the handle.Result (in this case, a SceneInstance).

Asset loading

To load an asset, use Addressables.LoadAssetAsync or Addressables.LoadAssetsAsync.

This loads the asset into memory without instantiating it. Every time the load call executes, it adds one to the ref-count for each asset loaded. If you call LoadAssetAsync three times with the same address, you will get three different instances of an AsyncOperationHandle struct back, all referencing the same underlying operation. That operation has a ref-count of three for the corresponding asset. If the load succeeds, the resulting AsyncOperationHandle struct contains the asset in the .Result property. You can use the loaded asset to instantiate using Unity's built-in instantiation methods, which does not increment the Addressables ref-count.

To unload the asset, use the Addressables.Release method, which decrements the ref-count. When a given asset's ref-count is zero, that asset is ready to be unloaded, and decrements the ref-count of any dependencies.

Note: The asset may or may not be unloaded immediately, contingent on existing dependencies. For more information, read the section on when memory is cleared.

Scene loading

To load a Scene, use Addressables.LoadSceneAsync. You can use this method to load a Scene in Single mode, which closes all open Scenes, or in Additive mode (for more information, see documentation on Scene mode loading.

To unload a Scene, use Addressables.UnloadSceneAsync, or open a new Scene in Single mode. You can open a new Scene by either using the Addressables interface, or using the SceneManager.LoadScene or SceneManager.LoadSceneAsync methods. Opening a new Scene closes the current one, properly decrementing the ref-count.

GameObject instantiation

To load and instantiate a GameObject asset, use Addressables.InstantiateAsync. This instantiates the Prefab located by the specified location parameter. The Addressables system will load the Prefab and its dependencies, incrementing the ref-count of all associated assets.

Calling InstantiateAsync three times on the same address results in all dependent assets having a ref-count of three. Unlike calling LoadAssetAsync three times, however, each InstantiateAsync call returns an AsyncOperationHandle pointing to a unique operation. This is because the result of each InstantiateAsync is a unique instance. Another distinction between InstantiateAsync and other load calls is the optional trackHandle parameter. When set to false, you must keep the AsyncOperationHandle to use while releasing your instance. This is more efficient, but requires more development effort.

To destroy an instantiated gameObject, use Addressables.ReleaseInstance, or close the Scene that contains the instantiated object. This Scene can have been loaded (and thus closed) in Additive or Single mode. This Scene can also have been loaded using either the Addressables or SceneManagement API. As noted above, if you set trackHandle to false, you can only call Addressables.ReleaseInstance with the handle, not with the actual GameObject.

Note: If you call Addressables.ReleaseInstance on an instance that was not created using the Addressables API, or was created with trackHandle==false, the system detects that and returns false to indicate that the method was unable to release the specified instance. The instance will not be destroyed in this case.

Addressables.InstantiateAsync has some associated overhead, so if you need to instantiate the same objects hundreds of times per frame, consider loading via the Addressables API, then instantiating through other methods. In this case, you would call Addressables.LoadAssetAsync, then save the result and call GameObject.Instantiate() for that result. This allows flexibility to call Instantiate in a synchronous way. The downside is that the Addressables system has no knowledge of how many instances you created, which can lead to memory issues if not properly managed. For example, a Prefab referencing a texture would no longer have a valid loaded texture to reference, causing rendering issues (or worse). These sorts of problems can be hard to track down as you may not immediately trigger the memory unload (see section on clearing memory, below).

The Addressable Profiler

Use the Addressable Profiler window to monitor the ref-counts of all Addressables system operations. To access the window in the Editor, select Window > Asset Management > Addressable Profiler.

Important: In order to view data in the profiler, you must enable the Send Profiler Events setting in your AddressableAssetSettings object's Inspector.

The following information is available in the profiler:

  • A white vertical line indicates the frame in which a load request occurred.
  • A blue background indicates that an asset is currently loaded.
  • The green part of the graph indicates an asset's current ref-count.

When is memory cleared?

An asset no longer being referenced (indicated by the end of a blue section in the profiler) does not necessarily mean that asset was unloaded. A common applicable scenario involves multiple assets in an asset bundle. For example:

  • You have three assets (tree, tank, and cow) in an asset bundle (stuff).
  • When tree loads, the profiler displays a single ref-count for tree, and one for stuff.
  • Later, when tank loads, the profiler displays a single ref-count for both tree and tank, and two ref-counts for the stuff bundle.
  • If you release tree, it's ref-count becomes zero, and the blue bar goes away.

In this example, the tree asset is not actually unloaded at this point. You can load an asset bundle, or its partial contents, but you cannot partially unload an asset bundle. No asset in stuff will unload until the bundle itself is completely unloaded. The exception to this rule is the engine interface Resources.UnloadUnusedAssets. Executing this method in the above scenario will cause tree to unload. Because the Addressables system cannot be aware of these events, the profiler graph only reflects the Addressables ref-counts (not exactly what memory holds). Note that if you choose to use Resources.UnloadUnusedAssets, it is a very slow operation, and should only be called on a screen that won't show any hitches (such as a loading screen).