Is it possible to postpone the garbage collection?

[sisu]

Hi, I need to load 3D models which are of relative large size (1MB-10MB). The loading of an object takes a long time (20 sec for a model of 1.5MB), when I look at the logs I see that the garbage collector is constantly freeing memory and pausing. See below for a few logs:

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...
07-20 17:37:25.340: D/dalvikvm(2826): GC_FOR_ALLOC freed <1K, 8% free 79443K/85575K, paused 86ms
07-20 17:37:25.350: I/dalvikvm-heap(2826): Grow heap (frag case) to 78.511MB for 852408-byte allocation
07-20 17:37:25.450: D/dalvikvm(2826): GC_FOR_ALLOC freed <1K, 8% free 80275K/86471K, paused 95ms
07-20 17:37:25.550: D/dalvikvm(2826): GC_FOR_ALLOC freed <1K, 8% free 80275K/86471K, paused 85ms
07-20 17:37:25.550: I/dalvikvm-heap(2826): Grow heap (frag case) to 79.325MB for 852408-byte allocation
07-20 17:37:25.660: D/dalvikvm(2826): GC_FOR_ALLOC freed <1K, 8% free 81108K/87367K, paused 96ms
07-20 17:37:25.760: D/dalvikvm(2826): GC_FOR_ALLOC freed 0K, 8% free 81108K/87367K, paused 87ms
07-20 17:37:25.760: I/dalvikvm-heap(2826): Grow heap (frag case) to 80.137MB for 852408-byte allocation
07-20 17:37:25.870: D/dalvikvm(2826): GC_FOR_ALLOC freed <1K, 8% free 81940K/88263K, paused 98ms
07-20 17:37:26.060: D/dalvikvm(2826): GC_CONCURRENT freed <1K, 5% free 83988K/88263K, paused 3ms+12ms
07-20 17:37:26.200: D/dalvikvm(2826): GC_FOR_ALLOC freed <1K, 5% free 84715K/88263K, paused 120ms
07-20 17:37:26.200: I/dalvikvm-heap(2826): Grow heap (frag case) to 83.660MB for 852312-byte allocation
07-20 17:37:26.310: D/dalvikvm(2826): GC_FOR_ALLOC freed 0K, 5% free 85547K/89159K, paused 102ms
07-20 17:37:26.420: D/dalvikvm(2826): GC_FOR_ALLOC freed <1K, 5% free 85547K/89159K, paused 95ms
07-20 17:37:26.420: I/dalvikvm-heap(2826): Grow heap (frag case) to 84.473MB for 852312-byte allocation
07-20 17:37:26.520: D/dalvikvm(2826): GC_FOR_ALLOC freed <1K, 5% free 86379K/90055K, paused 105ms
07-20 17:37:26.640: D/dalvikvm(2826): GC_FOR_ALLOC freed <1K, 4% free 87212K/90055K, paused 117ms
07-20 17:37:26.650: I/dalvikvm-heap(2826): Grow heap (frag case) to 86.098MB for 852312-byte allocation
....

Is it possible to let the garbage collector free memory after the model is loaded?

Thanks

[EgonOlsen]

No. It's done by the VM. There's no way to control it. I suggest not to load 3ds (or obj) files directly on the device but to use serialized objects instead (see the wiki for more details). They load faster and need less memory in the process.