decentraland / decentraland/unity-explorer

[QA] Genesis Plaza | Scene memory consumption grows continuously over time

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1-high bug Mac Only memory-issue new performance qa-team
Dominant language
C#
Stars
23
Forks
17
Avg merge
2d 16h
Merged PRs (30d)
101

Description

Scene memory consumption in Genesis Plaza grows continuously over time, eventually causing crashes/random bugs

### 🛠️ **Build version:**
- `v0.157.0-alpha-main` — macOS 26.5.2 (Tahoe), MacBook Pro M3 Pro, 18 GB (QA)
- `v0.158.0-alpha-main` — macOS 14.3.0, MacBook Pro M3 Pro, 18 GB (reporter)

### 📔 **Issue Description:**
Pejo reported that standing in Genesis Plaza causes System Used Memory to continuously climb with no plateau, even with only ~5 users present and minimal movement. When the memory budget threshold is reached, the scene crashes or exhibits random bugs. The same scene deployed on a separate environment (`dclexperience`) reportedly shows stable memory instead, pointing at something specific to the Genesis City deployment/realm rather than the scene content itself.

QA follow-up on the same build/hardware did not observe the same drastic growth within a single ~20 minute session (see Reproduction section below) — flagging this so it's investigated as a longer-duration / session-dependent issue rather than assumed to reproduce immediately.

### 👣 **STR:**
1. Launch Decentraland and teleport into Genesis Plaza
2. Open the debug panel (`/debug`) → expand the **Memory** section
3. Stand mostly still (minimal movement) and monitor "System Used Memory [MB]" continuously over an extended session (20+ minutes, reporter indicates the effect becomes clear well beyond that)

### ✔️ **Expected Result:**
System Used Memory stabilizes/plateaus after initial scene and asset load, fluctuating within a normal range without trending upward indefinitely.

### ❌ **Actual Result with evidence:**
- Pejo: memory consumption increases continuously while standing still with ~5 users on the Plaza; crashes/random bugs occur once the budget threshold is reached. Same scene on dclexperience is stable by comparison.
- QA screenshots (Virginia, same M3 Pro machine, same day) show two very different System Used Memory readings: 6941 MB and 12167 MB (Memory Budget Threshold 12902/13824 MB). Note: these two screenshots could not be reliably tied to a single continuous session from the timestamps available, so they're supporting evidence, not a confirmed before/after of one session.
- QA's own ~20-minute monitored session on `v0.157.0-alpha-main` stayed stable in the 6800–6900 MB range and did not reproduce a drastic increase.
- Known context: Genesis Plaza already has a standing performance issue (low FPS, max ~51 FPS at Medium settings in QA's session), which independently consumes memory/resources and may be a confound.

### ➗ **Reproduction:**
##### ❓ Unknown - Reporter states 10/10 reproducibility over an extended session; QA was unable to reproduce a drastic increase in a ~20 minute session on the same build/hardware. Longer-duration testing (30–60+ min) with periodic memory logging is needed to confirm.

#### 🖥️ **Operative system and additional Notes:**
- Mac M3 Pro (both reporter and QA), 18 GB RAM

**Pejo**

[Player (Pejo).log](https://github.com/user-attachments/files/30196046/Player.Pejo.log)

Image

**Virginia**

[Player (Vir).log](https://github.com/user-attachments/files/30196054/Player.Vir.log)

Image

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by reproducing Genesis Plaza for 30–60+ minutes while logging the debug panel’s System Used Memory, comparing the reported builds and the stable dclexperience environment. Review the attached Player.Pejo.log and Player.Vir.log alongside the memory trend; done means identifying the deployment or session-dependent cause and confirming that memory stabilizes without crashes or random bugs.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
csharp, unity
Domain
game-dev, performance
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
48/100

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