What are the best tools to detect memory leaks in casino game apps?

Fortunately, if you’re trying to catch memory leaks in gambling games – particularly those built on Unity or Unreal – you’ll have access to both excellent embedded profilers and third-party software. With Unity, there’s its Memory Profiler, which can capture all memory allocations and live object countings, and its Garbage Collection view, which makes it easy to identify memory objects that are being unnecessarily created and destroyed on fast-animated games that feature spinning reels. I also leverage Unity’s IL2CPP for profiling native memory.

Memory Validator: Unreal's amazing built-in tool that will help you identify leaks in your Card Shuffle algorithm or Slot Machine Reel animation. Both engines have excellent support for LeakCanary (on Android) and Instruments (on iOS), so we'll use them as well to provide us with cross-platform leak detection.

My personal favorite? Unity Profiler. It's simple and powerful for real-time analysis. Play a couple Texas Hold’em matches or spin the reels for a while, and you’ll quickly see the tell-tale memory blips associated with leaks. Throw some manual code inspection into the mix for object pooling, and you’re set. The tricky aspect about casino game memory leaks is that they are not that hard to find.

In Unity, the Profiler window is good enough to show these spikes and track object counts. But to find more complex leaks, use the Memory Profiler or commercial plugins such as Burst or Jobs, which can reveal problems in multi-threaded code, a common source of leaks in my industry. In Unreal, the Memory Sanitizer and Unreal’s Memory Viewer work well, but again I tend to reach for Visual Studio’s diagnostic tools. It’s easy and cheap, so you don’t need to get a separate license for each game developer.

In Unity, use Unity Profiler (Memory & Garbage Collection) and Odin Inspector. In Unreal, Memory Profiler and Leak Detection are both excellent. I prefer Unreal’s leak detection because it’s integrated into the engine, and it can be set up to detect memory leaks automatically. For any engine, monitor memory allocations on startup, during gameplay loops, and after game exit. Automate tools wherever possible – run them in your continuous integration pipeline. Don’t complicate things, or your game will crash when players start gambling.

Unity casino games? Great find! Unity Profiler exposes memory spikes and leaks immediately, so you can quickly detect the cause of your leaky animations. Use Memory Profiler to understand why objects aren’t being collected. Unreal? Unreal Insights and GPU Visualizer are invaluable for detecting texture and blueprint memory leaks, which are especially common in animated casino graphics. For both engines, when testing builds on mobile, use LeakCanary (Android) and Instruments (iOS). You will find leaks that only occur in production builds – and, crucially, make sure to profile on a device, as emulators won’t show issues related to memory pressure.

If you’re working in Unity, use the Unity Profiler to check the memory tab and observe the allocation graph immediately after an object has been destroyed. You could also try memleakd, which is really useful but very, very basic. Unreal has the Unreal Memory Validator and also Visual Studio Diagnostic Tools (Windows only). If your game uses plugins, like payment or ads, check them individually – they are likely culprits. Personally, I like the Unity Profiler because it’s easy and allows me to find memory leaks as I play-test the game. It works well with card games and slot machines. Just keep it open while you play!