container.removeChildren causes error on render

[coolblue]

I need to do an update on a container of sprites, so I use container.removeChildren() to clean it out first.  Then I just add in the new sprites using container.addChild().

The container is inside another container.

Sometimes when I render after doing this I get the following error...

            DisplayObject.prototype.updateTransform = function() {                // create some matrix refs for easy access                var pt = this.parent.worldTransform;  //Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'worldTransform' of null                var wt = this.worldTransform;

Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'worldTransform' of null  24.DisplayObject.updateTransform @ pixi.js:7698  23.Container.updateTransform @ pixi.js:7198  23.Container.updateTransform @ pixi.js:7201  48.WebGLRenderer.render @ pixi.js:13790  Renderer.draw @ index.html:626  tick @ index.html:236  event @ d3.min.js:549  tick @ d3.min.js:6651  d3_timer_mark @ d3.min.js:2486  d3_timer_step @ d3.min.js:2466

The this context is the sprite, it seems like maybe a deleted sprite is being rendered and because removeChildren sets the parent of the removed children to null this happens.

 

It happens seldom when I have the dev tools open (I'm working in chrome) but it happens every time when the devtools are closed (and the thing is cycling much faster).

 

Is it possible that the delete event emitted by removeChildren on delete is not propagating fast enough?

 

1. Is this a known issue with removeChildren?
2. Is there a better way to manage the process of updating a container of sprites with a dynamic population?

I tried hacking around it by only removing the excess sprites and then doing this...

circles.removeChildAt(i);circles.addChildAt(circle, i);

but I still got the same error.

[xerver]

Are you doing the children modifications during a render loop? Like for example during updateTransform or a render function? That will cause this error.

 

Other than that, this shouldn't be possible if the tree is modified outside of the render loop. We don't cache what objects are in the scene tree, we iterate the children array of objects everytime. If they are modified outside that walk, then it shouldn't be possible to have this error. Adding a child manually to the children array without setting parent properly could also cause this, as well as adding a destroyed object or some such.

[coolblue]

Yes, it was my own fault: I had a piece of code where I was man-handling sprites instead of using the child management functions of the container: bad idea!