Throttle CPU usage on background thread

Question

I have a CPU intensive task and I want it to use less CPU and take up more time.

I'm loading a massive amount of SCNNodes to a scene at start-up. It takes up a lot of memory, and I'd like it to work on it at a safe rate instead of lagging up my system or potentially crashing it.

Here's the code I'm using to load the nodes.

dispatch_async(dispatch_get_global_queue( DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_BACKGROUND, 0), ^(void){
    NSLog(@"Start Loading Level");
    SCNNode *cameraNode = [SCNNode node];
    cameraNode.camera = [SCNCamera camera];
    cameraNode.camera.zFar = 5000;
    cameraNode.position = SCNVector3Make(0, 3000, 0);
    cameraNode.rotation = SCNVector4Make(1, 0, 0, -M_PI_2);
    [scene.rootNode addChildNode:cameraNode];
    for (int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
    {
        int side = 3000;
        SCNNode *node = [SCNNode node];
        node.geometry = [SCNBox boxWithWidth:1 height:1 length:1 chamferRadius:0];
        node.position = SCNVector3Make(arc4random_uniform(side) - side / 2.0,
                                       0,
                                       arc4random_uniform(side) - side / 2.0);
        [scene.rootNode addChildNode:node];
    }
    dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^(void){
        NSLog(@"Finished");
    });
});

Here are the statistics:

Answer 1

It might not be the best way to do this, but have you looked at prepareobject:?

Creating the NSObjects themselves shouldn't be that much of a problem, but preparing the geometry and adding it to the scene probably is. Bu deffering this step to a secondary thread you'll save some CPU and make the scene not stop until the node is ready to be added.

Once each node is ready, (completion handler) just add it to the scene. I won't throttle the loading, but it will at least handle it in a safer way for the rest of your app.

https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documentation/SceneKit/Reference/SCNSceneRenderer_Protocol/index.html#//apple_ref/occ/intfm/SCNSceneRenderer/prepareObjects:withCompletionHandler:

-(void)prepareLevel{
    // Mutable Array to save the nodes
    NSMutableArray *nodes = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];

    for (int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
    {
        int side = 3000;
        SCNNode *node = [SCNNode node];
        node.geometry = [SCNBox boxWithWidth:1 height:1 
                                      length:1 chamferRadius:0];
        node.position = SCNVector3Make(arc4random_uniform(side) - side / 2.0,
                                       0,
                                       arc4random_uniform(side) - side / 2.0);

        [nodes addObject:node];
    }

    [mySCNView prepareObjects:nodes withCompletionHandler:^(BOOL success) {
        for(SCNNode*node in nodes){
            [scene.rootNode addChildNode:node];
        }
    }];

}