c++ - Should a game clean up after itself when exiting?

Should a game/engine clean up after itself(close windows, shut down renderers, close files, free memory) when its closed?

The OS should do that anyway, and usually in a faster way.

I guess most developers don't really care as they need proper cleanup for everything anyways(With dynamic asset-loading, and changing maps, etc.), but won't ensure that everything gets cleaned perfectly.

But is there any positive to cleaning up vs not cleaning up or the reverse?

I am using C++.

What about game consoles? Do they all clean up after themselves?

Answer

Yes, a game/engine should clean up after itself when it's closed. There are good reasons for that:

• Show to your team that you know what's going on in your game


• Know when your managers are shut down


• Make sure your files and handles are closed and your data is saved


• Help prevent crashes on exit because you have a better idea to what's going on


• Help find memory leaks: if you clean everything yourself, you should not have any memory leaks, so the next time you use a tool to detect them, it should give you 0 leaks. You'd have a harder time achieving this if you don't clean on shutdown.

And it smells fresher when stuff is clean!