unity-threading

Simple implementation to easily perform multithreaded asynchronous operations in Unity3D. All feedbacks, contributions are very much welcomed.

Example usages

Wait for a task to finish executing before returning back to main Unity thread

private void WaitAndReport()
{
    Async.Run(() =>
    {
        Thread.Sleep(1000);
    }).ContinueInMainThread(() =>
    {
        Debug.Log("Done waiting");
    });
}

Wait for a task to finish executing before returning a value back to main Unity thread

private void WaitAndReportValue()
{
    Async.Run(() =>
    {
        Thread.Sleep(1000);
        return 10;
    }).ContinueInMainThread((result) =>
    {
        Debug.Log("Done. Value is " + result);
    });
}

Perform a background operation then return the value to main thread once done. The background task is repeated every second (1000 ms)

private void CalcAndReportValueRepeatedly()
{
    Async.RunInBackground("CalcAndReportValueRepeatedly", 1000, () =>
    {
        long value = DateTime.UtcNow.Ticks;
        return value;
    }).ContinueInMainThread((result) =>
    {
        DateTime dateTime = DateTime.FromBinary(result);
        Debug.Log("DateTime value: " + dateTime);
    });
}

Execute a background task, enqueue the results into a threadsafe action queue to be printed out once the background task is done. The background task is repeated every second (1000 ms)

private readonly Queue<Action> _actionQueue = new Queue<Action>();
public Queue<Action> ActionQueue
{
    get
    {
        // Async class provide lock object with unique keyword identifier
        // for thread-safe operations
        lock (Async.GetLock("ActionQueue"))
        {
            return _actionQueue;
        }
    }
}

private void CalcAndReportRepeatedly()
{
    Async.RunInBackground("CalcAndReportRepeatedly", 1000, () =>
    {
        long date1 = DateTime.UtcNow.Ticks;
        Thread.Sleep(50);
        long date2 = DateTime.UtcNow.Ticks;
        ActionQueue.Enqueue(() =>
        {
            Debug.Log("date1: " + date1 + " + date2: " + date2 + " = " + (date1 + date2));
        });
    }).ContinueInMainThread(() =>
    {
        Action action = ActionQueue.Dequeue();
        action();
    });
}

Note

Call Dispatcher.Instance.Reset() to abort and clear all scheduled background or threaded tasks if needed. For example, it's useful when your application restart.