decimalcubed / luau-thread

Parallel Luau library designed for simplicity and ease of use.

luau-thread

Parallel Luau library designed to make parallel luau easier to use (cause the default parallel luau api is shit)

spawn()

Requires and runs the given module on a separate CPU thread, passing any given arguments. Returns the id of the spawned thread.

• Type

  function thread.spawn(execute_module: ModuleScript, ...): number

• Usage

  local sharedTable = SharedTable.new() --Not necessary, but must be used to return any data.
  local runningThreads = {}
  for i = 1, 16 do
  
    table.insert(runningThreads, thread.spawn(execute_module, sharedTable, i) --Extra arguments can be passed through like a function
  end

---

join()

Yields the calling coroutine until the given thread(s) has finished executing (if it isn't allready finished).

• Type

  function thread.join(thread_id: number | { number })

• Usage

  --Waits for all running threads to finish
  for _, v in runningThreads do
  
    thread.join(v)
  end

  --Sugar syntax for the previous code block
  thread.join(runningThreads)

---

modules

The library takes in modules in place of functions since functions cannot be cross-loaded between Luau VMs, meaning modules must be used in place of functions.

• Type

  When passing a module through the module must only return a function as such:

  return function(...)
  end

---

SharedTables

If you want to return any data from running parallel code you must use SharedTables; as regular tables cannot be used to return data, and using regular returns is impossible with the new api.

• Type

  local sharedTable = SharedTable.new()
  local t = thread.spawn(execute_module, sharedTable)