@rbxts/parallelworker

Roblox-Parallel-Worker

A ModuleScript library designed to abstract away Roblox's Actor model for parallel execution in favor of a simple task distribution module which handles the lifetime execution of a parallel task!

Usage

TaskModules are ModuleScripts that return a table optionally containing any of the following functions:

• TaskModule:Execute(...: any)
• TaskModule:Update(deltaTime: number)
• TaskModule:IsFinished() -> boolean
• TaskModule:GetResults() -> ...any

When a task is dispatched, each function declared in a module will be called as such in a dispatched task:

Function	When does it get called?	In Parallel?
Execute	Once when a task is dispatched.	Yes
Update	On each RunService Heartbeat.	Yes
IsFinished	Before/After Update() calls.	Yes
GetResults	When a task is finishing.	No

The Execute function can be used for a single task to be performed in the dispatched task, or to initialize data for the task instance to use. The self variable in your TaskModule's functions will refer to the unique task execution instance, so you can store any lifetime variables of the task in that table.

The Update function can be used for a parallel routine that loops on the RunService's Heartbeat. In the body of Update, you can cancel execution of the task via self:Finish().

The IsFinished function is called when an Update function is defined and can be used to statefully terminate execution of the update task loop, instead of calling self:Finish().

The GetResults function is called upon the task marking itself as complete. This is called even if there's only an Execute routine that completes. It can be used to return data back if the task was dispatched through ParallelWorker:Invoke(...).

API

ParallelWorker.new(taskModule: ModuleScript, allocate: number?) -> ParallelWorker
Creates a new ParallelWorker that dispatches parallel tasks of the provided ModuleScript.
The optional allocate parameter lets you pre-allocate a set number of actors for tasks to use.

ParallelWorker:Dispatch(...any) -> Dispatch
Dispatches a new parallel task of the worker's task module and returns a Dispatch object representing the execution of the task. The task can be cancelled outside of a parallel context by calling Dispatch:Cancel().

ParallelWorker:Invoke(...any) -> (boolean, ...any) [Yields]
Dispatches a new parallel task of the worker's task module and yields the calling thread until execution is completed.
Returns true if the task was finished successfully, as well as any data that was received from the task module's GetResults function (if one was defined).

Dispatch:Cancel() -> boolean
Cancels the parallel task associated with this dispatch. Returns true if the cancellation was performed, or false if the task was finished/cancelled already.