Documentation

Thread Dispatching

Read time 2 minutes Package: Nalix.SDK
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Namespace: Nalix.SDK
Assembly: Nalix.SDK

IThreadDispatcher abstracts how callbacks from background network receive threads are scheduled onto an application’s target thread (such as the Unity main loop, Godot main thread, WPF/WinUI Dispatcher, or MAUI MainThread).

Source Mapping

  • src/Nalix.SDK/IThreadDispatcher.cs
  • src/Nalix.SDK/InlineDispatcher.cs

Public Contracts

namespace Nalix.SDK;

public interface IThreadDispatcher
{
    void Post(Action action);
}

public sealed class InlineDispatcher : IThreadDispatcher
{
    [Pure]
    [MethodImpl(MethodImplOptions.NoInlining)]
    public void Post(Action action) => action?.Invoke();
}

How IThreadDispatcher Is Used

  • InlineDispatcher: Executes action?.Invoke() synchronously on the calling thread without context switching or queue allocation.
  • Custom UI / Engine Dispatchers: When handling packets via TransportSessionSubscriptions.On<TPacket> (disposeAfter: false if passing a pooled packet across threads) or OnMessageReceived (calling lease.Retain() before posting and lease.Dispose() inside the posted action), invoke dispatcher.Post(() => ...) to marshal state mutations onto your engine’s main thread.

Implementing IThreadDispatcher for Game & UI Engines

Unity (SynchronizationContext / Main Thread Queue)

using System;
using System.Collections.Concurrent;
using Nalix.SDK;
using UnityEngine;

public sealed class UnityMainThreadDispatcher : MonoBehaviour, IThreadDispatcher
{
    private readonly ConcurrentQueue<Action> _queue = new();

    public void Post(Action action)
    {
        if (action is not null)
        {
            _queue.Enqueue(action);
        }
    }

    private void Update()
    {
        while (_queue.TryDequeue(out Action? action))
        {
            action();
        }
    }
}

.NET MAUI / WPF (SynchronizationContext)

using System;
using System.Threading;
using Nalix.SDK;

public sealed class SyncContextDispatcher(SynchronizationContext context) : IThreadDispatcher
{
    public void Post(Action action) => context.Post(static state => ((Action)state!)(), action);
}