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Periodic processing options

When a mod needs to do work every N seconds (auto-repair ticks, background scans, status polling), three mechanisms are available. Pick by coupling and frequency: patch-based for per-thing loops, plugin Update() for low-frequency global work, coroutine for simple fixed-interval polls.

Options

F0229g (Plans/RepairPrototype/plan.md:432-450):

Options: 1. Patch DynamicThing.Update(); runs per frame per thing (PerishableItems uses this). 2. Timer in plugin's Update(): 

timer += Time.deltaTime;
if (timer >= 5.0f) { timer = 0f; DoWork(); }
3. Coroutine with yield return new WaitForSeconds(5f).

Trade-offs

  • Option 1 (patch DynamicThing.Update): Per-frame, per-thing. High overhead. Only appropriate when the work is genuinely per-thing and cheap, and when hooking a more specific method does not suffice. PerishableItems uses this to decay food items.
  • Option 2 (plugin Update + timer): One timer, one DoWork() call every N seconds. Global work; cheap. Requires Time.deltaTime which is Unity main-thread-only.
  • Option 3 (coroutine + WaitForSeconds): Simplest to write. Owned by a MonoBehaviour. Coroutines pause on scene unload; if the work must survive main-menu exits, park the coroutine on a DontDestroyOnLoad GameObject.

When none of the three fit

If the work must run on a background thread (not Unity main thread), neither Option 2 nor Option 3 are correct; they run main-thread. Dispatch from a background worker via ./MainThreadDispatcher.md for the portions that touch Unity API, and do the background math on the worker directly.

Verification history

  • 2026-04-20: page created from the Research migration; single source (F0229g).

Open questions

None at creation.