Now, you can use pthread in cocos2d-x, but there are some limitations.
1. Don't call any functions which invokes CCObject::retain()
, CCObject::release()
or CCObject::autorelease()
, because CCAutoreleasePool are not thread-safe. Please refer to Reference Count and AutoReleasePool in Cocos2d-x for more details. Cocos2d-x use CCAutoreleasePool every where in its framework, so my suggestion is that, don't invoke any cocos2d-x API in a new thread except Data Structures.
2. If you want to load resources in a new thread, you can use CCTextureCache::addImageAsync()
3. pthread_cond_wait()
seems have a bug, it can not wait at the first time, but works properly in subsequence.
If we make retain(), release() and autorealese() thread-safe, then mutex would be required. For the reason that cocos2d-x framework releases the autorelease pool at each end of message loop, using mutex may cause performance issue.
By the way, OpenGL context is not thread-safe, which you should always keep in mind.
cocos2d-x/extensions/network/HttpClient.cpp uses pthread_t
and pthread_mutex_t
to create network thread. You can look into it as a sample.
Simple pthread example that shows how to run a function in a separate thread, pass a structure to it and set a mutex: