Timers and infinite statements ========================== When using timers or infinite statements such as `while(true)` or `wait` it is important to use `thread` before the function in order to prevent crashes or freezes. What is `thread`? ----------- The `thread` term is used to tell squirrel to run the following function **separately** from the rest of the game, while in a simple scripts code is run sequentially(line 1,2,3 etc) if a line of code would last forever or need to function in parallel to normal gameplay, such as a `wait` command, it is important to use `thread` or the game will get stuck processing that line indefinitely and will not move to the next lines, causing crashes or freezes. How do i use `thread`? ------------- Using thread is fairly simple, if we have a function called `delayannouncement` that chooses one player as "it" 10 seconds after spawning we cannot use this function on its own, instead calling it with a thread by simply calling `thread delayannouncement()` The same applies to a `while(true)` function, for example `almostover` a function that checks every 5 seconds to see if the game has 2 or less minutes left and announces it if so. `thread almostover()` Example Script ----------- lets try implement both of our scripts from the previous 2 sections, as well as a callback to trigger the script. First, lets add our callback to the gamemodes core function. ```cpp global function GamemodeTag_Init void function GamemodeTag_Init(){ AddCallback_GameStateEnter( eGameState.Playing, MatchStart ) } ``` Then lets define the function matchstart and have it simply thread our two important functions. ```cpp void Matchstart{ thread delayannouncement() thread almostover() } ``` This script waits 10 seconds, picks a player and announces that player as "it" however being `it` currently does nothing, we will define that later. ```cpp void delayannouncement(){ wait 10.0 string chosenplayer = GetPlayerArray()[RandomInt(GetPlayerArray().len())] string message = chosenplayer + " is it!" foreach ( entity player in GetPlayerArray() ) SendHudMessage( player, message, -1, 0.4, 255, 0, 0, 0, 0, 3, 0.15 ) } ``` This function will now repeat endlessly, waiting 5 seconds before each repeat. make sure to add a `return` or `break` statement to prevent the message looping every 5 seconds after, unless you want that ```cpp void almostover(){ while(true){ if(GameTime_TimeLeftSeconds() < 120){ foreach ( entity player in GetPlayerArray() ) SendHudMessage( player, "Two minutes left!", -1, 0.4, 255, 0, 0, 0, 0, 3, 0.15 ) break } wait 5.0 } } ``` You have now created and threaded both functions.