maui-threading

name	maui_threading
description	Multi-threaded programming patterns in GnollHack's .NET MAUI frontend. Covers thread architecture, lock strategies (Monitor.TryEnter, lock, Interlocked), the IThreadSafeView pattern, ConcurrentQueue-based inter-thread communication, and platform-specific GPU rendering thread behavior.

MAUI Threading

Critical Rules

• Never perform game logic on the UI thread.
• Never perform UI updates on the Game thread.
• Use lock(syncObject) for writing shared state.
• Use Monitor.TryEnter for reading shared state on the render thread to prevent dropped frames.

Thread Architecture

1. Main UI Thread: Handles MAUI layout, button taps, gestures.
2. Game Thread: Runs the C engine moveloop(). Blocks waiting for input.
3. Render Thread (SkiaSharp): Draws the map canvas at 60 FPS.
4. Audio Thread (FMOD): Handles sound mixing independently.

Communication Patterns

• Input: UI Thread adds commands to a ConcurrentQueue<string>. Game thread dequeues.
• State Updates: Game thread modifies shared MapData under a lock.
• Rendering: Render thread attempts Monitor.TryEnter(syncObject, 0). If it gets the lock, it copies MapData. If not, it re-renders the old frame to avoid stuttering.

IThreadSafeView

• UI components implement this interface to receive thread-safe updates from the Game Thread via the EventAggregator pattern.