---
# flame_isolate
The power of [integral_isolates](https://pub.dev/packages/integral_isolates) in your
[Flame](https://pub.dev/packages/flame) game.
## Usage
Just add the mixin `FlameIsolate` to your component and start utilizing the power of an isolate as
simple as running the [compute](https://api.flutter.dev/flutter/foundation/compute-constant.html)
function.
Example:
```dart
class MyGame extends FlameGame with FlameIsolate {
...
@override
void update(double dt) {
if (shouldRecalculate) {
isolate(recalculateWorld, worldData).then(updateWorld);
}
...
}
...
}
```
### Performance note
Keep in mind that every component with `FlameIsolate` mixin that you create and add to your game
will create a new isolate. This means you will probably want to create a manager component to
manage a lot of "dumber" components. Think of it like ants, where the queen controls the worker
ants. If every individual worker ant got it's own isolate, it would be a total waste of power,
hence you would put it on the queen, which in turn tells all the worker ants what to do.
A simple example of this can be found in the example application for the FlameIsolate package.
### Backpressure Strategies
Backpressure strategies is a way to cope with the job queue when job items are produced more rapidly
than the isolate can handle them. This presents the problem of what to do with such a growing
backlog of unhandled jobs. To mitigate this problem this library funnels all jobs through a job
queue handler. Also known as `BackpressureStrategy`.
The ones currently supported are:
- `NoBackPressureStrategy` that basically does not handle back pressure. It uses a FIFO stack for
storing a backlog of unhandled jobs.
-`ReplaceBackpressureStrategy` that has a job queue with size one, and discards the queue upon
adding a new job.
-`DiscardNewBackPressureStrategy` that has a job queue with size one, and as long as the queue is
populated a new job will not be added.
You can specify a backpressure strategy by overriding the `backpressureStrategy` field. This will
create the isolate with the specified strategy when component is mounted.
```dart
class MyGame extends FlameGame with FlameIsolate {
@override
BackpressureStrategy get backpressureStrategy => ReplaceBackpressureStrategy();
...
}
```
### Additional information
You could expect this API to be *mostly* stable, but implementation of the underlying package
(integral_isolates) is not fully finalized yet, and there is more features coming before both
packages can count as stable.
