Running function faster

[Whincify]

I have a function that populates a map with little pellets. When I use a single while task.wait() do loop it takes 167 seconds to populate the entire map. However, if I copy and paste that loop 5 times, it only takes 33 seconds. 10 loops? 17 seconds. Obviously, the more loops, the more times the function is run. My question is: Is there a better way to call the same function as often as possible without using a million loops?

The code I am using for this testing is:

local logged = false
local start = os.time()

local loops = 0

repeat
	task.spawn(function()
		while task.wait() do
			local count = Pellets.total

			if count < 10000 then
				CreatePellet()
			else
				if not logged then
					logged = true
					print("took " .. os.time() - start .. " seconds")
				end
			end
		end
	end)
	
	loops += 1
	task.wait()
until loops == 40

[SubtotalAnt8185]

An alternative to waiting one frame each iteration for loops is to do this instead with task.wait:

if iterations % 4096 == 0 then
task.wait()
end

This would run the loop as fast as possible. iterations is how many times the loop has run.

[msix29]

You can make the function call itself recursively n times, task.spawn the function the first time it’s called and no need to do so when calling it again inside itself
A small example to make more sense

local MAX_DEPTH = 10

local function spawnPellets() -- just make it spawn a reasonable amount while staying under ~2 seconds

end

local function handlePelletSpawning(depth: number): nil
	if depth == MAX_DEPTH then return end

	task.spawn(spawnPellets)
	handlePelletSpawning(depth + 1)
end

task.spawn(handlePelletSpawning, 1)

That’s the best method imo.

[Whincify]

For future readers:

@SubtotalAnt8185’s solution worked best (in my use case, at least) and only took ~1 second to spawn all 10k pellets.

@msix29’s solution also works; however, it required some modification to be used in the way I needed, and in the end, simply wasn’t as effective. However, this solution would likely be helpful if you didn’t need the loop anymore after it completed its initial task.