gm_throttle

A library for Garry's Mod that allows simple, dynamic, and feature-rich rate limiting of functions

Installation

Simple

• You can download the latest release .zip from the Releases tab. Extract that and place it in your addons directory.

Source Controlled

• You can clone this repository directly into your addons directory, but be sure to check out the lua branch which contains the compiled Lua from the latest release.
• e.g. git clone --single-branch --branch lua git@github.com:CFC-Servers/gm_throttle.git

Assuming you can get the project cloned (some hosting interfaces may not support this), any auto-updater software should work just fine.

Usage

There are some comprehensive examples in the examples folder, but a very simple usage example follows:

( Read more about the Throttle Struct below )

require( "throttler" )

-- The first step is to create a Throttler struct
-- You can build a generic pre-filled structure and overwrite specific values:
local struct = Throttler:build()
struct.delay = 0.5 -- In seconds
struct.budget = 500

struct.failure = function( ent )
    ent.Owner:ChatPrint( "The thing was throttled!" )
end

struct.shouldSkip = function( ent )
    if ent.Owner:IsAdmin() then return true end
end

-- Once you have your Throttle Struct, you can use it to stub a function:
MyLib = {
    spammyFunction = function( ent )
        local data = ent:GetExpensiveThing()
        performExpensiveCalculation( data )
    end
}

local throttle = Throttler:create( MyLib.spammyFunction, struct )
MyLib.spammyFunction = throttle

The Throttle Structure

Param	Type	Description	Default
id	string	An identifier for this throttle (must be unique per context)	throttler_limit_#
context	table/entity/function	Where to store the throttle data (Accepts a function that returns a context object)	Function returning the first param
delay	float	How long to wait between executions after the budget is expended	1
refillRate	float	How much budget to refill per second	1
success	function	A callback to run when the execution succeeds (before calling the throttled func)	noop
failure	function	A callback to run when the execution is prevented	noop
shouldSkip	function	Function used to decide if throttling logic should be applied for this execution (return true to skip)	noop
adjust	function	Return a table with any of: [delay,budget,refillRate,id] to override initial settings for this execution	noop