Linux Shell Game Input

I'm writing a simple Linux Game in C++ for school, I've been using getch for my input controls for Up Down Left Right. The problem is that getch blocks the program from continuing. Online I gathered that kbhit may be a better option, except there are over 10 different kbhit.h's and they dont fucking work. if(getch) in a while(1) loop would be totally fucking fine if i could have like a 1ms timeout for getch so if there is no key pressed the screen keeps going. What do?

spin getch() off into its own process and it won't block the original process. you can synchronize on a mutex or a channel or whatever you want. since the two processes would only be sharing a char, you probably don't need to synchronize at all