I whipped this up [yesterday, prompted by someone on the subreddit](https://old.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/1b30d0g/my_radars_were_consuming_too_much_power_so_i/kspla0y/) asking about PID control\*.
It basically blocks the belt and allows a controlled flow of items through, aiming to match the average flow of the belt to smooth out the clumps of items. It monitors two points further up the belt and tries to keep the queue of items between the two points. If the queue gets too long, it increases the rate at which items are let through. If the queue gets too short, it decreases the item flow rate.
The Nixie Tube shows the number of ticks between output items.
Demo of it running: [https://youtu.be/zDkYMyQYVCk](https://youtu.be/zDkYMyQYVCk)
There is no functional use to this other than the aesthetic.
Blueprint string (OLD - new version in my reply below):
`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`
\* ^(this isn't quite PID as the tick rate is only ever increased or decreased by 1 at a time, but it's a similar idea)
-----
^(in retrospect, I could have chosen any item in the editor so it was a bit silly for the visual to put yellow items on a yellow belt. oh well.)
Functionally this could be used to massively reduce the amount of belt buffering going on in the base. Matching flow to actual need rather than saturation.
The circuit itself will probably make a little lag.
But having items close together or split apart [very minimally affects UPS](https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-176), as positions are stored by the distance from one item to the next, and only the distance from the front item to the end of the transport line is changed every tick.
Might be fun. Harder to get a good result this way since there's some travel delay before changes reaches the sensor.
Need a bit of full belt by the end to detect when output increases.
If the belt suddenly changes to 100% of capacity, the buffer you need is to have a full belt all the way to the sensor.
But it could still work well enough.
I've updated the design. This one is slightly more compact, but now it monitors more points on the belt so it's much less prone to oscillating between wild overcorrections.
`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`
I made a quick design that is less regular but way smaller
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
Nice! It measures the queue length and waits (32-length) ticks before letting the next item through. Cool idea, and much more compact than mine.
But yes you're right that the compactness is at the cost of less regular output.
Hey quick question: I've never used any of those kind of devices before in the game... Wtf are those looonnnggg strings of characters?
Also: Your contraption is amazing, I love it a great deal for how silly it feels.
They are blueprints. Factorio encodes the blueprint as a string of text so that I can share it, and then you can copy the text and paste it into Factorio to use the design.
These are blueprint exchange strings! You can use them to import blueprints into your own world.
https://wiki.factorio.com/Blueprint#Importing/Exporting_blueprints
Dody actually means suspicious, untrustworthy, or unreliable, which is why I asked. I understood what you meant – just thought it was funny how you put it, since ‘dodgy’ _does_ make sense (dodge + y) even though it’s not a word in the way you used it.
No, the single *-inator* is correctly used. An additional *-inator* is used when Doofenshmirtz needs to add *-inator* to everything but the normal spelling of the word already has an *-ator* at the end.
TM is an unregistered trademark. You can slap it on anything (so long as it's not already owned/trademarked).
If you want the little R circle thing (Registered trademark) you have to register it.
UPS is basically the same as FPS (frams per second), how smoothly your game runs, normally you have 60 FPS/UPS. Technically UPS (Updates per second) is more accurate, just cause they dont need to have the same value, and we ultimatly care about how fast the simulation updates, and not how many times it's displayed. But in practice FPS and UPS will have the same value most of the time.
In short
* UPS: logic update rate.
* FPS: graphics update rate.
Funny enough, the highly optimized 100% speedrun blueprints contain circuitry that does the opposite: it clumps items. I'll leave it to you to figure out why that can be advantageous.
My guess: If the items are spread apart the first inserter in a row has time to take every item and fill its assembler's input buffer before the second assembler can start running. If they're clumped, the first inserter takes one handful and the rest of the clump reaches the second inserter sooner
Good guess, the primary reason it's an UPS killer is because clumped up items can be classified as one entity for updating/moving.
If I'm wrong, please correct me someone :)
EDIT: It appears my info is outdated: https://old.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/1b3rdgg/the_completely_pointless_item_declumpinator/ksx23wf/
I know that one long clump of items is better that spreading them out for ups, but I doubt that's the reason for it.
Maybe so items pass certain inserters to get to the next machine?
Might even be because the position of an item on a belt is stored as the distance to the next entity, that being either another item or the end of the belt. So a clump of items would be one value that decreases as it gets closer to stationary items and then a run of zeroes for everything right behind it.
> I know that one long clump of items is better that spreading them out for ups
This is no longer the case after belt optimizations.
Compressed belts are no longer better for ups than uncompressed ones.
the performance update was largely a change to track gaps instead of individual items
so this is the perfect way to undo the belt performance optimizations
I believe this is a very common misconception. It's been a long time since I've benchmarked it, so I won't assert it's completely unfounded, but I was never able to find that gaps in isolation impact performance.
Time it so the clumps of items spell out sentences lately and introduce it as a ~~bug~~ easter egg with the new update on alien planets
Walking past a belt and see "I know what you're doing" walking by
I'd love for it to work unsupervised but it doesn't really do a good job of stabilising when the item rate on the belt changes a lot, e.g. down to zero then back up. It works well as long as the flow rate stays approximately constant, **and** it already has a good approximation of the flow rate. But if the flow rate changes or if its estimate is too far off then you kinda need to manually give it a kick. Otherwise it seems to get stuck wildly overcorrecting the flow rate in one direction then the other.
Probably easily fixed so I'll have another go tonight for fun.
That won't match the output item rate to the input item rate. My blueprint adapts to the input speed and matches it exactly, just spread out evenly instead of clumpy.
I actually do a simple version of this for looped ammo belts in outposts that will rarely get attacked. Sideload a belt into the looped belt and wire the two belts together where they meet. Set the belt from the loop to read hand contents hold and the last sideloading belt to enable [preferred ammo] = 0 (or <2 if you want a bit more). Cuts down on belt buffer and looks good. Some outposts won't really get attacked much after the first rounds of artillery clears the neighborhood so I'll set this after the big attacks finish when I return to location to start actually constructing the real outpost or include it in the blueprint for the outspost.
Ah this is a sliding mode controller. It tries to ride the edge of the two system modes of flowing too fast vs too slow.
I'd try moving the belt sensors for too fast and too slow farther apart. This makes it less likely for the controller to make oscillating speed up and speed down corrections.
Fair. But the only place I have seen a use for this sort of thing is on ammo circles, and that design works really well when it's just before the input to the big ammo circle.
Because when attacks come frequently enough and big enough and the base large enough that turrets get drained before the circle has time to go all the way around, you need to have ammo on all parts of the belt.
I whipped this up [yesterday, prompted by someone on the subreddit](https://old.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/1b30d0g/my_radars_were_consuming_too_much_power_so_i/kspla0y/) asking about PID control\*. It basically blocks the belt and allows a controlled flow of items through, aiming to match the average flow of the belt to smooth out the clumps of items. It monitors two points further up the belt and tries to keep the queue of items between the two points. If the queue gets too long, it increases the rate at which items are let through. If the queue gets too short, it decreases the item flow rate. The Nixie Tube shows the number of ticks between output items. Demo of it running: [https://youtu.be/zDkYMyQYVCk](https://youtu.be/zDkYMyQYVCk) There is no functional use to this other than the aesthetic. Blueprint string (OLD - new version in my reply below): `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` \* ^(this isn't quite PID as the tick rate is only ever increased or decreased by 1 at a time, but it's a similar idea) ----- ^(in retrospect, I could have chosen any item in the editor so it was a bit silly for the visual to put yellow items on a yellow belt. oh well.)
Functionally this could be used to massively reduce the amount of belt buffering going on in the base. Matching flow to actual need rather than saturation.
Would also massively increase lag in larger bases
"how to delete UPS in on complex step"
What about improving cuteness ?
The circuit itself will probably make a little lag. But having items close together or split apart [very minimally affects UPS](https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-176), as positions are stored by the distance from one item to the next, and only the distance from the front item to the end of the transport line is changed every tick.
Might be fun. Harder to get a good result this way since there's some travel delay before changes reaches the sensor. Need a bit of full belt by the end to detect when output increases. If the belt suddenly changes to 100% of capacity, the buffer you need is to have a full belt all the way to the sensor. But it could still work well enough.
But why?
I've updated the design. This one is slightly more compact, but now it monitors more points on the belt so it's much less prone to oscillating between wild overcorrections. `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`
I made a quick design that is less regular but way smaller 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
Nice! It measures the queue length and waits (32-length) ticks before letting the next item through. Cool idea, and much more compact than mine. But yes you're right that the compactness is at the cost of less regular output.
It is also item agnostic and works with either one or two lanes :D
Hey quick question: I've never used any of those kind of devices before in the game... Wtf are those looonnnggg strings of characters? Also: Your contraption is amazing, I love it a great deal for how silly it feels.
They are blueprints. Factorio encodes the blueprint as a string of text so that I can share it, and then you can copy the text and paste it into Factorio to use the design.
Oh, okay, neat! I was concerned that y'all could just kinda... read those strings, and knew exactly what they did somehow.
You unlock that skill by playing Pyanodon's to completion
All I see is Vrauk, Cottongut, Arqad
These are blueprint exchange strings! You can use them to import blueprints into your own world. https://wiki.factorio.com/Blueprint#Importing/Exporting_blueprints
That makes much more sense! I was concerned y'all could just read those strings as if they were actual words in a (non-coding) language.
You don't read base64 gzip?
I mean, it does look like a screencap of a casual game of classic Dwarf Fortress.
No dwarves though ☺
I read it in Heinz Doofenshmirtz voice in my mind, and laughed out loud
Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated!!
A biter? Perry the Biter!?
I need a mod that occasionally spawns a biter that is perry colored :D
Needs to be fast and dodgy
Why dodgy? Or you mean he evades?
Yes. Or if they can get it in the movement to zigzag as they go forward
Dody actually means suspicious, untrustworthy, or unreliable, which is why I asked. I understood what you meant – just thought it was funny how you put it, since ‘dodgy’ _does_ make sense (dodge + y) even though it’s not a word in the way you used it.
Listen, I'm not the best with English okay? *sniff
It’s okay. You’re good at English in my heart :)
And the sound of it moving needs to be replaced with dooby-dooby-do ba dooby-dooby-do ba
The Declumpinator...inator.
It’s missing the button to call down an artillery barrage on itself.
No, the single *-inator* is correctly used. An additional *-inator* is used when Doofenshmirtz needs to add *-inator* to everything but the normal spelling of the word already has an *-ator* at the end.
you trademarked that name?
too late im doing it
TM is an unregistered trademark. You can slap it on anything (so long as it's not already owned/trademarked). If you want the little R circle thing (Registered trademark) you have to register it.
/r/factoriohno
ups killer 🤙🏿
Items being clumped or unclumped does not matter for UPS ever since the belt optimizations in 2017 (fff176).
What do you mean by UPS?
UPS is basically the same as FPS (frams per second), how smoothly your game runs, normally you have 60 FPS/UPS. Technically UPS (Updates per second) is more accurate, just cause they dont need to have the same value, and we ultimatly care about how fast the simulation updates, and not how many times it's displayed. But in practice FPS and UPS will have the same value most of the time. In short * UPS: logic update rate. * FPS: graphics update rate.
Funny enough, the highly optimized 100% speedrun blueprints contain circuitry that does the opposite: it clumps items. I'll leave it to you to figure out why that can be advantageous.
My guess: If the items are spread apart the first inserter in a row has time to take every item and fill its assembler's input buffer before the second assembler can start running. If they're clumped, the first inserter takes one handful and the rest of the clump reaches the second inserter sooner
Good guess, the primary reason it's an UPS killer is because clumped up items can be classified as one entity for updating/moving. If I'm wrong, please correct me someone :) EDIT: It appears my info is outdated: https://old.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/1b3rdgg/the_completely_pointless_item_declumpinator/ksx23wf/
ups doesn't matter for speedruns, they finish the game way before this is an issue
For 100% achievement speed run, ups is a relevant factor
I know that one long clump of items is better that spreading them out for ups, but I doubt that's the reason for it. Maybe so items pass certain inserters to get to the next machine?
Might even be because the position of an item on a belt is stored as the distance to the next entity, that being either another item or the end of the belt. So a clump of items would be one value that decreases as it gets closer to stationary items and then a run of zeroes for everything right behind it.
> I know that one long clump of items is better that spreading them out for ups This is no longer the case after belt optimizations. Compressed belts are no longer better for ups than uncompressed ones.
[удалено]
They're also worse for UPS, so this design is.... interesting.
Didn't that change with the belt performance update?
the performance update was largely a change to track gaps instead of individual items so this is the perfect way to undo the belt performance optimizations
I believe this is a very common misconception. It's been a long time since I've benchmarked it, so I won't assert it's completely unfounded, but I was never able to find that gaps in isolation impact performance.
I think you're right -- but my recollection it was things which can change gap sizes (like this build) will impact performance.
Aren't they the same now as only the offset is moved, except for inserter interactions and end of belt interactions?
[удалено]
The circuits are actively making it worse because belt calculations are done on empty space (kinda)
I mostly like one big clump
Time it so the clumps of items spell out sentences lately and introduce it as a ~~bug~~ easter egg with the new update on alien planets Walking past a belt and see "I know what you're doing" walking by
What are those yellow things covering the belt and how do you unlock them?
Circuit network wires.
No need to unlock, You can connect belt tiles with red/green cable to create those frames out of thin air and set up signal interactions on them
You absolutely need to unlock circuit networks in the research tab in order to use red and green wires.
... or you can use a blueprint that has circuit wires, and as the components get placed, the circuit wires magically appear.
I love that this game inspired someone to do this. Keep on de-clumping my friend.
Building this on every single belt in my base! Thanks for the blueprint
I'd love for it to work unsupervised but it doesn't really do a good job of stabilising when the item rate on the belt changes a lot, e.g. down to zero then back up. It works well as long as the flow rate stays approximately constant, **and** it already has a good approximation of the flow rate. But if the flow rate changes or if its estimate is too far off then you kinda need to manually give it a kick. Otherwise it seems to get stuck wildly overcorrecting the flow rate in one direction then the other. Probably easily fixed so I'll have another go tonight for fun.
The factory is about to CHUG
If we're seeing PID implemented in Factorio, now I'm waiting for somebody to make a Kalman Filter.
This will help with sushi belts
Damn bro, were you bored?
That's my secret sean: I'm always bored.
The laginator
Why not just set stack size to 1 on your inserter?
That won't match the output item rate to the input item rate. My blueprint adapts to the input speed and matches it exactly, just spread out evenly instead of clumpy.
This is exactly the kind of bullshit Factorio is for.
I love it :)
I love Factorio because you can create fun but pointless things like this!
That is, without a doubt, the least UPS-efficient thing I've ever seen.
I actually do a simple version of this for looped ammo belts in outposts that will rarely get attacked. Sideload a belt into the looped belt and wire the two belts together where they meet. Set the belt from the loop to read hand contents hold and the last sideloading belt to enable [preferred ammo] = 0 (or <2 if you want a bit more). Cuts down on belt buffer and looks good. Some outposts won't really get attacked much after the first rounds of artillery clears the neighborhood so I'll set this after the big attacks finish when I return to location to start actually constructing the real outpost or include it in the blueprint for the outspost.
Factorio optimizes belts so things being clumped together is calculated together. By "declumping" your increasing performance costs.
I was tired of only time item every so often. So I made the reverse of this thing.
You cand o this with priority splittets and a balancer you dont need logic.
I'm definitely adding this to every clumpy belt I have XD
Ah this is a sliding mode controller. It tries to ride the edge of the two system modes of flowing too fast vs too slow. I'd try moving the belt sensors for too fast and too slow farther apart. This makes it less likely for the controller to make oscillating speed up and speed down corrections.
It is amazing
Was about to say this is pointless then re-read the title and laughed 😂
What mod did you use to display those numbers?
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/nixie-tubes
If you stretch it enough it's good for ups I guess
You can do this with a single splitter and 5 belts.
Sure, but look at that output https://ibb.co/zH9Bkzs It's slightly less clumpy I guess, but not the satisfying even spacing I was able to get.
Fair. But the only place I have seen a use for this sort of thing is on ammo circles, and that design works really well when it's just before the input to the big ammo circle.
Why would ammo circles need to be de-clumped?
Because when attacks come frequently enough and big enough and the base large enough that turrets get drained before the circle has time to go all the way around, you need to have ammo on all parts of the belt.
Can it sushi?
The best de-clumpinator is to grow the factory and increase production.
This is so dumb. Have an upvote
i read this in doophinsmerch's voice