Linked Chunks Chunkloader

[MilConDoin]

Is there some mod with a chunk linking chunkloader?
What I mean:
A certain amount of chunks will be considered as linked. As soon as one of these is loaded, all others will also be loaded via this chunkloader. When none of these is loaded anymore by any means different from that loader, they all will unload again.

Reasoning:
You have your boiler and its fuel production over 2x2 chunks. Now let's assume, that the chunk with the boiler is loaded by a player being just close enough for it, but the fuel production is still unloaded -> boiler will run dry.
Current solution for this: Permaload all those chunks, even if nobody is remotely near. With the linked chunkloader the boiler + fuel production would run just long enough to keep everything running and as soon as noone is near, everything will unload and not use CPU cycles anymore.

 

[Guswut]

Is there some mod with a chunk linking chunkloader?
What I mean:
A certain amount of chunks will be considered as linked. As soon as one of these is loaded, all others will also be loaded via this chunkloader. When none of these is loaded anymore by any means different from that loader, they all will unload again.

Reasoning:
You have your boiler and its fuel production over 2x2 chunks. Now let's assume, that the chunk with the boiler is loaded by a player being just close enough for it, but the fuel production is still unloaded -> boiler will run dry.
Current solution for this: Permaload all those chunks, even if nobody is remotely near. With the linked chunkloader the boiler + fuel production would run just long enough to keep everything running and as soon as noone is near, everything will unload and not use CPU cycles anymore.

I cannot remember offhand, but can the ChickenChunkLoader use redstone current to toggle the state of load/unload? It can make lines (or just a 2x2 box, I think. Or perhaps it has to be an odd number of chunks), which could then be used to load a system (assuming it is in line with your system). It is the only chunkloader I've used thus far.

That would likely be the only way chunkloaders could be "linked".

 

[Abdiel]

You can do this to some degree with ChickenChunks - there is a redstone controlled chunkloader. Let's say your boiler is in chunk A, and your fuel production is in chunk B. Whenever A is loaded, we want to load B. Also assume A and B are adjacent.

You will need a 3x3 loader in A, and a 1x1 loader in B. Further, there is a constantly ticking redstone clock in A. The output of this clock is connected to a detector in B, which should detect a changing signal (i.e. be off on both a steady high and a steady low, on on a changing pulse). The detector controls the chunk loader in B. Therefore, whenever A unloads, the clock will stop ticking and the detector turns off the chunk loader for B.

Now we need to load B whenever A is loaded. This will be done by pulsing the 3x3 loader in A every time A loads. You don't want to do this on a timer though, as loading and unloading the other 7 surrounding chunks might be unnecessarily expensive. There are vanilla ways to detect a chunk being loaded, but the easiest way to do so is a CC computer startup program. Activating the 3x3 loader will load B, and since the timer in A is running, the loader in B activates and keeps it loaded.

You could do all three devices (timer, pulse detector, chunk loading detector) with CC, possibly using rednet, and it would be less laggy (less block updates) than a redstone setup.





Simple solution: put your fuel production in the same chunk as your boiler. Think vertically.

 

[MilConDoin]

Let's see, if I understood your solution correclty, Abdiel.
Case 1: Passing player activates chunk A. CC comp starts up, pulses the 3x3 once, this activates chunk B, which stays active, as long as the comp in A keeps pulsing. When A unloads, pulsing stops, signal becomes steady, B registers that and goes off.
Case 2: Passing player activates chunk B. B starts up, doesn't get a pulse and stops again. So A never loads, only B keeps active, as long as the passing player is close.

This works on the assumption of "Whenever A is loaded, we want to load B." which you used as the problem to solve. But this doesn't solve my problem, since I want to load a 2x2 whenever one of them is active. Putting a 3x3 and a 1x1 in each chunk with the pulsing comp duplicated in each won't work, because all four would keep pulsing without ever deactivating themselves.

For the simple solution: A SC tree farm which would be guaranteed to stay in a single chunk would be VERY tiny, because the big oaks can grow horizontal for quite a bit. That's why I wanted a linked 2x2, SC farm in the middle, boilers somewhere below. Thinking vertically was already included

 

[Abdiel]

Right, I understand it now. I'm fairly sure we can come up with a similar solution though

I admit I've never done any SC farms, but if 16x16 area is not enough, it must be really space inefficient...

 

[MilConDoin]

The trees don't grow in a 1x1 vertically, including branches and all those leaves, so we need extra space outside. And about space efficiency... That farm can sustain 8 36HP boilers resulting in well over 1k MJ

 

[Abdiel]

Thinking a little outside the box, how about a setup like this?

  A
  B B A
A B B
    A

Using the mechanism above, make all four chunks B load whenever any of A are loaded. No matter which of B is loaded by a player, the player will always load at least one of A (and thus keep the whole machine running).

 

[MilConDoin]

That looks, like it could work, nice idea.

But if any competent mod writer reads this: Feel free to implement the original idea for ease of use

 

[jumpfight5]

What about a Personal Anchor? Unless people are purposely half-chunk loading your base, you should be fine. I think a mod has a Player detector, you could use that as well.