Need good Sorting System!
- Thread starter Picsof4D
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The organizing/optimizing storage portion of AE replaces the time/effort you would spend on sorting other systems.
I actually use it as a genuine sorting system. I import stuff from the dropoff chest and export to DSUs. Only misc stuff is stored in AE network or Soaryn chests. And for now I'm not thinking about autocrafting but if I wanted, I could just amass storage discs and import stuff from DSUs. Discs are more costly though.
I plan on using AE for my main item storage. I'll just need to keep a few backup power supplies around for if something goes funky and my power is cut to my chests.
It just seems so much more practical than other methods. After watching the DW20 spotlight on it... man. I want to use that really, really badly.
It just seems so much more practical than other methods. After watching the DW20 spotlight on it... man. I want to use that really, really badly.
It is quite practical, but does have its own challenges. Each drive can store 63 item types, max. Even a 64k drive can only store 63 item types. This gets to be a problem when you fill up one drive, an item on that drive gets dumped into the network and placed on a second drive. Sure, great that you don't overflow. but when you use a bunch of that item it pulls from the first drive so now your item is taking up 2 slots on 2 drives. There's no easy method of consolidating the items onto a single drive.
EDIT: Actually, one other thought I wanted to add. I really, really, REALLY like the power costs associated with it. I have always been one of those people who doesn't use a lot of power. My normal setup normally can get by with an 8LP or 12LP boiler. The largest I've ever build is a 36LP and I've never used the max of that as it is.
There simply isn't enough in the game that requires a constant draw so I end up using RECells to cover by burst needs quite nicely. I've gotten so adept at it that in my current world my power generation went like this. 2 Hobbyist engines -> 1LP feeding 2 hobbyist -> 36LP now an array of hobbyist, commercial and industrial engines. Yes, I literally went 3.6Mj/t, 4MJ/t, 72MJ/t.
AE changed that. The larger the network, the larger the power draw. For the first time since I started getting into boilers regularly I'm at a point where my boiler, the 36LP, isn't keeping up. It is because the constant draw from AE is chewing up enough MJ that by burst usage is outpacing the constant generation from the boiler over the long run. I've actually had to decide if I want to expand my power generation or take a serious look at my AE network and see if there's some cruft I can trim to bring its constant draw down.
This is an interesting event because I've dropped Forestry. That means no useful, renewable liquid fuel. The prospect of a 36HP boiler is daunting. The 36LP was interesting to heat up using only charcoal, wood, coal and coke (in that order). Now that it is at max heat I can keep pace with my 1 Steve's Carts wood farm. But a 36HP on solid fuel? I'm not sure I have the fuel on hand to get it to max heat, nor am I positive that the one tree farm would be enough. On the other hand, I'm curious to see if I can make a sustainable 36LP liquid boiler work on just Creosote. And even though I was convinced to move from charcoal to wood on my solid boiler the idea of having a solid and liquid running off of a bank of coke furnaces using wood as an input appeals to me.
All of that because of AE using power as a balancing point. Glorious!
EDIT: Actually, one other thought I wanted to add. I really, really, REALLY like the power costs associated with it. I have always been one of those people who doesn't use a lot of power. My normal setup normally can get by with an 8LP or 12LP boiler. The largest I've ever build is a 36LP and I've never used the max of that as it is.
There simply isn't enough in the game that requires a constant draw so I end up using RECells to cover by burst needs quite nicely. I've gotten so adept at it that in my current world my power generation went like this. 2 Hobbyist engines -> 1LP feeding 2 hobbyist -> 36LP now an array of hobbyist, commercial and industrial engines. Yes, I literally went 3.6Mj/t, 4MJ/t, 72MJ/t.
AE changed that. The larger the network, the larger the power draw. For the first time since I started getting into boilers regularly I'm at a point where my boiler, the 36LP, isn't keeping up. It is because the constant draw from AE is chewing up enough MJ that by burst usage is outpacing the constant generation from the boiler over the long run. I've actually had to decide if I want to expand my power generation or take a serious look at my AE network and see if there's some cruft I can trim to bring its constant draw down.
This is an interesting event because I've dropped Forestry. That means no useful, renewable liquid fuel. The prospect of a 36HP boiler is daunting. The 36LP was interesting to heat up using only charcoal, wood, coal and coke (in that order). Now that it is at max heat I can keep pace with my 1 Steve's Carts wood farm. But a 36HP on solid fuel? I'm not sure I have the fuel on hand to get it to max heat, nor am I positive that the one tree farm would be enough. On the other hand, I'm curious to see if I can make a sustainable 36LP liquid boiler work on just Creosote. And even though I was convinced to move from charcoal to wood on my solid boiler the idea of having a solid and liquid running off of a bank of coke furnaces using wood as an input appeals to me.
All of that because of AE using power as a balancing point. Glorious!
ME IO Port
That and preformatted disks make it a sorted system within the system. It's quite challenging to fill up a 64k drive; every ingot in my system takes up less than half of a preformatted 64k disk.
I find it kind of weird that adding two different items requires more storage space than two of the same item, even if it's only for allotting space for that first secondary item type.
I guess I understand why it was done like that, but it's still a bit weird.
I guess I understand why it was done like that, but it's still a bit weird.
Kinda works, but not completely. Mainly because you have to wait for a quiet time on your input else you have items dumping into your system when you're disks are out of the system. Also, it doesn't work with large batches across multiple drives because you're pretty much flip-flopping between the drives and not gaining any traction.
Yup, that is where pre-formatting comes in. But that only works for the subset that you've preformatted. I'd much prefer if we could reformat so I can add items to a disk later on. But I think that was not included for balancing purposes.
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It doesn't require more space. You're spot on when it comes to allocation. We can allocate 63 items per disk. Of those allocations we can store up to the limit of the disk.
Observe.
This is two of the same item. Uses 513 bytes.
This is two different items. There are still only two items in the chest, but they use twice the space because they're different.
It just seems odd to me.
I have 1 unformatted dump disk in a ME chest (ME drive full of preformatted) so removing a preformatted just drops things into the dump chest for a minute or so while I sort things.
You can add extra stuff to a preformatted disk, just put it back in the formatter, add the items you want and click format again.[DOUBLEPOST=1366880119][/DOUBLEPOST]
The cost of adding a different type of item is dependant on the size of the storage unit, so unique items take up more space on the 64k, the cost of adding more of the same item remains constant (I think).
Yeah, I figured it was just a one time addition fee... but it was still strange, since there's already a limit on the number of different items a chest can hold.
The items are being stored as data (well, all items are data in a game, but within the internal rationale of the mod, they are data). The data "2 Cobblestone" takes up less space than "1 Cobblestone, 1 Dirt". Stands to reason.
It also stands to reason that once I've converted my items to data and stored them on a disc... why can't I copy that disc and duplicate my items?
It also stands to reason that once I've converted my items to data and stored them on a disc... why can't I copy that disc and duplicate my items?
Again, this makes sense when you think in terms of real world disc allocations.
Let's go with the most basic example, a FAT partition formatted. In FAT12 you could only have 4068 files allocated, and each allocation reserved an 8Kb block on disc. It didn't matter if that file had 1 byte of data or 8Kb of data, that entire 8Kb block was reserved. And it didn't matter that you could only have 4068 files on the disc. Well, it did but that is irrelevant for this analogy.
Disks in AE work the same way. You get 63 allocations per disc and each allocation reserves space for that item type.
Let's go with the most basic example, a FAT partition formatted. In FAT12 you could only have 4068 files allocated, and each allocation reserved an 8Kb block on disc. It didn't matter if that file had 1 byte of data or 8Kb of data, that entire 8Kb block was reserved. And it didn't matter that you could only have 4068 files on the disc. Well, it did but that is irrelevant for this analogy.
Disks in AE work the same way. You get 63 allocations per disc and each allocation reserves space for that item type.
Factorization Barrels are equivalent to 512 B disks and Extra-dimensional Barrels are 8kB disks, each only able to hold 1 thing. To "preformat" one, you click the item into the ME Interface Bus. I'm finding that I'm partial to this way over making preformatted disks. A 64k disk runs out of room when any one item in it runs away from you. 8 Barrels never screw each other up (nor do 128 barrels). But it does tend to cost more per tick to have those interfaces. The Iron Chests mod also gives interesting options.
IMarv
IMarv
Its just simulation of simple compression.
2 of 1 item is easy to compress. 1 new itemtype is 512B. 511B for overhead and 1B for the item itself.. After that, the overhead is not applied to each new item of the same type, instead of adding all the same overhead data to each individual new item of the same type. Data reduction through pattern finding is the core of compression. The extra B in the 1025 could be explained in lots of ways, possibly just additional overhead for using a slot?