Talk about bulk processing

[slay_mithos]

Hello everyone,

It's been quite some time since I last played for long enough to get chests of raw ores and cobble that needs to be processed.

I once thought that Factorization was a way to prepare ores into a special form, and then stick into a machine that has a long processing time, but can process multiple items at once.
In a sense, it was true, but I thought that the 5 slots were for 5 stacks, not 5 items, and that it would process the 5 stacks at a time, during those 20 minutes.

Thinking back, it is indeed silly of me to have thought that, because it would give a time per item that would be insanely low, as well as many problems to work on with the output in a single slot.


So now, I am in a situation where I have mined quite a lot, and don't have a real processing line, and I would like to know if anybody knew about any way to make bulk processing a thing, or if we are stuck with processing 1 item at a time, so it's just a matter of having multiple machines doing the same thing.

I have no doubt that some of you have figured out some ways to process all those materials; and I would be really interested to know how you answered the problem.
Please do note that I don't consider most setups I have seen so far as bulk processing, when it's just automating and diluting the process over time, but I tend to do exactly the same usually.

But this time, I wanted to go for more of a factory feel, where it can handle great amount of processing at once without needing a wall of machines powered by a whole roof of ultimate solar panels.

I figured that I would use MFR conveyor belts for conveying at least some of the items to give it more of a feel of a processing chain, but without the actual processing, I'm a bit stuck.

 

[Mash]

Hmmm.

My mind just showed me a large multi-block furnace/macerator-ish machine that can process stacks of items at a reasonable speed. I want this. (I actually imagined a railcraft boiler that was situated to smelt ores stacks at a time- higher heat meant higher speed efficiency.)

As for mass-processing, I simply do the one-at-a-time method. It's a rather... blah method, but it's really all I've got.

 

[MrMaccydave]

It might require a field of solar panels, or some geothermals eating the poor innocent nether, but what i tend to use is a gregtech grinder hooked up to a liquid transposer to refill the tin cells with water. You can use all 4 faces of the machine casing for 4 stacks of processing simultaneously. It does however take up a lot of space with the dusts and tiny piles of dusts, but if you use AE and an interface hooked up to a few pattern set fabricators you can deal with them pretty simple.

After that however comes the fact you would need at least a 1 facing industrial blast furnace, and one or two induction furnaces to keep up with income.

Pipes everywhere, cogs churning and automatic workers (specially if you use golems somewhere).. What more of a factory feel could you want?

Edit: On request i can do a quick build and share pictures.

 

[Poppycocks]

-snippity snip-

The first moment I saw factorization I immediately imagined an upgrade where it's not single blocks, but build-it-yourself multiblocks. Giant rotating cylinder of doom grinders, a motor-and-basin turbine-like mixers, conveyor belt de-oxydizing ovens and arbitrarily shaped and sized pools of acid for crystallization.

The idea has been haunting me ever since.

Heck my brain went as far as inventing the tools and the challenges.. Now only if I had the time and drive to fire up eclipse.

 

[Adonis0]

It might require a field of solar panels, or some geothermals eating the poor innocent nether, but what i tend to use is a gregtech grinder hooked up to a liquid transposer to refill the tin cells with water. [Snip]

You're able to pump water directly into the grinder and it works. You'd be better off having a tank of liquid mercury or something along those lines for your liquid transposer method, since you can't pump mercury directly in.


at the original post, I don't believe what you're looking for exists, all methods of 'bulk' processing, involves sending it through the same machines you would use if you were processing them manually. It just depends on if you're automating a grinder, pulveriser, or macerator.

 

[Bigglesworth]

Why not a simple sorting system feeding into machines via color coded ender chests? Most machines can be fed with cans of some sort of fuel if needed.

 

[slay_mithos]

@Bigglesworth: Mainly because I can do this way more compact without using tons of ender chests.
Not to mention that using too many ender chests is not recommended in a server environment.

I do processing with machines dedicated to a single ore when I really need big volumes, but that's still processing only 1 item per item per machine.

I am playing with ore processing for quite a while now, so I have experimented with most of the 'normal' ways of doing things, and the thread on Factorization here awoke that thought in my mind that we don't have a real way of bulk process, not even for the things we need in big masses.

I mean, for the builders, it's not unlikely to see walls of iron furnaces cooking tons of cobble, because you need that much, and you need it now.


I am glad to see that I'm not the only one thinking about bulk processing, even if just as an idea, because that means that there is a public for a mod that would do that, as long as it doesn't go overboard.
Why not make it a complex multi-block like Poppy suggested?
It could also have a cost in energy and in time that would have two (or more) variables, like a flat base cost, a per item cost, an efficiency ratio based on other components like max heat boiler or greg machines having better output if given a supplementary input.

I was kind of hopping that someone would come and say something along the lines of "Did you know that MFR has a bulk furnace that only cooks cobble into stone, but a stack at a time?".


EDIT:
I don't want to double post, but expanding on the original idea:

Why not push it a step further, with a big cauldron where you can drop even live animals directly inside, that would cook them and allow for the same kind of functions that a vanilla lava blade would do, but in a much cooler way?
How about making the food output as liquid and pump it into IC2 canning machine?

Now that I think about it, that would give a thing to do with this machine too, but that's not exactly bulk processing.

 

[Bigglesworth]

@Bigglesworth: Mainly because I can do this way more compact without using tons of ender chests.
Not to mention that using too many ender chests is not recommended in a server environment.

I do processing with machines dedicated to a single ore when I really need big volumes, but that's still processing only 1 item per item per machine.

One ore for one machine sounds wildly inefficient. Just set up a buffer system and have a few very fast machines doing something constantly. Why have a machine sitting there dedicated to x, when machine y is struggling to keep up with demand when machine x could help. No reason. That just eithe leads to slow processing or more machines.

 

[slay_mithos]

I agree, it's highly inefficient.

But making separate line for each input (or output) makes it possible to make builds around those dedicated lines, like you would find in factories.

It's kind of rare that I finish these builds, but I often start these builds based on a wish for a specific function or look.
Like having my main ways or buildings (depending on inside/outside) with apparent pipes, most of them for liquid, and trying to make it so that those same pipes are actually used, not just decorative green liquid pipes.


As for inefficient, upgrades in IC2 machines render them very inefficient energy-wise too, but that's an other subject entirely.

 

[MrMaccydave]

Along the lines of cooking a stack at a time the closest thing i can find so far are Steam Ovens from Railcraft. Sorry i couldn't be more helpful :<

 

[netmc]

the absolutely fastest ore processing machines are the ic2 ones--tier1/2 with overclockers. nothing I know of is faster. much of the speed of any system comes not from the absolute speed, but from the automation of the system. Once the system is automated, then extend it in parallel.

 

[wolfsilver00]

Applied energestics..

Storage buses to your chests. Then, export buses to machines in the input side. Export buses to machines in the output side. Everything works with just some cable. Thats what i run.

For even more awesomeness, storage buses to factorization barrels, set them to priority one and the rest of the ME-Net to priority 2, put ingots and processed material in the barrels. if you dont want to access the barrels directly from the ME-Net, you coul just simply replace the 20+ storage buses connecting to barrels with 2 or 3 (depending on how much items you want in the barrels) export buses (also priority one) connecting to a factorization router with connects again to all the barrels. (be sure to give it the bandwith and speed upgrades, if not the router will probably clog up).

 

[Avatar]

I'll have to agree with netmc here, while inefficient with power, IC2 is the way to go. If you can overclock a macerator and elec furnace to their maxes (1 item/TICK) then it can handle alot of items, only 1, though i haven't tested this.

 

[slay_mithos]

Got to love how people seems to not read the first post.

I am well aware of IC2 macerators/powered furnaces and their speed when overclocked, at the cost of being highly inefficient energy-wise. When you need a nuclear station per machine, I don't think you can really submit that to others, unless the sole concern is speed over anything else.

My aim is not to process fast, neither is it to process efficiently. It is to find out if there is a solution to bulk process.

But whatever, if neither my poor google skills nor the players' knowledge can find something to do bulk, then I'll ether have to propose that, wait for someone to do it, or do it myself. Knowing that the last probably won't happen, and that we don't seem to be enough wanting that kind of things, I doubt that active modders would take extra time for that.

 

[Mash]

Well, what kind of efficiency do you want?

Macerators provide time and space efficiency.
Pulverizers provide energy and space efficiency.
Grinders provide resource efficiency.

 

[slay_mithos]

That's the thing, I don't want efficiency at all.

All I want is bulk processing, because I find it atractive as a concept.

Is it bad of me to want something different than just the basic "one at a time", and that is not fixed amount like greg does?

 

[Mash]

Okay, sorry. Looking back on it, I realize I read your post wrong.

But, no. I see where you're coming from, I just think that using the word 'bulk' is a bit misleading in this context.
Bulk processing essentially means processing large amounts of items within a time frame. Well, most processors are capable of doing large quantities of items within a reasonable time, they just either need more machines, or upgrades.

If I'm not mistaken, you want machines that can process stacks of items per operation, right?

 

[slay_mithos]

Yep, and bulk is the only word I know that is close enough of that meaning. Batch is even farther away.

It's at times like this that I regret not knowing more specific words in english, if such word exists at all.

 

[Mash]

I user Microsoft Word as my go-to Thesaurus for situations like that. That's probably not nearly the best thesaurus you could find, but I do a lot of writing, so it's on my taskbar.

But, I hear you. I would love to have some sort of large bakery-style oven that you could just stuff stacks of items into in order to cook them simultaneously. If only for the fact that something like that would look awesome.

 

[Petrus]

I am playing with ore processing for quite a while now, so I have experimented with most of the 'normal' ways of doing things, and the thread on Factorization here awoke that thought in my mind that we don't have a real way of bulk process, not even for the things we need in big masses.

If by this you mean we don't have a single giant machine that can do the lot, no, we don't, to my knowledge at least; although I consider that a good thing. Parallelism with per-node miniaturisation is how Nature does things; monolithic approaches have a tendency to fall apart. I never try and build a single giant machine, but instead will try and make something that is as small and simple as possible, and then replicate that massively. Think of nanotechnology, and you'll get the idea.