Re-work the conveyor system so that it doesn't actively track items passing through it.

Suicide Neil shared this feedback ago

Submitted

As I understand it, long ago when conveyor tubes had glass, the game was coded so that you could actively ( and constantly... ) see the progress of items passing through the conveyor system. Glass conveyor tubes were abandoned a long, long time ago, but the game was never updated to remove this 'inventory tracking' system, and it is highly likely that this is the cause of so much lag when there are large production systems or conveyored up weapons/welders/grinders etc etc that is constantly being monitored for the movement of components unneccessarily.

I have a feeling that removing this 'feature' and simply going to a 'yes/no' type of inventory tracking system ( if components are present, then they can go to where they are needed, if not, then they don't- far more simple ) that will greatly reduce CPU load and reduce lag and sim-speed slow downs as a result.

Worth looking into as it seems like something that has been forgotten or overlooked in all the updates that have done so much good, resulting in the changes not being as effective as they could be...

I like this feedback

Replies (3)

John Doe ●

Not sure why my previous comment was deleted. Didn't even get notified.

Maybe it was the link to a related issue?

The end of the url is dedicated-server-outages-with-high-thread-usage-by-extending-the-conveyor-system

Basically any player can lag the entire server with many conveyor junctions.

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Suicide Neil ●

Can't have people pointing out that the devs coding SE are hack-jobs, can we?...

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Alboridian ●

I don't think conveyors ever worked like this. Yes, they had glass... The original intent was to see items passing through. But that never materialized and they've abandoned that idea.

Conveyors simply check for connections. They don't even look at items.

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Burstar ●

Golly, if it was in a video on the internet its gotta be true!

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Suicide Neil ●

'I don't think' sounds like guessing, not a definite answer. I'm sure though that the devs will be very forthcoming with an explanation of how the conveyor system actually works & will be happy to debunk any rumours. Oh, wait...

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Malware ●

The conveyors are not tracking the items moving through them and they have never worked that way. The things taking time now and again is the pathfinding of the potential routes when grids change, connect and disconnect and so forth. The more routes, the slower it will be.

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Frigidman ●

Yet people still seem to believe items moved through them visually, thus causing lag even today ...

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Suicide Neil ●

Never believed they did, believe that was the original plan- hence the transparent glass panels in early development allowing you to see the insides of the conveyor tubes; no reason to have glass and all the visual ( reflectivity & such ) issues they cause otherwise. They soon switched over to solid tubes when that idea didn't pan out.

Malware got it right though- this is why we keep asking for simple 3 way & 4 way conveyor junctions to cut down on the processing required for complex conveyor systems that are forced to use the 6 way junctions.

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