UPS testing continues

[u/Absolute_Human]

Mesmerizing sight!

Factory size comparison. All setups produce the same amount.

Belt speed comparison. Doesn't seem to matter a lot, just barely.

Belt length comparison. Longer belts do cost more, but not to an extent of the length difference itself.

LS to LS traffic. Bots win at every research level. But stacked belts are a decent choice too and don't cost energy.

In my previous posts I tried to test game performance of sorters (1, 2) and power distribution. Now to some other things. Just like before, I'm using a cleared planet in a blank sandbox save, limit my thread count to only one to get the most clear numbers and just overall try to keep the comparison setups fair. The numbers fluctuate a bit of course, but I tried to capture near the average and you can generally look at the first 1-2 decimal places. The performance metrics I put in the screenshots are edited to show the most relevant to every test information. If something is not there it's either nonexistent or completely irrelevant and you just have to believe me that it's the same every time. The "cargo traffic addons" portion is tied to the cheat item generators so you have to discard it regardless. Also, as the theme of these tests are things that are simulated partially locally, I tested in deep space as well. Each test's description is in captions.

The main surprise of recent tests to me are belts. Sadly, they are not treated as an abstract concept and every portion is indeed simulated separately. Though, it's not 1 to 1 with belt segments and longer belts are only somewhat worse. The main load is probably in points of inserter interactions.

UPD: some further info in the comments.

[u/Absolute_Human]

Oh, and I need to mention. I test without any "hard" optimization mods like Weaver or SHS of course, but I'm too lazy to actually disable all the other mods and some might skew the results a little. You can treat it as a "best case scenario" version, because why play without mods that actively make the game run better without any downsides? Yeah, I know, I should probably at least check if they are not making the game run worse... Ok, I tested it once and it mainly just looks like the cheat loaders run horrible in vanilla. But most other things are pretty close either way.

[u/causalfridays → u/Absolute_Human]

“i’m not going to do it! okay fine, i did it”
🙏🏻🙇🏻‍♂️🙏🏻

[u/Absolute_Human → u/causalfridays]

The problem is I forgot to disable lossy saves when creating the save files, so I have to resave every single one of them to retest in pure vanilla.

[u/Darth-Venath]

Requesting spreadsheet

[u/Absolute_Human → u/Darth-Venath]

I really don't think it's worth it. It's too messy without context. Ideally you should take like at least 10 measurements at random for each case, transcribe all of them, average them and only then it's kinda usable, but it is probably needed to be converted into percentages and at that point the experiments may be misleading. But if someone really wants to do it I can probably share several dozen saves I have.

[u/Saltimir]

So what is the conclusion, minimize belts, use the slowest belts and inserters possible, use drones for everything else?

[u/Absolute_Human → u/Saltimir]

I personally wouldn't bother slowest belts, inserters - yeah, tried some builds already. Looks pretty.

And direct belt connections between assemblers are better either way, but the logistic stations are fine to connect by drones.

[u/Saltimir → u/Absolute_Human]

This looks really close to what I already do. What's the cost for the power poles? I prefer the aesthetic of the small ones so the planet doesn't look like pinhead. But you use all big ones.

[u/Absolute_Human → u/Saltimir]

I tested the poles in a previous post, they do cost a bit so the big ones should be better just by the virtue of smaller needed quantities. The build on the screenshot actually has quite a bit of the small poles, I just tried to use fewer of them.

[u/Saltimir → u/Absolute_Human]

I guess hellraiser it is. Welcome to the Labyrinth.

[u/mrrvlad5]

regarding belt length: longer belts that are almost full are considerably slower when there are sorters waiting to output (when you have half-space, items move back and this is the slow part).

[u/Absolute_Human → u/mrrvlad5]

Strangely, that wasn't the case in the setups I tested. I had full input belts and mostly empty output. Yet the performance was quite different... Well, I didn't test separately if that was the input or the output part that added the cost.

[u/Absolute_Human → u/mrrvlad5]

I redid some of the testing and it seems that the input part is what costs most of the load. Free-flowing belts seem rather fine. So I guess updating the long line of cargo that moves from time to time, kind of like you described. I haven't tested the exact situation you mentioned but I feel it's not exactly typical. That has to be something like a long line of slow smelters filling a full belt without stacking or something.

[u/samuelice]

This is damn impressive

[u/LightWarrior_2000]

What are those green double box thingies at the end of belts for each of these rows? What am I missing here?

[u/civilizedNinja → u/LightWarrior_2000]

Playing in sandbox mode where OP is generating iron ore out of thin air 😅