Splitter "input priority" does nothing?

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Locane
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Splitter "input priority" does nothing?

Post by Locane »

What am I missing here
http://i.imgur.com/XjlaHzO.gifv
Why isn't the right belt moving before the left when right input priority is selected?

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boskid
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Re: Splitter "input priority" does nothing?

Post by boskid »

Left lines and right lines are independent. It takes from left belt because it is the only one to provide items on the right lane.

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Locane
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Re: Splitter "input priority" does nothing?

Post by Locane »

boskid wrote:
Sun Apr 18, 2021 7:33 pm
Left lines and right lines are independent. It takes from left belt because it is the only one to provide items on the right lane.
If "input priority" refers to the side of the belt and not the side of the splitter, why does the yellow chevron move to the right or left side of the splitter, respectively?

I don't think this is working as intended.

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Re: Splitter "input priority" does nothing?

Post by boskid »

It refers to the belts it takes from. If you set input priority to right, then right lines on both output belts will take from right line of input belts first. If there are no items on right line of right belt then it takes from right line of left input belt.

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Re: Splitter "input priority" does nothing?

Post by Zanthra »

Locane wrote:
Sun Apr 18, 2021 7:35 pm
boskid wrote:
Sun Apr 18, 2021 7:33 pm
Left lines and right lines are independent. It takes from left belt because it is the only one to provide items on the right lane.
If "input priority" refers to the side of the belt and not the side of the splitter, why does the yellow chevron move to the right or left side of the splitter, respectively?

I don't think this is working as intended.
Inserters take preferentially from the near side of the belt. It will only take from the far side if the near side is empty. The splitter will fill that near side of the belt from the non priority input before the far side of the belt is grabbed by the inserter, so the far side of the priority input is never used.
Last edited by Zanthra on Sun Apr 18, 2021 7:45 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Splitter "input priority" does nothing?

Post by Pi-C »

Locane wrote:
Sun Apr 18, 2021 7:23 pm
What am I missing here
http://i.imgur.com/XjlaHzO.gifv
Why isn't the right belt moving before the left when right input priority is selected?
Because it's "Input priority", not "Block input". As you can see, nothing comes in on the right track of the right belt, but something goes out. If there was something on the right lane, it would be put through the splitter before something was taken from the left belt. But if it's empty, output from the secondary lanebelt will be accepted. After all, the factory needs a constant flow of ore! :-)
Last edited by Pi-C on Sun Apr 18, 2021 7:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
A good mod deserves a good changelog. Here's a tutorial (WIP) about Factorio's way too strict changelog syntax!

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Re: Splitter "input priority" does nothing?

Post by BaggyK »

Locane wrote:
Sun Apr 18, 2021 7:35 pm
boskid wrote:
Sun Apr 18, 2021 7:33 pm
Left lines and right lines are independent. It takes from left belt because it is the only one to provide items on the right lane.
If "input priority" refers to the side of the belt and not the side of the splitter, why does the yellow chevron move to the right or left side of the splitter, respectively?

I don't think this is working as intended.
Think of a splitter as two completely separate splitters. One for the left hand side of all the belts, and the other for the right hand side of all the belts.
In the video the left hand side output is blocked, so no input is taken from the left hand side of the two input belts no matter the priority. The right hand side output of the belt is empty, and so is the right hand side of the right hand side of the right most input belt, so the input is taken from the right hand side of the left input belt, on matter the priority.

So it is working as expected.

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Locane
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Re: Splitter "input priority" does nothing?

Post by Locane »

I guess that makes sense, but the yellow chevron moving to the right or left side of the splitter is extremely misleading given that it's natural and intuitive to think that "input priority" refers to the side of the splitter, since it's a 2-lane object.

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Re: Splitter "input priority" does nothing?

Post by Zanthra »

Locane wrote:
Sun Apr 18, 2021 7:58 pm
I guess that makes sense, but the yellow chevron moving to the right or left side of the splitter is extremely misleading given that it's natural and intuitive to think that "input priority" refers to the side of the splitter, since it's a 2-lane object.
Input priority does refer to the side of the splitter. It has nothing to do with the lanes. If a lane has a free output, it attempts to fill that output from the same lane of the priority input side of the splitter, then tries to fill it from the same lane of the non-priority input. A splitter will never fill a free output from the other lane.

The reason only one lane is not being used as input is because that lane is not being used on the output.

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Locane
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Re: Splitter "input priority" does nothing?

Post by Locane »

Oh ok - I see the confusion now.

Splitters won't violate lanes, even if the material in both lanes is the same.

If I have iron plate running on one side and stone on the other, the splitter will never try to swap them, even if told to prioritize one side over the other.

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Re: Splitter "input priority" does nothing?

Post by JimBarracus »

I think this is what you are looking for.

You can add more input lanes but it will give you a balanced output.
The input lanes are used equally.
Attachments
Lane_balancer_mechanics.png
Lane_balancer_mechanics.png (98.39 KiB) Viewed 3388 times

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Re: Splitter "input priority" does nothing?

Post by Zanthra »

JimBarracus wrote:
Mon Apr 19, 2021 11:07 am
I think this is what you are looking for.

You can add more input lanes but it will give you a balanced output.
The input lanes are used equally.
Input lanes will not be used equally. Output lanes will be filled with priority from the opposite input lane using that.

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Re: Splitter "input priority" does nothing?

Post by ptx0 »

you can connect two belt pieces just before the splitter with a condition that one will be disabled unless the other has fewer than 6 items.. or something.

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