Compact, balancing and fast train load/unload.

[zOldBulldog]

Existing mods:

- There are many large chests mods that help load/unload items from trains, but they all suffer from a UPS hit caused by the number of slots in such chests. Some that allow 1xN chests are particularly interesting as they would inherently balance the load/unload of all the wagons... but such a large number of slots would cause a significant UPS hit, so I don't use them.

- There is a Compression chests mod that eliminates the slots, letting you store it all in one chest, but it is 1x1 so you can't conveniently pair it to loading/unloading a train, so again I don't use it.

- There is even a nice train bulk loader/unloader mod that seems to solve those problems, but the last time I checked it was limited to ores. That would be fine for a belted design, but in a Railworld you need to load unload every type of product quickly.

So, the magic bullet does not seem to exist yet. Or does it? Has anybody yet designed a mod as follows:

- 1xN chest or NxN.
- No slots. Content could be the equivalent of N chests, all in a single virtual slot.
- Single item of course. No mixing of items is needed.
- Should work well in combination with fast inserter type mods like Miniloaders, or do the job itself so that any belts that you connect to the long chest will load/unload fully compressed (yes, up to 6 per wagon if desired).

I know this is a lot, but it has all been done before, at least separately. This could easily become the ultimate train load/unload mod: compact, balancing and fast.

[eduran]

There are many large chests mods that help load/unload items from trains, but they all suffer from a UPS hit caused by the number of slots in such chests. Some that allow 1xN chests are particularly interesting as they would inherently balance the load/unload of all the wagons... but such a large number of slots would cause a significant UPS hit, so I don't use them.

Is there any data showing this UPS hit? I am not convinced that it is really significant. The number of entities you can save by using merged chests should by far outstrip any performance loss from a large chest. But if you are worried about that, you can try Merging Chests and use the startup setting to limit the size of the chest to whichever value you are comfortable with.

- No slots. Content could be the equivalent of N chests, all in a single virtual slot.

Is that even possible without some form of on_tick scripting, which would eliminate any performance gains?

[zOldBulldog]

- No slots. Content could be the equivalent of N chests, all in a single virtual slot.

Is that even possible without some form of on_tick scripting, which would eliminate any performance gains?

The mod Compression Chests does it, so it must be possible.

That mod would solve the issue if it could be sized to NxM or even 1xN and feed it from/to multiple inserters or MiniLoaders, but it is a 1x1 normal size chest.

[Bilka]

The mod Compression Chests does it, so it must be possible.

With an on_tick script which eliminates the extremely minor performance gains that you get from having less chest slots. If you are seriously worrying about chest slot performance you probably shouldn't be using buffers at all, the additional inserters are much more expensive than a few chest slots.