heat interface .. set power?

[ownlyme]

I was excited when you announced the new heat interface, but having tried it, i'm very disappointed.
You can only set it's temperature which eliminates most modding use-cases.
The idea was replacing the invisible reactor in the realistic reactors mod with it, so we don't have to replace it all the time when the power output changes.
Thats why i'd suggest making the power output adjustable, instead of just locking it's temperature.

[Bilka]

The heat interface does not output or consume power, what exactly are you talking about?

[coppercoil]

Maybe we need a new, heat power interface. I agree it would be useful.

[ownlyme]

currently you'd have to use some kind of reactor dummy, with all its complications.
In its current form, i don't see the heat interface being useful for any kind of mod, only for debugging or testing stuff.

[Bilka]

What changes would make it useful for you?

[ownlyme]

to be able to simply set the power output like on the electric-energy-interface.
The target temperature property (or if you have to remove that, the "max_temperature" property) might also be useful, if i imagine other use cases.
I don't think people would need to set the specific heat (heat buffer size) dynamically, that can probably remain in the prototype... it's still pretty simple to just replace the entity in the rare case

Maybe you could also allow negative values, though i'm not sure if that would even be helpful, since there wouldn't be a way to read how much heat the interface consumed. (just like the infinity chest isn't really useful for normal mods since it has no valid "products finished" (or "products destroyed") property/array)

[darkfrei]

What changes would make it useful for you?

We are have infinity chests for items, infinity pipes for fluids, electric energy interface for electric energy. We have also void energy source for free power by entities.

Why heat cheating is much more complicated?

[ownlyme]

What changes would make it useful for you?

We are have infinity chests for items, infinity pipes for fluids, electric energy interface for electric energy. We have also void energy source for free power by entities.

Why heat cheating is much more complicated?

The electric energy interface is very useful, though it could use a "input-flow limit" setting.
> https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Turret-Shields / prototypes / energy_interfaces.lua (39 electric energy interfaces in my case, and i still get complaints that my "infinite research" isn't really infinite^^)
There are probably even mods who use it for electricity production instead of consumption, so i wouldn't really call that one a pure cheating interface.
For the pipes and chests i aggree though, their use seems quite limited.. (see my post above)

[darkfrei]

There are probably even mods who use it for electricity production instead of consumption, so i wouldn't really call that one a pure cheating interface.

The RITEG is internally just an electric energy interface, it's very powerful tool for a lot of mod realizations.

[Bilka]

to be able to simply set the power output like on the electric-energy-interface.
The target temperature property (or if you have to remove that, the "max_temperature" property) might also be useful, if i imagine other use cases.
I don't think people would need to set the specific heat (heat buffer size) dynamically, that can probably remain in the prototype... it's still pretty simple to just replace the entity in the rare case

Maybe you could also allow negative values, though i'm not sure if that would even be helpful, since there wouldn't be a way to read how much heat the interface consumed. (just like the infinity chest isn't really useful for normal mods since it has no valid "products finished" (or "products destroyed") property/array)

As I said in my first reply, the heat interface does nothing with power. So please explain more what you want. If you say "let me set power output" that could mean you want it to consume heat and produce power, or produce power only and do nothing with heat. None of those things make sense without further explanation. Your second paragraph is even more confusing, the interface can already consume heat. So please explain what exactly you want and what your use case is. Something like "I want to make an entity that has the same heat as a fully powered reactor whenever I need it, no cost, no startup time" - this was my aim, so what is yours?

We are have infinity chests for items, infinity pipes for fluids, electric energy interface for electric energy. We have also void energy source for free power by entities.

Why heat cheating is much more complicated?

The heat interface works the same way as the infinity pipe - you set a min/max/exact and it consumes/produces fluid/heat accordingly. By that measure, both of them are equally useful. If you want something else from the heat interface, please explain what you want, I am not a mind-reader.

[darkfrei]

Nevermind, I found what I need https://wiki.factorio.com/Prototype/HeatInterface

Upd:
What the energy is inside of the one degree?

[ownlyme]

to be able to simply set the power output like on the electric-energy-interface.
The target temperature property (or if you have to remove that, the "max_temperature" property) might also be useful, if i imagine other use cases.
I don't think people would need to set the specific heat (heat buffer size) dynamically, that can probably remain in the prototype... it's still pretty simple to just replace the entity in the rare case

Maybe you could also allow negative values, though i'm not sure if that would even be helpful, since there wouldn't be a way to read how much heat the interface consumed. (just like the infinity chest isn't really useful for normal mods since it has no valid "products finished" (or "products destroyed") property/array)

As I said in my first reply, the heat interface does nothing with power. So please explain more what you want. If you say "let me set power output" that could mean you want it to consume heat and produce power, or produce power only and do nothing with heat. None of those things make sense without further explanation. Your second paragraph is even more confusing, the interface can already consume heat. So please explain what exactly you want and what your use case is. Something like "I want to make an entity that has the same heat as a fully powered reactor whenever I need it, no cost, no startup time" - this was my aim, so what is yours?

We are have infinity chests for items, infinity pipes for fluids, electric energy interface for electric energy. We have also void energy source for free power by entities.

Why heat cheating is much more complicated?

The heat interface works the same way as the infinity pipe - you set a min/max/exact and it consumes/produces fluid/heat accordingly. By that measure, both of them are equally useful. If you want something else from the heat interface, please explain what you want, I am not a mind-reader.

with power i mean the heat produced per tick.
I basically want a nuclear reactor without fuel cells where i can adjust the output in-game

the second paragraph refers to my first suggestion, being able to set a negative amount to make it "cool down" by a certain amount per tick.
basically every time i say power or energy in context of the heat interface, i mean heat - since heat is a form of energy

[Staplergun]

Is this not literally what the heat interface entity does?

[darkfrei]

Is this not literally what the heat interface entity does?

I want to simulate a solar collector with the heating power exactly 6000 kW, is it possible with heat interface?

[DaveMcW]

data.raw["heat-interface"]["heat-interface"].heat_buffer.max_transfer = "6000kW"

The wiki page documenting this is non-existent though.

[ownlyme]

Is this not literally what the heat interface entity does?

no.

Screenshot_2.jpg (10.6 KiB) Viewed 5050 times

data.raw["heat-interface"]["heat-interface"].heat_buffer.max_transfer = "6000kW"

The wiki page documenting this is non-existent though.

This might be a good idea, but i wanted to get a way from periodically replacing my entities..

[ownlyme]

data.raw["heat-interface"]["heat-interface"].heat_buffer.max_transfer = "6000kW"

The wiki page documenting this is non-existent though.

This might be a good idea, but i wanted to get a way from periodically replacing my entities..

Okay this wouldnt work for my purposes, as the heat interface's temperature would always be like 1 degree below what it is set to.
But i need to read the temperature, thus require it to heat up normally.

[DaveMcW]

So use a heat-interface attached to a heat pipe. The heat-interface provides throttled free power, the heat-pipe heats up and can be read.

[ownlyme]

So use a heat-interface attached to a heat pipe. The heat-interface provides throttled free power, the heat-pipe heats up and can be read.

that would probably be just as a big workaround as just using a reactor..