Factorio Forums

http://imgur.com/a/jFd7a

So let me explain what's happening. I am attempting to fully compress one lane of the belt which is going "down". To do this, I have a bunch of inserters creating the main line of plates, with some plates off to the side to attempt to achieve full compression from the side. However, when the plates from the right attempt to "squeeze in" so to speak, they don't fully compress the belt.

HOWEVER, if the plates coming from the right side are in the BOTTOM lane of the belt on the right side, then they WILL fully compress the belt going "down".

Somehow, side loading the right side of a "down" belt from the top lane won't fully compress, and from the bottom lane will. I haven't tested all the other combinations, but it's possible the issue also happens with other directions for both the main line and the side loading line.

This bug happened both with and without mods.

Side loading is not supposed to compress a belt at all, you should use a splitter for that.

Side-loading doesn't guarantee compression. It just happens that it compresses better than not side loading.

Zeblote wrote:Side loading is not supposed to compress a belt at all, you should use a splitter for that.

Not true, side loading is currently the preferred way to compress, like this:


OP's picture has too few iron incoming to the belt, so there are holes in output. Try inserting to both sides of the belt and then sideload.

Zaflis wrote:

Zeblote wrote:Side loading is not supposed to compress a belt at all, you should use a splitter for that.

Not true, side loading is currently the preferred way to compress, like this:


OP's picture has too few iron incoming to the belt, so there are holes in output. Try inserting to both sides of the belt and then sideload.

You're just balancing the sides of the belt there.

Compression is when you take two source belts and merge them into a single one that is completely filled when moving at full speed.

Good luck making an example where it won't compress though. Only reason i can understand is lack of iron, when it can't compress because there is no plate to put in between when it needs it. Splitters or sideloading, it's identical behavior.

Top 2 have 4 inserters, making the required amount to fully compress. Bottom pics with 3 inserters can only leave gap, as expected.

I'm not sure what your point is. In your examples, you're using splitters to merge two belts into one - that's where the compression happens.

If you used side loading alone, there would be (small) gaps on the output belt.

Zeblote wrote:I'm not sure what your point is. In your examples, you're using splitters to merge two belts into one - that's where the compression happens.

If you used side loading alone, there would be (small) gaps on the output belt.

On the left i use splitters, and in the right it's sideloading. What you should look is the top belt of each setup.

Actually, I just tested it in game, and it seems I'm wrong.

In 0.14.21 side loading causes perfect compression, in every direction.
If there's a small gap on the belt, the items will be shifted slightly to the left in order to fit a new one in.



...but the inserters by themselves don't do that:



weird.

Crixomix wrote:http://imgur.com/a/jFd7a

So let me explain what's happening. I am attempting to fully compress one lane of the belt which is going "down". To do this, I have a bunch of inserters creating the main line of plates, with some plates off to the side to attempt to achieve full compression from the side. However, when the plates from the right attempt to "squeeze in" so to speak, they don't fully compress the belt.

HOWEVER, if the plates coming from the right side are in the BOTTOM lane of the belt on the right side, then they WILL fully compress the belt going "down".

Somehow, side loading the right side of a "down" belt from the top lane won't fully compress, and from the bottom lane will. I haven't tested all the other combinations, but it's possible the issue also happens with other directions for both the main line and the side loading line.

This bug happened both with and without mods.

The problem is the small gap is too small for another item to fit in.

you could use undergrounds to fully compress a belt.
Let inserters unload their contents in an underground. Undergrounds work like a chest and will compress the belt where unloading or sideloading fails.

you could also sideload into an underground but you can onload do that 1 side of the underground(the open side only)

eg. x lane wont drop in materials
-->> >>------
-->> >>------
^x
| |
| |

mophydeen wrote:you could use undergrounds to fully compress a belt.
Let inserters unload their contents in an underground. Undergrounds work like a chest and will compress the belt where unloading or sideloading fails.

Apparently at some point that "feature" was implemented when sideloading into normal belt as well.