[0.11.14] 10k of solar panels cause the game to lag

[DRBLN]

We have been playing MP for 105 hours and we don't experience any significant lags.
Currently we have 9.6k of solar panels, but if we build over 10k of solar panels, then the game starts to lag a lot.

Please, could you solve that bug or add solar panels with more power output or add solar panel clasters.

That's our map at max zoom:

[DaveMcW]

Please provide a save, or take a screenshot with F5 info.

[DRBLN]

Savegame:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/exscjyuskc1g1pk/12.zip?dl=0

[Rseding91]

I took a look at the game and it's not the solar panels using most of the tick time.

You're simply running so much (so many inserters, machines, trains, radars) that it's at the limits of what can currently run without slowdown. Not to say there aren't areas for improvement. You just happened to notice it right around the time you started making more solar panels.

If you turn on the debug information (F5) and look at update times you can see the electric network is taking 1.1~ MS/tick out of 14-16~ MS/tick with the rest being entity updates (inserters, machines, biters and so on).

Of the things taking the most tick time in your game the Trains are up there. They're talking a little under half the tick time of everything you've got running (4-5 MS).

[DRBLN]

I took a look at the game and it's not the solar panels using most of the tick time.

You're simply running so much (so many inserters, machines, trains, radars) that it's at the limits of what can currently run without slowdown. Not to say there aren't areas for improvement. You just happened to notice it right around the time you started making more solar panels.

If you turn on the debug information (F5) and look at update times you can see the electric network is taking 1.1~ MS/tick out of 14-16~ MS/tick with the rest being entity updates (inserters, machines, biters and so on).

Of the things taking the most tick time in your game the Trains are up there. They're talking a little under half the tick time of everything you've got running (4-5 MS).

How do you see that detailed statistics?
I don't see that in F5

[dee-]

there are three debug views: F5, F6 and F7 with F7 being the most detailed
you can configure what you see in each view with F4

[Cloner]

If you turn on the debug information (F5) and look at update times you can see the electric network is taking 1.1~ MS/tick out of 14-16~ MS/tick with the rest being entity updates

But still thats a lot and really limits the factory size, as I would gladly add another 10k solars but cant. Perhaps having some bigger solars would help (having a 12x12 solar with same stats as 16 regular panels) would cause 1/16 the lag.

[Rseding91]

But still thats a lot and really limits the factory size, as I would gladly add another 10k solars but cant. Perhaps having some bigger solars would help (having a 12x12 solar with same stats as 16 regular panels) would cause 1/16 the lag.

Try it once. Add a modded solar panel that outputs 500GW and replace all your solar panels with the one. The electric network update time won't change much/enough to be noticed. The time it's taking now is powering all of the devices you've got that need power - not the generation of power from the solar panels.

[FishSandwich]

If you turn on the debug information (F5) and look at update times you can see the electric network is taking 1.1~ MS/tick out of 14-16~ MS/tick with the rest being entity updates

But still thats a lot and really limits the factory size, as I would gladly add another 10k solars but cant. Perhaps having some bigger solars would help (having a 12x12 solar with same stats as 16 regular panels) would cause 1/16 the lag.

Why don't you mod it or post the suggestion here?

[Cloner]

Tryed the mod, lag totally eliminated. I wish the game was more optimized, and if not, had a bigger solar panel so we dont need 10 000 of them.

[hoho]

I wonder how easy would it be to have "multiblocks" in factorio.

I mean something like a single controller building that manages N real ones. In this case, a sort of "hub" does all the electricity output but that output is determined by the amount of solar panels around. Solar panels themselves are completely static and cause no code to run each tick. The hub simply has to know when another solar panel is added/removed to change the energy output.

That would be the best of both worlds:
- still need to spend land area for expanding power production
- less time spent on electricity calculations


I wonder if something like that could be built around the concept that logistics network uses for managing what chests are in network.


Or, alternatively, considering that every single solar panel in the game always produces exactly the same amount of power there really is no need to calculate the stuff for each and every one independently. Just calculate how many panels are there in the network and multiply that with the output of a single solar panel.

[Rseding91]

Tryed the mod, lag totally eliminated. I wish the game was more optimized, and if not, had a bigger solar panel so we dont need 10 000 of them.

You've got a snapshot of the game with 10,000 solar panels and then one with just a single solar panel with no time between them?

Chances are you took a ton of time to remove all of the 10,000 solar panels before building the modded ones which gave the game time to do a lot of other things (such as reduce pollution, kill biters, buffers to fill in machines and go idle).