Suggestion: Solar panel revision (Thread post attempt #3 - daytime posting)

Quote from Alblaka

EU-SENDING DOESNT FREAKKIN EAT ANY CPU. Dunno how often i've to say that until people keep it in their heads.
Loading/Unloading Chunks with solars on it can cause CPU-drain.
Placing/Removing components to an energy grid can eat CPU.
EU-sending does not.

Ah.. that explains a few things. I was wondering about two things:
1: why I never got any lag: simple: the chunks with all of my solar panels never unload, thanks to a few chunkloader blocks.
2: the supposedly magical "fix" in one of the addon sections did nothing: answered above

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EU-SENDING DOESNT FREAKKIN EAT ANY CPU. Dunno how often i've to say that until people keep it in their heads.
Loading/Unloading Chunks with solars on it can cause CPU-drain.
Placing/Removing components to an energy grid can eat CPU.
EU-sending does not.

In that case, sounds like alot of server owners need to get 'Teleport Pipe's' Chunk loading block then, and have them placed at each site a solar panel setup sits... That saves both lag, server, and solar design altogether...

I'm not going to entertain the topic of 'solar balance' though... If you don't get why they exist in the first place, then it seems you have some environmental/energy management homework to do...

Make solars send larger packets like 512 eu packets so they dont unload/load and all that shit 20 times per second for each solar panel.

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Chunk (un)loading is related to you walking far off, causing the chunks the Solar panels are on to unload.

Reducing the frequency of non-relevant EU packages has neither any relation to CPu performance nor (un)loading of chunks

What's even more said is that I posted a solution to this problem as well after you did Alba... Course, I could understand if a server doesn't have buildcraft installed why a buildcraft add-on solution would not help them, but nonetheless using a block item to keep a section of the server constantly loaded would prevent the 'on-off' lag experience that servers get when ppl move in and out of chunks that contain huge amounts of solars within them. Sure, that would mean that the CPU uptime on the server would slightly increase, but I doubt that it would be so dramatic that servers would be forced to shut down in result...

Quote from Alblaka

Jep, that "Chunk-Block" is a valid concept.

I think I'm going to have to build one of those for the tower on my one world that has the big solar array on it. Maybe it would address the lag issue I was having once and for all. Can't hurt - what's a few iron?

Quote from HeadHunter67

I think I'm going to have to build one of those for the tower on my one world that has the big solar array on it. Maybe it would address the lag issue I was having once and for all. Can't hurt - what's a few iron?

Just be sure to poke f9 and be sure that all of the panels are covered, it'll probably take several chunkloader blocks. (f9 adds a blue outline to perma loaded chunks)

Thanks for setting some of this information straight. Apologies for asking an additional question here, but is/was (in case a change is in the works) any truth to the assertion that the daylight check cause(d) excessive server lag in large arrays? Or was that another cause (the chunk stuff, maybe) ?

Okey, maybe it have been talked about alt and in different theds and places, but the problem in solars is not the lag... (damn, google "MC optimization" or "how to allocate more memory to MC" if you have slow machine).

The main isue with solars are that they are inbalanced in a strange way that in the start you begin to make them and when you finaly got to the late game you should move to higher tier power suply, but there is no need to buid reactor or generator arrays or biofuel factories from needines of higher tier power becouse you have like 64 solars above your head and they already been placed so no matenence is needed so you usualy go with that. (Late game IC2 would be sufficiant material backup to make a reactor or two and Qsuit in play)

The easyest solution I see is to make a recipe for a solar cell. and solar power amlifier wich just have inventory in witch they burn those cells for EU overtime, making solar power cheep in the beggining but maitanence required for powerfull output of EU will be too much compered to lets say making reactor MK I or MK II or crazy one ... The problem is peoples natural instinc to go for expensive but lazy, if you make them move too much around filling the sollar adopters with cells they gona take the easyer way and make a reactor.

I think that one of the larger issues with solar arises from the "maintenance-free" side of it:

Lets say that you need a large number of EUs for a project, or running a base. You have the option of either building a colossal nuclear reactor, and watching it for the entire duration of running, to prevent it overheating, or you could build a load of small reactors, which will run for a few hours, and then run out of fuel, giving you energy, but still at a fairly hefty cost.

Or, you can build a stack of solars, log them onto copper cables, and leave it for an IRL night. Plonk a Mass Fabricator on there, too, and you have a load of diamonds into the equation, too!

Now, I'm not saying that I have a big solution, but the main issue is arising from the ability to "fire and forget" the solar generators, which, as the most powerful renewable source, makes them OP, for the moment.

Perhaps one method would be to stop them generating when no one's in the vicinity? Or take them down to the levels of wind and water?

Quote from Red Lynx

The main isue with solars are that they are inbalanced in a strange way that in the start you begin to make them and when you finaly got to the late game you should move to higher tier power suply, but there is no need to buid reactor or generator arrays or biofuel factories from needines of higher tier power becouse you have like 64 solars above your head and they already been placed so no matenence is needed so you usualy go with that. (Late game IC2 would be sufficiant material backup to make a reactor or two and Qsuit in play) .

Then that would indicate the problem is not the solars, but that the higher tier generators (like the reactor) are underpowered. Lack of required maintenance is not the issue - a well-designed reactor doesn't need babysitiing, except to replace the fuel. I think if we focused all this attention on why people don't use reactors instead, we'd make more progress.

Quote from Bibble

Perhaps one method would be to stop them generating when no one's in the vicinity? Or take them down to the levels of wind and water?

Never used a wind mill, have you? Placed at the build limit, a wind mill will generate about 30% more EU/t during the day - and it keeps working at night. It's just a little harder to set-up.
Let me ask you something: Is it somehow MORE fun for you if your machines don't work as well? I have yet to understand the mindset of people who make recommendations that don't solve the issues but only introduce inefficiency and misery to the equation.

Quote from Alblaka

Hint: In 1.8 standard maximum height is 255.

Hint: That may be but you can't get that high. your still limited to ~128 I think it is.