My question is: would covering the tubes/pipes with some blocks (the tubes can be neatly covered with those fancy thin slabs made with handsaw) cause the lag to go away, or are the items traveling through them still rendered, unless the player moves away some distance? Have you ever checked it?
Nope that doenst help. I tried once to do so on my older Computer, and i lagged as long as my Waterproofpipenetwork was there (no matter if empty or full). It doesnt matter how you cover Stuff, because Minecraft renders all Transparent Blocks, and all Redpowerblocks except the Ores/Rubbertreelogs/Gemblocks are Transparent for the Renderingengine. You can only try to make a House of solid Blocks around your Contraptions, to cause no Lag outside your House.
thepowdertoy:
That's just a 90°-Rotation of my System, to enable the bottomside of the Machine. This is how my first try looked alike, but i scrapped it due to Spaceconsumption. Also i avoided that Spaceeater with Tincells, because they are also needed for Coolantcells.
I wonder why you didnt came to the Idea, to use my System with the IC²-Machines.
Why is there a Retrievulator adjacent to a Terminator? And is that Blutric Wire really out of Diamond?, because i made every blutric Wire in my Workshop out of Diamond.