Posts by ShneekeyTheLost

Quote from kaylo

I'm confused. This is an HD texture pack, right? Which means optifine can't load it properly (issues with missing and screwed up textures, lighting etc.). So, that means mcpatcher, which isn't compatible with forge. So...how do you install this? That was the reason I'd stopped using Misa's texture pack - all the half-invisible zombies with trippy multi-colored heads and screwed up lighting.

I think you are perhaps a bit confused and misinformed. Allow me to clarify HD textures for you.

Basically, in vanilla Minecraft, HD textures fail completely, with the issues you have described. They always have, and Mojang seems to have no interest in fixing this any time soon, preferring to prioritize content.

MCPatcher was created to do several things, including fixing HD Textures. It was pretty cool, although there are some issues with it (such as being able to play MC without a valid account)

OptiFine was once a couple of independent mods (OptiMine and OptiFog) which did a couple of different things, but mostly performance issues. It was intended to increase FPS and/or reduce CPU usage. Eventually it was merged, and is now an excellent tool for tweaking system performance and/or FPS. While it did that, it also managed to fix HD Textures on all editions other than 'Lite'.

So yes, Optifine now allows you to load HD Textures. It also does a lot of other highly useful things. If you haven't looked it up in a while, I strongly encourage you to do so here

Quote from SpwnX

About less engines you are right, but making biomass is not as easy as gathering milk (Redpower Deployers works great for that).
If you have logger you should make tree farms and use wood for scaffold in IC² generators.

Making biomass is as easy as Reed Farm + Fermentor + Compost. Either set up a wheat farm or just use ash from all your peat-fired engines from all your Forestry setups, either way all you are spending is one dirt per compost, which you produce from your peat bog anyways.

The more important thing, in my opinion, is space considerations in your engine room. I've got an engine room five times as compact by running on biomass. That's a major consideration in many of my builds. Because while i might spread out in wide open spaces, I like having my bases compact.

Quote from CrafterOfMines57

Yes, and through the proper use of transformers, cable loss can (in most cases) be reduced to 0 or almost 0

One can also use energy storage devices to eliminate energy loss as well as increase the amount of energy storage you possess.

For example, if you have a distance of some three hundred squares, you can simply space MFSU's every 40 blocks with fibre cable between them and you'd have no energy loss AND quite a bit of energy storage. Kind of expensive on the diamonds, though. Using copper cabling and spacing batboxes every four squares would be more copper intensive, but it would work as long as the original input is LV.

Quote from Boone

You need an incredible amount of Lapis Lazuli, or reactor will expode. Bad design.

Eh, once you get your quantum suit, you really have nothing that is a lapis-sink, and you get tons of the stuff, particularly with Fortune picks, so it's not like you don't have incredible amounts of Lapis sitting around taking up a few diamond chests anyways.

The mod Thermal Expansion also has a machine for turning netherrack into lava, making it fairly trivial to keep your geothermals running for twice the Eu/tic output as generators.

You should look at my DDoS setup. 1360 Eu/tic with a similar switching out system. And no gold spent.

Also, you can easily expand on my cooling tower to a 6 chamber setup with 14 cells cooling at 16/tic for a total cooling per tic of 224, so you'd only need two to match you comparable coolant tower. In that case, it'd be easier on the iron as well, although it would need a lot more tin, due to more coolant cells being cooled at a time.

You're also comparing a cooling system WITH all the cells involved to one WITHOUT the cells, which is a massive imbalance. If you wish to compare to an empty cooling tower of my design, you'd need:

224 Copper
104 Tin
259 Iron

For the six chamber at 224/tic cooling. So, double the numbers, and compare...

518 Iron vs 240 iron = 278 Iron more expensive
208 tin vs 76 tin = 132 tin more expensive
448 copper vs 508 copper = 60 copper less expensive
0 gold vs 144 gold = 144 gold less expensive

So really, it's a matter of gold vs iron. It's also a matter of not melting down your overclocked vents which pull in more heat than they can handle. My cooling towers can also handle over twice as many coolant cells at a time, meaning you actually need fewer of them to handle the same number of cells, albeit at a time reduction. This means they are far more efficient for a Mk III type reactor with a mid-cycle cooldown.

It really depends on what you want to do, I guess.

Well, there's a couple of ways to do this:

Simple solution: NOT gate which powers the reactor, but when it receives a signal from the MFSU from being full, it turns off. Previously, you didn't need a NOT gate, due to the reversal of redpower on nuclear reactor activity from the 1.106 patch.

Simple problem: When it isn't at full, it'll continue going.

Fix for simple problem: From Redpower2 mod, there's a logic gate called a State Cell. Basically, the signal from the MFSU triggers the state cell, which outputs a signal on a timed response. So, for example, when triggered, it waits at least, say, five minutes or so before turning back on again.

Even simpler solution: The addon mod Nuclear Control has something which can do this.

Quote from Rick

Cooling cells should also provide some minor cooling (less than a normal vent ofc)

I would respectfully disagree. Instead, I'd say that it would draw heat to itself from adjacent components or even from the hull itself. That is, at the core, what a heat sink does, after all, it draws heat to itself by virtue of being cooler than the surroundings, and allowing conduction and convection take place normally.

So rather than requiring it being spoon-fed, accepting heat but not drawing it to itself, it would be more proactive at drawing heat to itself.

Storing more heat would make cycles last longer, but would make it no less complicated to exchange them. Unless you want to make heat sinks so large that they can store up enough heat for a full cycle, all you are really doing is changing the period rather than the amplitude.

Quote from SpwnX

Or place glass above each solar, since snow doesn't form above glass.
Anyway, snow won't stop solar from working i think as snow covers are not opaque.

Quite true on both points, but since he'll be needing four of them to match his energy demands anyways, and he doesn't want mobs spawning on them, it'll kill two birds with one stone.

Quote from DauntlessK

Good to know. I was doing it in a cheaper, crapier way (straight into a batbox and using copper cables) and figured if I could just use glass fibre cables the problem would be solved. I just want to know WHY it either NEEDS a trasnformer (in your case) or WHY it just stops because it feels like it... because i don't think it should be losing ALL the power.

This has been answered several times already, but allow me to take a crack at it this time:

There's this thing, it's called Resistance, measured in Ohms. Basically, it's the universe telling you that no, you can't actually make a perpetual motion machine. At least not until Superconductors came out, but that's a whole 'nother discussion. Basically, it means you lose a certain percentage of the energy transmitted through a wire.

In Minecraft, the different wires have different levels of energy loss. Go look up the actual numbers on the Wiki. That's what it is there for.

Now then, we also need to talk about 'packet sizes'. You see, energy can be transmitted in several sized packages, each with a maximum value. Low Voltage, for example, runs at packet size 32. If you try to output more than 32 Eu/tic into a copper wire, it'll melt. Medium Voltage is 128, and High Voltage is 512. Extreme Voltage goes up to some 2k+.

So if you have a solar panel, it's outputting 1 Eu/tic. So if you get more than five blocks away with insulated copper wire, it's never going to produce any energy.

For this reason, despite the fact that higher voltage wires (other than Fibre, we'll talk about that in a moment) have a higher energy loss per packet, they actually end up lower losses over long distances, because you have fewer packets running through the wire.

Allow me to provide an example:

You have 512 energy you want to ship along 50 blocks.

If you are using Copper Wires, you'll need Low Voltage, so that's 16 packets, each of which is losing 1eu every 5 blocks, for a total loss of 160.

However, if you are using triple-insulated HV wire, despite the fact that you are losing .8 eu per square, you only have a single packet, so you'll only lose 40 Eu total. Three times as efficient!

Now then, Fiber Cable is a different beastie all together. Basically, it's the ultimate wire, since it goes 50 blocks without losing any energy, and can handle up to 512. The tradeoff is that it eats up diamonds like candy, if you don't have RP2 to use silver instead of redstone in the formula. Even then, you still eat up a diamond per six fiber cables.

Now then, going back to your original problem:

Tin cable also can go up to 50 blocks without losing any energy. However, all of your solar panels are only outputting 1 Eu/tic packets. So each one gets hit for energy loss once you hit the 50 block mark, thus losing the sum and totality of your energy production.

Solution number 1:

About 49 blocks down, put in a batbox. This will store energy, and compact it to, at most, 32 Eu/tic. Which means we can't use tin cabling anymore. So use Fiber Cable to get the rest of the way down.

Solution number 2:

See above, but use an MFSU. This will not only store a whopping Ten Meelion Dolllars EU but will also convert it to HV. Meaning now the packet size is 512, so if you do experience any energy loss, it will be measured in half-percents. More expensive, and it assumes that you have something on the other end that can handle HV power, but it's more energy efficient.

Solution number 3:

Find and install EnderChests mod (Chickenbones Version). Have an MFSU up by your solar plants. Have it charge up Lapotron Crystals. Have an enderchest on the other end attuned to it. Complete 100% energy efficient transportation, assuming you have Buildcraft or RP2 to automate the shuffling of lapotron crystals. Most expensive solution of all, but it's pretty boss.

Quote from RockRaiderZulu

This may seem easy, but it is not. That 10253 is my baseline load, meaning the generator must run nonstop. That rules out a nuclear piles above MK1, generators, too-high windmills, water mills, and geothermal. I have a very limited space to fit it in piles, two 9x6x3 blocks, which rules out me adding containments and thus rules out SUC based systems.

And before you say solar or wind, Snow is likely to collect upon the arrays and wind lacks the density to prevent losses related to transmission (solar has a similar problem, but is a little less with HV arrays).

I did get a setup of 72 nuclear piles (18 Quadrant V Mod 0 hybrid breeders and 54 two chamber MK1 generators) that could manage a little over half of what I need, but I would likely need cables to carry a redstone signal to make it practical. (I saw this suggestion earlier today, but did not see a real use until now.)

Edit: I would be able to access the piles from below through the cables it looks like.

Now the set up has 54 breeders and 54 generators. Good thing I have other ways of getting the materials, otherwise I would be in some serious trouble.

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One HV Solar Array produces 512 Eu/tic.

To prevent snow collecting on your solars:

Put down one torch. Now put four HV arrays around it. Congratulations, snow will now never collect on them, because of the torch! Now just wire it up normally, and you're done.

Quote from n1ght5talker

I started out disagreeing with you, but after doing a bit of study I could possibly agree that when duel/quad lifecycles are fixed the copper required won't be too much. This doesn't go for reflectors though, those things just aren't worth the copper.

I didn't see you disagree with my statement about suggesting that cooling components should be more efficent then cooling the core. I'm thinking now thats really the main point of what I want to change. If storing heat in coolant cells and slowly cooling them was better then just grabbing heat from the core, things would be more interesting.

Oh, I dunno... I've got a Mk. II system set up with an output of 1360 Eu/Tic that uses coolant cells transferred into a series of cooling towers. Still working the bugs out of it before I post the finished result, mostly in the automation. RP2 will solve this problem for me handily.

Quote from baturinsky

Let's see. One quad cell = 1/2 uranium ore = 5 copper plates = 40 copper. Four reflectors = 4*5 copper plates = 160 copper.
It costs 200 copper ingots to run 140eu/t reactor... for one cycle. And one half of uranium ore.

If you make copper with UU, 200 copper = 60uu = 10.8kk eu. Huge part of 28kk eu generated. 38%. So, E35NU4 reactor is E/22NU4 reactor.

So, if you want to get rid from some copper - go ahead, but once you burned all of it in copper reactor, you may want to consider other options.

Quad cells are better for higher-output reactors. Lower-output reactors can afford the space requirements of single-cells. But if you're wanting to produce some 2k Eu/tic, you're gonna need quad cells.

Quote from Rick

Doesnt matter single cell uranium doesnt require copper while quad cells require quite a bit of copper. Burning up single cells is cheaper.

Quad cells are more efficient, though. Furthermore, I've yet to encounter a copper shortage after my first serious mining expedition. Quite the contrary, I often skip copper while mining just because I don't have anyplace to put the stuff.

Quote from CrafterOfMines57

I would say that reactors are meant for short, medium, and long term use, however solars are meant for very long term use. What I mean by this is that if given an infinite/very long amount of time, the reactors would eventually reach a point (unless you are using Mystcraft) where there was no uranium left in the world (along with the general semi-scarcity of uranium as is), and at that point the solars would have overtaken the reactors in total eu generated. Plus at the cost of a lot less energy, but less resources you get a no maintenance generator that you can just put down and never worry about again, so overall I would say that while reactors are better overall, for these reasons people are more inclined to create solars and use them as a power source instead.

Yea... here's the thing.

1) How long will it take you to actually exhaust all your uranium in your world?

2) You'll have to run your solar panels TEN TIMES AS LONG to match it.

The question is... are you really going to be running a server/game that long?

I think part 2 should include replacables or consumables.

For example: An Efficiency 7 reactor that requires Neutronium Reflectors to be replaced twice in the cycle, but otherwise runs indefinitely is:

Mk-1 EA NR2

If you are continuously cycling components, you'd need to add a CC to it.

So for my DDoS I'm designing, it might look like this:

Mk-2 EC CC-60kCS

Also, instead of letters, I think it should be numbers, simply because you can hit fractions. For example:

Mk-1 E4.305

instead of Mk-1 EC

If you like, truncate after decimal to make it look like this:

Mk-1 E4

But that's just my opinion.

Quote from Shandolum

Finally after many attempts I've got it.

300 EU/t (5 eff) - Hybrid Mark I / Mark III reactor.
http://www.talonfiremage.pwp.b…c93wwrvgegjc0zz24jnjrksg0

The design lasts long enough for the thick neutron reflector to burn out (after 83 minutes) and turning it into the Mark I reactor below, where you can choose to keep it running at 260 EU/t (4.33 eff) or let it cool down for a little over 3 minutes and replace the neutron reflector.
(untestet ingame, will test in a while)

http://www.talonfiremage.pwp.b…5eomcjpe7zgo8ilmjfg3g8zy8

I've been trying to get to the 720 cooling for continuous running, but it has not been possible for me, but now that it lasts long enough for the reflector to burn out and keeping it safe, I'm quite happy.

Cost: Copper 628, Tin 134, Iron 355, Gold 66, Diamonds 6 ...

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This... gives me an idea, actually.

Set up a reactor that generates more heat than it can cool down as long as the plates are installed, but when plates wear out, it's significantly more cooling than heating. This cools down the reactor, making it effectively Mk. I with a possibility of a higher efficiency or eu/tic rating. Worth possibly exploring, anyways.

You'd have to make sure it doesn't hit critical heat before the midpoint of the cycle, of course, but that shouldn't be too hard to manage.

Now that you can get a reliable 420 eu/tic out of a Mk I plant, I think the tables might well be turning. It would take an awful lot of resources to match that with solar.

By comparison, your array of 49 solar panels produce 49 eu/tic. This produces almost ten TIMES that much.

Quote from Rick

How do you detect when a LZH is empty?

Timing, I'd suspect. That's how I'm doing my DDoS at the moment. I know that my coolant cells overheat at 172 seconds, so I set it up to replace at 160 seconds.

Quote from SSD

Every single one of your cooling towers uses 273 iron and your power reactor 44, so (273*11+44= ) 3047 iron, (8*309=2472) which is 575 iron more. The copper and tin is way higher for your system because you need a lot of 60k cooling cells.

Why do you have twice as many cooling towers as I have in my build? That's probably where you are getting your numbers wrong.

Quote from Rick

Doesnt exactly cools alot. Only 6 per cell and 18 cells can fit in there so thats a poor 114 cooling.

This one cools 27 cells at a total rate of 372 cooling. Cooling rates per cell vary a bit but the in the worst case its 8. On average it cools 13,77 per cell.

http://www.talonfiremage.pwp.b…n830vvl68wg3b8wrjt4i4az28

Ummm... you didn't keep reading and find that design? Although it's only 336 cooling, not 372.