Friday Facts #210 - Circuit connector module implementation

[V453000]

I have a question. Why on the first HD transport belt connector there are no wires inside it? They all have prety wires inside except first.

You can connect the belt without enabling any of it's modes so it does nothing.

[AcolyteOfRocket]

Love all this new high-res stuff and it's pretty awesome to see the huge amount of work that goes into every aspect of the game.

One thing I do want to draw attention to is how much 'noise' the connectors and wires make on a 'grid' of lamps.

Take this for example:

Example

Notice how almost 'distorted' the grids seem due to all the wiring and connectors scattered throughout the lamps. Would it be possible to reduce the size of the connector on lamps or shift its position down a little so this is not so prominent?

Keep up the great work!

I'd like to second this, and in fact go further.

Please consider allowing us to remove wires from the screen/ui altogether. I assume that wiring creates groups of entities that share data - would it not be possible to these create groups some other way ? Like by just selecting an entity and using an "add to group" button somewhere, where one could also manage and name groups. You'd need to be careful around entities with multiple wire independent wire connections, but I would much rather see a circuit in a group listing window than smeared all over the main view like it is now.

[terror_gnom]

Wouldn´t it be nice, if we could just sent RGB values to the Lamps?

[Gergely]

You forgot to add a link to this topic in the blog post!

[Klonan]

You forgot to add a link to this topic in the blog post!

Its at the bottom where it always is:

Gif

[ible]

I can think of two ways to get rid of wire noise on lamp arrays.
1. Hotkey that hides wires and wire connectors
2. New technology researched for circuit network wireless channels for radio frequency communication.

[eradicator]

1. Hotkey that hides wires and wire connectors

Or just a simple option "Show wires in ALT-view only", disabled by default. So everyone can chose to use it or not. And it doesn't add any additional hotkeys.

[doktorstick]

The graphical work continues to impress.

For the LEDs, I didn't even realize there was a blue LED until I read it in the text, and even then I had to search for the two blue LEDs. The color choice is, at least for me, unfortunate.

[tazdu29]

Damn !! This new lamp texture is really gorgeous !

@y.petremann I don't think that it'd would be, in term of performance, a good idea to change the sprite every time the value changes.
Maybe replacing the '6' to 'F' (for Factorio)? It will be less confusing, but will keep the relief effect of the lamp's glass, which is imho, really nice!

I'm seconding @zerohourrct idea on wires colors. ! Even if Im not colorblind, that'd be great to define colors in the setting (with a cursor and a RGB code field?).

For the LEDs, I didn't even realize there was a blue LED until I read it in the text, and even then I had to search for the two blue LEDs. The color choice is, at least for me, unfortunate.

Same, the blue and green colors are way too close. It's pretty hard to differenciate them, imho.


I really appreciate these FFFs, it's nice to understand how hard is your devs' job.
So thanks for sharing all of these with us

[Omarflyjoemacky]

Pretty good stuff.

Why is there a 6 on the lamp ? Is it modifiable ? (would work like a lamp with a decal on top of it to indicate a value)

This is a code from the developer. The 6 stands for October 6th, which is the next FFF, which they will announce the release of .16.

[willtree8]

It would be cool to have a black lamp that actually dims the other lamps around it. I would never use this but it would be cool.

[V453000]

Pretty good stuff.

Why is there a 6 on the lamp ? Is it modifiable ? (would work like a lamp with a decal on top of it to indicate a value)

This is a code from the developer. The 6 stands for October 6th, which is the next FFF, which they will announce the release of .16.

Next level conspiracy theory right there ... I never even noticed the 6 shaped coil being inside of there, now not only I can't unsee it, but now also this? OK

[TheTom]

Pretty good stuff.

Why is there a 6 on the lamp ? Is it modifiable ? (would work like a lamp with a decal on top of it to indicate a value)

This is a code from the developer. The 6 stands for October 6th, which is the next FFF, which they will announce the release of .16.

Next level conspiracy theory right there ... I never even noticed the 6 shaped coil being inside of there, now not only I can't unsee it, but now also this? OK

This means you say it is not true?

You know this means it is true If it would just be a conspiracy theory you would not try to debunk it.

[pjf]

These look fantastic! Thank you so much, I'm very much looking forward to 0.16!

As others have mentioned, I'd *love* to see some colour-blindness friendly options for the wires. They've always been a challenge for me to see.

However rather than simply allowing the user to change the wire-colours, I'd strongly suggest adding a *pattern* to the wires for colour-blind mode. Alternating stripes of black and red (or anything and red) are easy to pick out regardless of colour-vision. Combine with different-length stripes for green and it's easy to see which wires are power, green, and red, even in a 100% de-saturated image (which is the gold standard of colour accessibility).

Many thanks again for all your amazing work!

[Alanore]

Happy birthday Friday Facts of Factorio <3

[evopwr]

Bug? Looking at the top row, 2nd from the left, it has the Red network wire connecting to the terminal that has a green "internal" wire attached, and vice versa for the other pole.

[indjev99]

Bug? Looking at the top row, 2nd from the left, it has the Red network wire connecting to the terminal that has a green "internal" wire attached, and vice versa for the other pole.

Horizontal wires bends due to gravity, but not vertical ones...
Shadows for vertical wires should bends. Now, the wires looks very tight.

P.S.
Same thing for all vertical wires, including powelines...

Second these.

[JohnyDL]

Assuming the sun is angled 90 degrees from the player and has a similar slight angle shouldn't the horizontal wires have a perfectly straight shadow to match the vertical wire's slight curved one, could only add to the 3D effect of the game

[5thHorseman]

Bug?

No. Error in the mockup.

[Proxy]

now that i think about it, i wish the shadows wouldn't be part of the Texture but instead a seperate thing, so that it could corospond to the time of day and nearly light sources.

I mean comeon, it is kinda silly if you place a light to the right of something and the shadow is visible under the lamp itself.