Dumping a Block Dispenser's Contents into a Hopper

[M!C]

That only works for 16 blocks though...

EDIT: Sorry, thinking 1D :P

Let's do the math! 2 dimensions (of the 6 adjacent blocks you use one for water, one for lava, two for pistons and two to push the stuff there), 15 blocks length (not 16 since you can't get 4 BDs on the innermost blocks), 4 BDs per block, 16 stacks per BD ...

That's 122880 blocks of cobble, right?

P.S.: I haven't build this (since it's overkill imo) so there might be flaws in my plan ...

[jorgebonafe]

I don't get it. How exactly is this faster then making a series of BD and having the cobble been generated right in front of it? Instead of having one piece of cobble generated at a time, you get as many as the number of BD you have... I don't see any reason to use a piston.

[FlowerChild]

I think it might make it more compact overall, but that's just theorizing on my part.

Plus, I think it's kinda cool ;)

And M!C, you're not limited to a single piston pushing in a line, or even by a circular pattern in two dimensions. You can extend it into 3 and introduce "kinks" into the ribbon, and I don't think there's a theoretical limit to how far you can extend it given that.

For those of you that were on Edolas awhile ago when I decided to start using pistons (something in which I was rather remiss since their release as I always leaned towards using the BD out of habit), I think I'm finally getting the hang of it. My new soul urn factory uses them rather heavily, and the upcoming release includes a feature in that regard that specifically makes use of them.

As I said at the time, I wanted to habituate myself to using them so I could start designing features around them, and I feel I've reached that point now ;)

[M!C]

I think it might make it more compact overall, but that's just theorizing on my part.

Plus, I think it's kinda cool ;)

And M!C, you're not limited to a single piston pushing in a line, or even by a circular pattern in two dimensions. You can extend it into 3 and introduce "kinks" into the ribbon, and I don't think there's a theoretical limit to how far you can extend it given that.

Yeah, I know. The limit for expanding this contraption would be the amount of chunks you can keep loaded at any given time. I just wanted to show how ridiculously large the numbers get after only a small extension.

[Gilberreke]

I think the real limit here is, how fast can you empty the dispensers? Since we have no way of emptying them into chests automatically, we have to make sure they are close together.

Here's how it works imo:
- More than your inventory size can handle is useless, so I'd say one small chest's worth of cobble being stored is perfect
- As close together as possible
- One generator for each BD for speed

So, that tells us that we need two cobble generators feeding into 2 BDs next to each other for more than a chest's worth of cobble. Bonus points if you can speed it up with multiple generators per BD. Multiple people came to the conclusion that 16 BDs is overkill, so I propose you put four of these double BDs in a room, being fed by generators, so you can pull out chests of cobble at any point.

Problem solved!

[jorgebonafe]

I wouldn't say overkill. For normal projects, yes, but then if you decide to build the great wall of china in real size, it wont seem like overkill anymore :P

[Gilberreke]

I wouldn't say overkill. For normal projects, yes, but then if you decide to build the great wall of china in real size, it wont seem like overkill anymore :P

I just placed four of these doubles and tried to place blocks faster than they generate. It's literally impossible. So, no, it's overkill :)

[M!C]

I wouldn't say overkill. For normal projects, yes, but then if you decide to build the great wall of china in real size, it wont seem like overkill anymore :P

I just placed four of these doubles and tried to place blocks faster than they generate. It's literally impossible. So, no, it's overkill :)

If you start thinking SMP though the limit for "overkill" raises quite a bit. ;)

[Gilberreke]

If you start thinking SMP though the limit for "overkill" raises quite a bit. ;)

Sure, so, right now, I have a small room with 8 BDs for one person. SMP? Five people on one project? That's only 40 BDs, not a big deal to set up with 5 players. I even dare to say that there's no 5 player team that can ever use up the output of 40 cobble generators working in tandem to create cobble.