Is it possible for splitter to work with vertical pipes?

[Tommy Smith]

It has only 3 outputs: left, right and straight, no up or down. Is it possible to fool it into working?

If not, then - dear developer... can I kindly ask you to please add these directions to them?

[Questarian]

The splitters is a bit odd because, unlike other games, it's more like a suggestion then an object.

You can use it to direct up or down by branching it to either tubes,l or belt ramps. I do this all the time with belt ramps/ladders, particularly early game before I have a lot of quartz for glass.

[Tommy Smith]

What do you mean by suggestion?
They work very well, are deterministic, and well documented. I mean the METHOD they split (send X to left, then send Y forward, then send Z to right, rinse and repeat, skip side if impossible to send anything there) is a bit unusual, but it's clear and precise.

I am already using them to sort and distribute stuff with tubes, conveyor belts and ramps, but what they apparently cannot do, is to influence stuff going UP or DOWN, since these directions are missing from their UI. Stuff like having 4-5 machines directly above each other, and using tubes to distribute resources directly wont work. I have to do this strange "S" pattern, snaking tubes so splitters at each level are horizontal. This wastes space and tubes, and no matter how advanced you are, there is never enough quartz.

[Questarian]

By "suggestion", I mean the movement blocks by themselves don't do anything unless they're on a belt at a junction, unlike games like Satisfactory where they're tangible, stackable, objects. The unique thing about AO's blocks is that you can set the split ratio and use then as control gates.

It's currently possible to use splitters and pushers to direct items up and down, and there are two ways to do it, from one of the output sides:

1. Use the belt ramps in up/down mode to form a straight or spiral.
   
2. Use tubes and their junctions.

I do this all the time. I stack factories, larglely just with belt ramps, and it isn't particularly resources expensive or difficult to do. I use tubes sparingly because glass uses quartz, and that's a nuance resources to harvest or create. I'll post some examples.

[Questarian]

Up/down off splitter examples:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3058291804

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3058291684