Selector Combinator quality transfer bugged?

[TidBuryFukles]

I don't think this mode is working at all. See the screen shot where 16 coal signal comes in. I want to spit it back out with uncommon quality. I get no output signal. I have tried many things and have yet to get Quality transfer to output anything. What am I missing?

combinator[imgur.com]

[Hurkyl]

For what you're specifically trying to do, you probably want to use an arithmetic combinator, since adding zero would let you transfer a number from one signal (normal coal) to another (uncommon coal).

To use the selector combinator the way you're trying to use it, though, your target signal -- i.e. the signal you want to modify -- is just the normal coal signal. And the quality you want to change it to should be directly selected.

[Fel]

The signal you use in "select from signal" (all quality variants of it) is removed from the ones to use the transfer on.
It is not a bug as far as we can tell.

If what you want is "uncommon" quality and not the highest quality from the signals, you can use direct selection instead.
If you need it to take the highest quality from a single signal like your case, you could have a constant combinator giving a different signal (A for example) to transfer the coal's highest quality to that signal with a selector (a different wire for the original signal and the one from the constant combinator preferably).
You then connect the output to the input of a second selector as well as the original input that uses the different signal to select, and "each" as the output (to add up all of the coal signals together under the new quality).

This is your best bet when working with one specific item (can also be adapted to work for a specific set of items), but when you want something to determine the highest quality of a bunch of items it becomes a lot trickier (I made one of such system a while ago for someone else but it requires a lot of combinators).

[TidBuryFukles]

Originally posted by Fel:

The signal you use in "select from signal" (all quality variants of it) is removed from the ones to use the transfer on.
It is not a bug as far as we can tell.

If what you want is "uncommon" quality and not the highest quality from the signals, you can use direct selection instead.
If you need it to take the highest quality from a single signal like your case, you could have a constant combinator giving a different signal (A for example) to transfer the coal's highest quality to that signal with a selector (a different wire for the original signal and the one from the constant combinator preferably).
You then connect the output to the input of a second selector as well as the original input that uses the different signal to select, and "each" as the output (to add up all of the coal signals together under the new quality).

This is your best bet when working with one specific item (can also be adapted to work for a specific set of items), but when you want something to determine the highest quality of a bunch of items it becomes a lot trickier (I made one of such system a while ago for someone else but it requires a lot of combinators).

Hi. I don't really have a use case for this mode yet. I was trying it out to understand it. I am sorry but I still don't get it. I read the tool tip, it says: "Output the target signal with the specified quality and its original value". Choosing select from signal it says "Searches specified signal in the inputs and picks the highest quality.". I have one input signal, "16 Coal quality common". I choose to look for Coal. I want to output the target signal, "Coal" with the specified quality, "uncommon" and what I get is nothing. No output. Why is that?

[Fel]

Because all of the input signals are "coal", which you picked for "select from signal".
Since you also selected coal (uncommon coal specifically) as the target signal, it would be empty weird regardless of the presence of other signals.

To explain in more details, the "target signal" is "what do you want to transfer the quality to", usually you would pick "each" (to have it work separately on each input signal) but if you pick a specific signal it will only work for that specific signal.

Direct selection allows you to pick a static quality to use for the transfer.
For example, if you pick "normal" (and have "each" as target signal), all input signals will be transformed into normal quality signals, adding them up if several signals end up on the same signal (for example different quality of coal would get the signal values added up and all output as normal quality).
Of course it works the same way for the other qualities.
If you set the target signal to "uncommon coal", it would transfer the quality only to the input signal(s) that are uncommon coal and ignore the rest.

Select from signal separates all quality signals of the item you selected for it from the other inputs and uses the highest quality among it to use as the transfer for all of the signals (except for that item's).
This last one is highly specific and probably isn't something you would normally use unless you are using a logic where you want to set quality transfer based on a variable (probably an output from deciders and arythmetic combinators).

[Chindraba]

Something @Fel has said, needs to be pointed out, made completely clear, and not ignored.

When a specific signal, coal in your case, is used as the signal to select the quality from, that signal, of every quality, is removed from the signals processed.

The same thing happens in another mode, where a signal is used as the "index" for picking a signal from the inputs. That signal is removed from the list before the list is processed and counted.

In both cases the "control" signal is removed from the rest of the input signals and is not processed along with the rest. Like it never happened.

[TidBuryFukles]

Originally posted by Fel:

Because all of the input signals are "coal", which you picked for "select from signal".
Since you also selected coal (uncommon coal specifically) as the target signal, it would be empty weird regardless of the presence of other signals.

To explain in more details, the "target signal" is "what do you want to transfer the quality to", usually you would pick "each" (to have it work separately on each input signal) but if you pick a specific signal it will only work for that specific signal.

Direct selection allows you to pick a static quality to use for the transfer.
For example, if you pick "normal" (and have "each" as target signal), all input signals will be transformed into normal quality signals, adding them up if several signals end up on the same signal (for example different quality of coal would get the signal values added up and all output as normal quality).
Of course it works the same way for the other qualities.
If you set the target signal to "uncommon coal", it would transfer the quality only to the input signal(s) that are uncommon coal and ignore the rest.

Select from signal separates all quality signals of the item you selected for it from the other inputs and uses the highest quality among it to use as the transfer for all of the signals (except for that item's).
This last one is highly specific and probably isn't something you would normally use unless you are using a logic where you want to set quality transfer based on a variable (probably an output from deciders and arythmetic combinators).

OK, I understand. And I loaded up the game this time and it seems to be working like you say. I swear it wasn't before... I couldn't get any output signal to come no matter what. But anyway, thanks for the explanation.