Pipe maximum use issue?

[Talo]

Playing in sandbox with some large scale living areas, I have found that there seems to be an issue where pipes just stop flowing. I am guessing due to the complexity of the path or length in general. Twice I have had systems just stop flowing and block in a straight pipe.

Anyone have some clarification on this? Is this a bug, is there a max sprite count?

Edit: Seems like the game doesn't like it if you have multiple inputs into a pipe as it tries to go against the flow even though IRL the pressure would go the right way.

FIXED:
The issue was that when you have a T intersection you have to bridge at the intake, not the out because bridges are pumps.

[fluxtorrent]

neither. you are mixing inputs and outputs and causing backpressure

[Talo]

I used bridges to fix any directional flow issues and it doesn't work

[Chompman]

Post screenshots for us to see.

Something on your end is causing it such as flux said or a bridge is facing the wrong way.

[Talo]

no the flow works if I do it in parts, but putting it all together causes issues.

[fluxtorrent]

yes, and we are telling you why. But if you don't really want to fix it thats your buisness. You could literally fill the map with pipes so long as you do it right and have no issues. There is no limit, you have created a backflow issue somewhere.

[John Hadley]

You should be able to cut your pipe at some point and all the inputs should be to one side of the cut and all the outputs should be to the other side. If you have both inputs and outputs on both sides of a pipe segment then you will get water trying to travel both directions through it which will cause it to get stuck.

Be aware that a bridge forces all the water from the pipe it is connected to to travel through the bridge until the bridge is full and blocked and only then allows excess water to travel in the direction that does not go through the bridge so if you are wanting water to split and go in different directions without the pipes being full of water, be sure to have normal branches in the main pipe then connect the bridge to the branch not to the main pipe.

[holy-death]

Is there any reason you don't want to simply post a picture for people to point out the source of the problem?

Or do you want to keep arguing that everything is placed properly when - as you say - it doesn't work?

[Defektiv]

Use a valve as a one way check valve. Put them everywhere you want to make sure the game knows which direction things should flow. They don't require power and are good to use for system isolation anyway. Sometimes the game resolves pathing wrong, especially when you're editing complex pipelines.

[snuggleform]

Originally posted by Defektiv:

Use a valve as a one way check valve. Put them everywhere you want to make sure the game knows which direction things should flow. They don't require power and are good to use for system isolation anyway. Sometimes the game resolves pathing wrong, especially when you're editing complex pipelines.

aha that makes a lot of sense

[Lantantan]

Your pipe design should be a single long main pipe. Everytime you split off water from it use a pipe bridge connection! Remember, the pipe bridge has priority, so water gets sucked in there first until that direction is full. So everytime you want to split of water, you have to decide the priority, do you want it to continue to your hydrolizers or is bathroom more important? Give that direction the bridge.

If you do this you'll never have weird backflows again.

[Talo]

The issue is that I have a lot of branches that come back to the main line and the game doesn't understand which direction it should go I think. Like I said before, if you make it too complicated, the game just doesn't understand.

I thought bridges would fix the flow direction issue but i'll try it with valves next time.

[holy-death]

It's possible that the buildings aren't accepting input, because they get a mix they can't work with.

[Talo]

So, the pipes have several T intersections with 2 inputs. This works fine as an output but as an input the flow tries to go against the main flow for some reason, even with a bridge forcing the direction.

[Hedning]

Originally posted by Talo:

The issue is that I have a lot of branches that come back to the main line and the game doesn't understand which direction it should go I think. Like I said before, if you make it too complicated, the game just doesn't understand.

I thought bridges would fix the flow direction issue but i'll try it with valves next time.

Bridges and valves are exactly like machines. Bridges are just machines which output the same as it inputs. They are all a break in the pipe. Liquid can't flow through any of them, instead it enters the input tile and depending on the machine it produces something at the output tile.

When a liquid or gas enters a green exit tile it will look for all white tiles it can get to. If it finds two white tiles it will go to one of them and the gas/liquid behind it will go to the other. If one or the other white tile is backwards you better put a bridge or something in the way so that the liquid/gas on the green tile only sees the first.

[Bokonon]

Screenshot?