ChunkLoader blocks

[zeus5966]

How much lag do they cause exactly? And should I be blocking them from the game?

[Tomprower]

The blocks force chunks to load just in case Ender chests mess up when making that diamond generator ;)

[zeus5966]

I put down like 5 and the world is unplayable its so laggy!

[Ragnar Homsar]

Well you're forcing chunks to be kept in memory. You're obviously increasing memory usage.

[Reggubha]

It all basically depends on the machine that you are running the server on. A reasonable gaming rig, even a bit dated (gaming computer years relate to human years at about 1:30), can support dozens (hundreds?) of chunk loaders without breaking a sweat, when running a server (and a client).

If, however, you are using a computer from the 1990s, and run both server and client on the same machine, and put down chunk loaders for a reason (to keep a complex processing plant going), then you are in trouble, yes. Although I'd guess that in this case the major contributor to the lag would be the electric/piping systems of the processing plant.

[Yuriy]

I put down like 5 and the world is unplayable its so laggy!

What are your server specs?

I have had up to 30-40 chunks force-loaded and it increased my server's memory usage by ~1Gb after having it run for a bit. Upon restarting the server it was only using about ~600-800Mb. I ended up destroying them all (pain to find them all) and my server's RAM usage dropped pretty significantly. All in all, I think they're nice if limited to 5-10 chunks but forcing a ton of chunks will eat RAM pretty quickly and will require more server restarts.

Then again, my RAM was acting funky that week so I had to up my VDIMM and I haven't had any such problems since.

Note: I play on the computer I use to run the server and usually have no more than 5 players on at any one time.

[DragnHntr]

Why do you need to load the chunks? If the chunk being loaded is pumping dozens of items through pipes constantly and theres engines and other moving blocks and maybe some items are dropping on the ground as well... and you are loading that chunk while trying to adventure elsewhere, that can easily cause lag. Especially if it is dropping tons of items on the ground.

[OmegaJasam]

Ours managed to spill a quarys worth of cobble in one spot instead of going into a recycler.

I had to get on my gaming rig just to load the client X_X'

They're handy, but should be used sparingly

[tabbek]

I run a small server for myself and a few friends who are all what I would term "factory system tinkerers". As such, we make heavy use of the various machine / electric / piping systems.

The biggest issue I have encountered with chunk loader blocks actually has nothing to do with the block itself, but rather the loaded / unloaded boundaries they create.

There was a particular instance I remember troubleshooting in which, once joining the server, even from a lan on a gaming rig (server runs on a dual core 1.5ghz system with the worlds stored in a ram-drive) it was like trying to play via slide-show.

What I found was that items were flowing properly through pipes in the loaded chunks, but when hitting the unloaded boundary, it acted like an open ended pipe, dropping everything traveling on a single block space.

Of note, entirely anecdotal, it seems like 500 items on 1 block space have a higher impact than 250 each on 2 blocks. Could be completely wrong, but I digress.

Ended up being able to make my way to the cobble pile of doom, and one click of flint-n-steel, performance was almost instantly restored.

Moral of the story : If you use chunkloaders for the purpose of keeping a machine system running (machine used generally, not mod specific), be sure that the entire machine system is included in the chunks kept loaded, and that your system can handle the overhead of doing so.

[Aragaith]

in response to the above, do rmemeber you can hit F9 and it'll show the boundaries of the chunks that are loaded via the CL block. very useful to prevent that.

[Yuriy]

in response to the above, do rmemeber you can hit F9 and it'll show the boundaries of the chunks that are loaded via the CL block. very useful to prevent that.

Thank you so much for that! Now I can move mine around to eliminate loading chunks I don't need. Thanks again ;D

[Kotik]

Even after reading this thread Im not quite sure what a chunkLocker block is. Cant find info about it on google either. Anyone know where I can get some info about the use of this "wierd" block?

[DragnHntr]

Even after reading this thread Im not quite sure what a chunkLocker block is. Cant find info about it on google either. Anyone know where I can get some info about the use of this "wierd" block?

Its Chunk Loader

The minecraft world is divided into chunks, they are 16x16 blocks of landscape that go all the way from the sky to bedrock. As you are walking around, only the blocks you can see (or anyone can see if on SMP) are actually loaded into memory. Actually it may also keep chunks you were in recently loaded for a bit as well, I'm not 100% sure on this. The point is that the whole world is not always loaded, only certain chunks.

You can see these chunks occasionally when one or several chunks fail to load, its like a piece of the world is missing and you can see the sides of adjacent chunks all the way down to the void. Like this: http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/File:Ocean_chunk_error.png

This is relevent to technic pack because of all the complex machinery. Your engines and such for example, will not run unless the chunk they are in is loaded. Your quarry will not run, your solar panels will not charge your bat box, your EE flower will not accumulate EMC, unless you are standing near them.

But wait! There is another way to keep the chunks loaded in memory, place a chunk loading block and it will load 5 chunks in a Plus formation around the block. Press F9 to see the chunk boundaries. Make sure your machines that you want to keep running are fully within the chunk loader boundaries and you can continue to pollute the environment and such even while mining far away!

[FrogBash]

Special: Today only! You can have one too for the low, LOW price of 4 Iron ingots.. just place them in a box pattern and POOF! There you have it, a Chunk Loader block!

You are now the new owner of a very useful piece of factory work- Unfortunately, this one is of neutral gender. On the flip side you can name it whatever you want. Congratulations again on your new Chunk Loader!

:P

[The Merchant of Menace]

The ChunkLoader block recipe is 8 iron around 1 lapis now, it changed a while back. You get 4 per recipe tho.

[jakj]

I wish they did a 3x3 load instead of just the 4 adjacent ones. :-( I put one in my house, and then discovered my house is on a chunk corner, so I had to add two more.

[Yuriy]

I wish they did a 3x3 load instead of just the 4 adjacent ones. :-( I put one in my house, and then discovered my house is on a chunk corner, so I had to add two more.

That or only loading the current chunk and just requiring more chunk loaders. Until yesterday, I thought it was only the individual chunk that was loaded into memory so I had to go through and rearrange some things.

Also, for the person who talked about building his or her house on a chunk corner, try turning on the chunk grid (in rei's minimap) when planning builds for anything that will contain machinery or anything you will ever want to load into memory. It helps me a lot when creating factories and workshops underneath my house(s).

[zeus5966]

Well, turns out that it was a newb player that made a energy loop accidentally and lagged the server to unplayable levels. I did some tests and you can generally have quite a few scattered around without any averse effects.

[Jetblast]

Lucky this was posted today, I was wondering, is the block only to keep the areas which you don't visit around much functioning as though your there? Does it load all the chunks from the place its positioned in all axis (i.e. down to bedrock?

Would I need one for the large number of quarries I'm building?

[DragnHntr]

The minecraft world is divided into chunks, they are 16x16 blocks of landscape that go all the way from the sky to bedrock.

...

This is relevent to technic pack because of all the complex machinery. Your engines and such for example, will not run unless the chunk they are in is loaded. Your quarry will not run...

...place a chunk loading block and it will load 5 chunks in a Plus formation around the block. Press F9 to see the chunk boundaries. Make sure your machines that you want to keep running are fully within the chunk loader boundaries...