This procedure garantees that if flows are evenly distributed before a fork, then they will be evenly distributed after a fork. Second, the outer lanes must be balanced. Two extra steps are required in order to reach optimal flow. Note that the second step in the procedure actually can be applied to two sets of lanes as there are two outputs from the first step, and two unforked lanes to recombine these outputs with.Įach of the two lanes will produce an optimal flow, and each need to be applied to ensure all lanes reach optimal flow (see figure below).
Mathematically, this means that the output flow ϕ o u t \phi_\phi^\star(n) 2 1 ϕ ⋆ ( n ). They enforce that the total input flow is distributed evenly across output lanes. In order to fork the bus lane, so-called splitters are built. Note that the rightmost lane is almost emptied of goods after the two forks.
A splitter is present at each fork and ensures the flow gets divided into a new lane. Note the leftmost iron plate bus flows from top to bottom and gets forked twice into underground belts that cross the other busses towards the right. One pattern is to create so-called busses where goods are centralised.Įach bus consists of four lanes where goods flow in one direction.įactories can then fork the bus lanes to re-route some of the goods from the bus to factories that need it.īut what is the best way to fork these bus lanes to ensure that goods still remain available at the end of the bus?Ī screenshot of four main busses in Factorio. Factorio is a game where you build and maintain factories.Īs part of the game, you end up routing goods on conveyor belts.