Realistic Fusion Power


Adds a new way to produce energy through nuclear fusion. Fully compatible with K2, Angel's/Bob's, SE and IR2. Currently getting rewritten (see end of description).

Content
1 year, 4 months ago
0.17 - 1.1
28.7K
Power

a About version 2.0.

2 years ago
(updated 2 years ago)

I don't know how many people are even going to read this, but I can't think of any better place for an announcement, so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
In case you haven't noticed that little note at the end of the mod's description saying I'm working on a v2.0, then here you go, I am, and this is why I haven't properly updated the mod for so long. Also because I'm currently trying to work on 4 separate projects including this all at once, plus school, so I don't have a lot of time to work on anything right now.

And by the way, sorry for not replying to any bug reports/questions for a month or however long it's been, same reason as above...
I finished most of what I initially wanted to add/change in 2.0 a while ago, but then I decided that it wouldn't be a proper version 2.0 if I didn't completely overhaul how everything works, so here we are.

Here's some of the stuff that will change/be added in 2.0:

  • RFP & RFW will be split into 4 mods: Realistic Fusion - Core, Power, Weaponry and Antimatter, all standalone (with RF Core as a dependency)
  • Lithium extraction/processing from brine, which is a completely new resource similar to oil + more realistic tritium production using lithium
  • Reworked deuterium extraction for more realism (while preserving game balance, of course)
  • Complete rework of the gas/plasma/fusion icons, examples here (note that some might not be used in the final mod & this isn't all of them):

    ...yes, they look very similar to angel's gases, but it's the best asset I could find on google and the gradients make it look different enough I think
  • New graphics for the magnetic pipes

    By the way, I made all of these using only 2D image processing software... the curved sections were even made by just hand-drawing, then adding some blur and noise (because I can't be bothered to learn 3D modelling)
  • ICF reactors which use solid fuel pellets, with graphics by PreLeyZero:
  • Everything will be based on actual scientific papers instead of some random sites I found on the internet, and sources will be provided in a separate file
  • Reactors will be using fully scripted actual simulations of fusion reactors, accounting for as many things as possible (within game balance limitations) without significant performance loss (early tests show ~45ms per reactor on a Ryzen 5 2600)
  • Fully interactive GUI, here's how the current prototype which doesn't represent the final version at all looks like:

    The fusion rate & plasma density aren't implemented yet and it doesn't look as good as ingame because of compression, but you get the idea
  • The whole power production chain will probably be reworked as well, i.e. the heaters, neutronic/aneutronic reactors, heat exchangers, etc.

And as I've said already at the start, I don't really have a lot of time to work on the mod currently without completely burning myself out, so expect this to take a while ("a while" meaning most likely months).

If anyone wants to help and has the skills for it (lua coding, knowledge of particle/plasma physics... or anything you think is relevant, really, but the coding part is the most time-consuming right now), then feel free to message me on discord (Romner#5341). I doubt that it will happen, but if there's enough people then I'll make a server to organize the effort.

As I've said before elsewhere, I'll still update the current version to fix bugs, and maybe sometimes improve performance, but that's about it.
Sorry, but I simply don't have time to add new features/compatibility without abandoning 2.0.

So yeah, that's pretty much it. Feel free to ask if you have any questions.

2 years ago

Thumbs up :)

2 years ago

Ooo. Reactor finetuning. Keep up the good work!

2 years ago

This is SO COOL! :D

2 years ago

1000% up vote

2 years ago

Holy crap this looks amazing. I am excited to use this mod in future playthroughs of things!

2 years ago
(updated 2 years ago)

Very cool! Installed it for the first time on my new SEK2 (0.6 beta +1.3 beta) run.

Imo, the gas/plasma icons could be more "vanilla-fied" if you know what I mean. Maybe can be quickly made on some online 3d editor / sketchfab or something by just having multicoloured balls stuck together representing molecules (a'la vanilla/K2 O2 / Petrol / Sulfuric acid icons). What say?

Same for the pipes, they can be simple recolours of vanilla/K2-steel pipes, like you've used now. I like the colour scheme that these are darker ones, maybe pick the K2 pipes and tint them to be darker?

2 years ago

It looks amazing, but if its 45ms per reactor that kind of already means its 22 UPS with just a single of these reactors. I'm wondering if there is a way to stretch these computations at the cost of responsiveness of the reactor interface, in the end you should be able to run this at 60 UPS at least if its the only mod right?

I really like the idea but we're already running at 30-40 UPS, so further slowdown seems like a no go.

2 years ago

Will it be possible to switch to version 2 without changing the save?

2 years ago

Is it worth waiting for an antimatter update or just a 2.0 version?

2 years ago

Omg this looks really really cool I can't waitt!!! Especially the interface, it looks like the interface of a reactor from a minecraft mod and im all for it. I'm worried a bit about the performance impact but i guess we'll wait and see. Good job dude :D

2 years ago
(updated 2 years ago)

It looks amazing, but if its 45ms per reactor that kind of already means its 22 UPS with just a single of these reactors. I'm wondering if there is a way to stretch these computations at the cost of responsiveness of the reactor interface, in the end you should be able to run this at 60 UPS at least if its the only mod right?

I really like the idea but we're already running at 30-40 UPS, so further slowdown seems like a no go.

That 45ms value is what I get now, aka before I try to properly optimize everything (which I'll do right before everything's finished). Either way, 45ms has absolutely no impact on the UPS at all on my Ryzen 5 2600, so I have no idea what's happening there. Maybe I'm just measuring it differently?

Also, there's only so much I can do in lua. If Factorio somehow allowed mods to be written in C++, performance issues like this would be pretty much non-existent... seriously, I'm running a few calculations every tick and that's somehow taking the CPU several milliseconds when it should actually take barely a few microseconds at most.

2 years ago

Will it be possible to switch to version 2 without changing the save?

Most likely not.

2 years ago

That 45ms value is what I get now, aka before I try to properly optimize everything (which I'll do right before everything's finished). Either way, 45ms has absolutely no impact on the UPS at all on my Ryzen 5 2600, so I have no idea what's happening there. Maybe I'm just measuring it differently?

Also, there's only so much I can do in lua. If Factorio somehow allowed mods to be written in C++, performance issues like this would be pretty much non-existent... seriously, I'm running a few calculations every tick and that's somehow taking the CPU several milliseconds when it should actually take barely a few microseconds at most.

1000 (milliseconds per second)/60(frames per second)=16.666 milliseconds per frame.
Of these, the processing of objects takes 20-40.
IMHO the mod should not consume more than 2ms per LUA.

As for performance, it suffers not from calculations, but from calls.
Try lowering the reactor processing frequency. IMHO All players deep on the side, the reactor will explode with a reaction speed of 1 frame or 10.

2 years ago

Ideally, this complex menu can be a tuning puzzle, after tuning the results are approximated and written into the object as hidden speed/efficiency modules.
If complex LUAs will be executed only when the installation is started manually, then everything is fine, the main thing is that in normal operation it would not take 45 ms per reactor (let it work in static mode as long as there is enough fuel)

2 years ago

I'm really excited for version 2.
Question, will the player facing aspects of it be completely different than the current mod? I'm debating on whether to play with the current version or wait for 2.0.

2 years ago
(updated 2 years ago)

If you want a hand with optimisation then I'd be happy to see what I can do - I have a fair amount of experience with that at this point... Optimising lua can be pretty different to optimising other languages (I promise I can make code look nicer than the old True-Nukes stuff).
I'm reworking T-N quite substantially, so I'd love to have a poke at the support in RFW - I should be able to add some interesting cross-mod support and such (if everything goes to plan).

2 years ago

I hate to be that guy, but do you have any additional details on a timeframe for the update?
You genuinely do not have to answer this if you feel that it would add pressure to your development.

2 years ago

Oh! So happy to find this, wish you strength and inspiration on this quest!

2 years ago

I eagerly await your latest rendition with great anticipation. :3

2 years ago

Hi, i'm a phd student working on tokamak fusion, I absolutely love your mod and have been using the 1.0 version for a while, and I would love to be a resource! I code a lot in python for my job but haven't learned Lua, sadly, but I know the physics if you're interested :) Tried to friend you on discord, if you're wondering who the heck that was.

1 year, 11 months ago
(updated 1 year, 11 months ago)

Okay, so.

First of all, in case any of you've been wondering: I'm not dead yet, and neither is the mod. I had to take a break from all this, because progress has been slowly grinding to a halt and I didn't really want to spend all of summer vacation coding and barely making any progress.

That being said though, I did start working on it again a few days ago — so far I've finished up the GUI and am currently trying to make the actual physics simulation work properly and realistically.
After that I'll have to add a proper tech tree (harder than it sounds), optimize all the code to make it run better, make sure everything works, and then the first release version of RFP 2.0 and RFC should be ready. Then I'll polish it up, maybe also rewrite a bunch of the spaghetti code I've created by refusing to use a graphics library... After all that I'm planning to rework RFW, rework the antimatter part of RFP + make it a separate mod, and then make it compatible with all the other major mods (angel's, bob's, Krastorio, SE, etc.).

All in all it's a ton of work, but I'll try my best to make it happen! Just be aware that it might take a bit, because I do still have a life outside of modding. Also, I will most likely have to pause maintaining 1.0 for some time, because I'd really like to get 2.0 out as soon as possible.

And as for an ETA: at this point I have honestly no idea, but some pre-release RFP 2.0 test version without the tech tree could, possibly, maybe, be done in like a month. I think. Again, I'm just guessing, because I've no idea how hard it'll actually be (yeah, it turns out that fusion is actually pretty damn complex, who would've thought).

Hi, i'm a phd student working on tokamak fusion, I absolutely love your mod and have been using the 1.0 version for a while, and I would love to be a resource! I code a lot in python for my job but haven't learned Lua, sadly, but I know the physics if you're interested :) Tried to friend you on discord, if you're wondering who the heck that was.

Sorry for responding a month late, but could you send me a request again? As I've said I just got to the physics-heavy (and, consequently, equation-heavy) part of this, so it'd be a huge help to have someone who actually knows what they're talking about!

1 year, 11 months ago

If you want a hand with optimisation then I'd be happy to see what I can do - I have a fair amount of experience with that at this point... Optimising lua can be pretty different to optimising other languages (I promise I can make code look nicer than the old True-Nukes stuff).
I'm reworking T-N quite substantially, so I'd love to have a poke at the support in RFW - I should be able to add some interesting cross-mod support and such (if everything goes to plan).

Proper optimisation will probably be done way later in development, but thanks. I'll be sure to message you when I get there.

1 year, 11 months ago

Awesome!
I've done quite a lot to T-N in the newest version, so I'd love to lend a hand in making RFW integrate nicely - with the potential to use my new mod to make adding new weapons super easy - if you want (otherwise I'll write an override on my end).
Also, I'm a maths student, so I'm not sure how much I can help with the equation side, but I can try at least :)

1 year, 11 months ago
(updated 1 year, 11 months ago)

Awesome!
I've done quite a lot to T-N in the newest version, so I'd love to lend a hand in making RFW integrate nicely - with the potential to use my new mod to make adding new weapons super easy - if you want (otherwise I'll write an override on my end).

Compatibility with other mods is one of the last things I'll be doing before I move on to just maintaining the mods (...or making some kind of 3.0? who knows), so that's pretty far down my list of priorities at the moment as you can imagine. It definitely sounds really nice, but I do have to do things one at a time (learned that lesson a few months ago when I nearly(?) burned myself out...). I'll message you when I get around to it (if I'll still remember, that is).

Also, I'm a maths student, so I'm not sure how much I can help with the equation side, but I can try at least :)

The difficult bit is mostly figuring out which equations to use and where, which I think is more related to the physics happening inside the reactor core than the math itself. Either way, thanks again! Message you if I need anything.

1 year, 11 months ago

Yeah, I completely understand - I was pretty done with T-N after the latest update (temporarily - obviously I'll come back to it in a few months).
My main point was that at least for RFW, Warheads should make adding compatibility with mods like SE, Schalls, K2, etc easy in terms of adding like fusion weapons for all the different ammo types.

And I doubt I would be much help with working out the equations - I'm really biased towards the pure stuff, so that's waaay outside my field. Either way, I wish you good luck.

1 year, 11 months ago

I just want to say, I love the V1 mod, the V2 looks AMAZING. And the assets look awesome. I am patiently waiting for it.

I just wanted to ask, if the better heat exchanger and turbine will get a visual overhaul too? It would be cool that they look different!

1 year, 11 months ago

Now, this is what I call dedication. Looks awesome.

1 year, 10 months ago
(updated 1 year, 10 months ago)

Now, this is what I call dedication. Looks awesome.
What I do like to see is a roadmap of what's planned (above) and where you are now in that roadmap, uploaded from time to time.

1 year, 10 months ago

I just want to say, I love the V1 mod, the V2 looks AMAZING. And the assets look awesome. I am patiently waiting for it.

I just wanted to ask, if the better heat exchanger and turbine will get a visual overhaul too? It would be cool that they look different!

Glad you like it.

About the turbine & HX: I will most likely at least rework the textures in 2D (color, contrast, etc.), but it is possible that they will have completely new models if PreLeyZero makes them. Probably just gonna be recolored and stuff though.

1 year, 10 months ago

Now, this is what I call dedication. Looks awesome.
What I do like to see is a roadmap of what's planned (above) and where you are now in that roadmap, uploaded from time to time.

I'll make one when I release the public test version, sure. Assuming it won't take too much of my time that I'd otherwise spend on the mod itself or sleeping, that is.

1 year, 7 months ago

Is the 2.0 still alive as looks so cool

1 year, 6 months ago

What is the state of this, looks extremely cool

1 year, 6 months ago
(updated 1 year, 6 months ago)

Still in development, I just don't really have a lot of time to work on it. Github repo's here though, main branch should probably not crash on startup.

1 year, 6 months ago
(updated 1 year, 5 months ago)

Any chance of integration with the True Nukes mod and its ability to breed tritium in nuclear reactors?

1 year, 6 months ago

Generally the T-N depiction isn't super accurate, and is more because I needed a way - I've also got systems in place to make swapping out the materials super easy, so I'll add compatibility on my end (unless Romner_set wants to do anything specific).

1 year, 12 days ago

Is this Still being worked on? I haven't seen any activity here for a while.

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