The Earth collects a total of 173 petawatts of solar energy. That's 173000 terawatts. The total energy emitted by the sun is over 384 yottawatts. Scaling things down dramatically lead to questions of how 9 square meter solar panels on Nauvis collect 60 kilowatts. Additionally, there is a limit to how far down things can be scaled.

So, the dyson sphere being built must be staggeringly inefficient. It must be throwing away at least 99.99999999999% of the energy it collects.

I had the choice of either making the mod realistic or making it balanced. I chose the balance. Perhaps in the future I will add a more complex sphere that will produce many times more. If I can find a something to spend this amount of energy.
And sooo, 1 TW... I have 2 megabases and several megabase maps I downloaded. There are only few maps where the consumption exceeds 100GW

Maybe nauvis has only a smol sun.
Will it turn into eternal night after completing the sphere?
Nice endgame mod.

Maybe nauvis has only a smol sun.

For example, a white dwarf. I've been thinking about it too

Will it turn into eternal night after completing the sphere?

Yes, immediately after the Dyson Sphere is complete. I think that in the future I will create a bridge mod for space exploration so that night falls on all the planets and orbits of the system. Or maybe add it to this mod as optional

It could gradually get darker with every part launched.
"surface.brightness_visual_weights" and "surface.min_brightness" may achieve this well.
These settings can make the night even darker than default.
Not sure if it is a practical thing, but would add to immersion for sure.
Maybe having the mod settings to turn it off would be good, if it would exist.

I figured it was for balance. :-) And that's probably the right choice. I was just struck by the incongruity.

I don't think you could make one that was accurate because I think the game is storing joules and watts in 64 bit integers, and realism with a dyson sphere would overflow those. :-)

"surface.brightness_visual_weights" and "surface.min_brightness" may achieve this well.

Oh, thanks. I think i add this in future. My main task was to implement the base - generator and update the number of satellites when launching the rocket. so I haven't thought about these things yet, but I think it will be possible to add them later, between stage 2 (2/3 and the end of structure). Although the final night will still only come with the last satellite.

I don't think you could make one that was accurate because I think the game is storing joules and watts in 64 bit integers, and realism with a dyson sphere would overflow those. :-)

technically, as far as I understand, this is a value in string, so the game has, for example, YW https://wiki.factorio.com/Types/Energy So, in theory, this amount of energy can still be implemented, even in the case of overflow, as an option by limiting the output energy of a single connector.

technically, as far as I understand, this is a value in string, so the game has, for example, YW https://wiki.factorio.com/Types/Energy So, in theory, this amount of energy can still be implemented, even in the case of overflow, as an option by limiting the output energy of a single connector.

Oh, wow. That's surprising. Interesting.

It must be throwing away at least 99.99999999999% of the energy it collects.

The hologram shows a dyson swarm/bubble though, not a sphere. That might explain it ;).

The hologram shows a dyson swarm/bubble though, not a sphere. That might explain it ;).

Dyson's swarm is one of the concepts of his own sphere. In fact, it is just a more realistic variation of it.

They're all Dyson Spheres. A Dyson Shell completely encompasses whatever star you're harvesting from, literally being a solid layer around it. It harnesses ALL of the energy emitted by the star, while Dyson rings and swarms cannot do nearly this much. Because of the way the display looks and the part is crafted, it is presumably a swarm. Also, maybe Factorio's solar panels are just very inefficient.

It harnesses ALL of the energy emitted by the star, while Dyson rings and swarms cannot do nearly this much.

You're not quite right. A Dyson swarm can be a Dyson sphere if you create a swarm in multiple layers. By the way, this is an idea for a future mod update. Well, how about 10TW+ energy?

It's true that you could create a Dyson swarm large enough to harness as much power as a Dyson shell, but it's cheaper to create a Dyson shell, as the shell is held in place by gravity, where the swarms require satellites. Also, if you're looking for more realism while maintaining game balance, maybe change the ingredients for crafting a part of the Dyson Sphere. Something like: 5x Satellite, 400x Solar Panel, 10x Substation, 1x Entangled Core, 100x Low Density Structure, 1x Radar, and 50x Processing Unit. It's got a lot of ingredients, but also, it gives you free power. Just a suggestion for the recipe.

It's true that you could create a Dyson swarm large enough to harness as much power as a Dyson shell, but it's cheaper to create a Dyson shell, as the shell is held in place by gravity, where the swarms require satellites. Also, if you're looking for more realism while maintaining game balance, maybe change the ingredients for crafting a part of the Dyson Sphere. Something like: 5x Satellite, 400x Solar Panel, 10x Substation, 1x Entangled Core, 100x Low Density Structure, 1x Radar, and 50x Processing Unit. It's got a lot of ingredients, but also, it gives you free power. Just a suggestion for the recipe.

the Dyson swarm was invented because of one big drawback of the Dyson shell- one small meteorite and the entire structure will collapse on the star.
I'll think about the recipe, thank you

Had to necro this to say...

If I can find a something to spend this amount of energy.

Late game Space Exploration is a serious contender. I've built the foundation to bootstrap a factory in stellar orbit, where I'm producing 200 GW from holmium solar panels and steadily consuming 120 GW...and I haven't even begun serious automation yet. Large scale matter and anti-matter production is extremely power hungry, particularly with high level speed modules in 20-slot beacons. Plus energy beams powering most of the local planets and multiple asteroid fields light-years away, and plans for a death laser to quickly sterilize any planet in the stellar cluster. Not to mention producing anti-matter canisters and anchor beams for a certain deep space secret which guzzles electricity. By the time I'm finished, I probably will legitimately be using a full terawatt of power...maybe more.

Crazy as it sounds, there are viable use cases for 10 TW of production.

"Late game Space Exploration is a serious contender."
So you're saying that on top of being an amazing idea, this mod is compatible with Space Exploration ?!
But does a complete sphere black-out ALL the planets, or only those of the appropriate solar system ?
(Sorry if I made mistakes, I'm French and my translation skills are Neflix-and-manga-reading-based ^^)

Late game Space Exploration is a serious contender.
So you're saying that on top of being an amazing idea, this mod is compatible with Space Exploration ?!
But does a complete sphere black-out ALL the planets, or only those of the appropriate solar system ?
(Sorry if I made mistakes, I'm French and my translation skills are Neflix-and-manga-reading-based ^^)

I didn't actually install this mod, no idea if it is compatible with SE or how it interacts with it. I merely stumbled across this and was thinking 1 TW for a Dyson sphere is a bit lackluster, considering that modern humans have a power production capacity of ~8 TW on Earth.

My primary stellar orbit currently stands at 84,000 holmium solar panels, occupying a 7.1 x 0.2 km band and generating 1 TW. Peak consumption is still under 200 GW though, and I'm starting to hit some serious frame rate issues, so it remains to be seen whether the omega death ray and other ambitions will ever come to pass.