PC Simplest item-hitbox-size sorter (conveyor belts)

HDanke

Skeletron Prime
Capture 2016-05-28 10_51_33.png


An idea i got a few days ago and was too lazy to build it /
 
Sure. Nice and simple. Items less than a block wide (should) fall through a 1 tile wide hole (wonder how reliable that is in practice). And you can do the same for filtering by height (although a little trickier setup to pull off the ones that don't pass through, too).

So you could burn up the less valuable loot drops, etc, to stop inventory getting full up. Any other applications?

Once a machine has been made to split all items into a grid of options (by width and height, which don't match up perfectly), then someone will have to take it to an all-item world and test *all the things*! (What is it, just under 4k now?) :p:D
 
Sure. Nice and simple. Items less than a block wide (should) fall through a 1 tile wide hole (wonder how reliable that is in practice). And you can do the same for filtering by height (although a little trickier setup to pull off the ones that don't pass through, too).

So you could burn up the less valuable loot drops, etc, to stop inventory getting full up. Any other applications?
Once a machine has been made to split all items into a grid of options (by width and height, which don't match up perfectly), then someone will have to take it to an all-item world and test *all the things*! (What is it, just under 4k now?) :p:D
It's reliable, all items fall in their corespondent spot as conveyor belts seem to offer no inertia.
Considering height differences, the 1-tile width items should have their hitbox always cube-shaped, might be the same for the 2 tile ones (not sure), the 3 tile ones have differences in hitbox-shape, though i don't know how many height categories are there /
 
That would make an amazing video. Drop all the things on at once and see if your machine and the system can handle it :cool:
Except that there's a limited number of items that can be lying around in the world at any time (400, it seems). If more items are dropped, others disappear.
 
Im sure some one could turn that off for the purpose of science! Modders?
"Turn it off"? No, not without rewriting the entire way the engine handles objects. The limit can be arbitrarily raised (how easy that is depends on how much cleaning up of the decompiled source one's willing to do), but no, the deletion of older floating items once the limit is reached can't be "turned off" (unless you'd rather have the game just crash outright).
 
If more items are dropped, others disappear.
You'd just need a (beautiful) assistant to feed the items in sequence/batches, while you (or they, or a team of elves!) pull them out the other side and stick them up into item wracks and/or chests... It would be quite a mesmerizing time-lapse, but one hell of a project to undertake...
the 1-tile width items should have their hitbox always cube-shaped
I don't know, what makes you think this should be the case? (A strict rule, even.) It's definitely plausible, from my (old) testing with item hoiks. So you think there will be no point in vertical and horizontal size sorting?... let's see if we can find an exception, eh?!

Also, would really love to see some animations of this in action, sorting to different hoppers, once people have a nice system working. :happy:
[doublepost=1464435924,1464435716][/doublepost]From aforementioned item hoik guide, some size examples:
Item Size Categories:
Here, the 'size' refers to the height of the item's collision box (i.e. how tall is). In general this roughly matches the size of it's image (or sprite), with some exceptions. 'Size 1' are under 1 tile tall, 'size 2' are between 1 and 2 tiles tall, and 'size 3' are 2 to 3 tiles tall. The height doesn't just determine weather an item (or other game entity) is tall enough to reach a hoik 'tooth', it also determines how far sideways the item will be displaced, on a horizontal hoik. Each jump along a horizontal hoik = (item height) - 1, rounded up to nearest whole number of tiles.

Size 1 Examples - Low value mob drops (including gel, not shown), coins, captured critters, souls, flower material,torches, small furniture, blocks and walls. (Unexpectedly small exceptions bottom left - late game pickaxes.) Also: presents.
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Size 2 Examples - Common mob drops, mushrooms, all banners, fallen stars, potions, trophies, bigger furniture, rarer item drops, most swords, rods, staffs, bars. Actuators look smaller, but are size 2. Death sickle, and some swords, look huge, but are only size 2.
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Size 3 Examples - Very rare, high end weapons. Only dropped (non-crafted) examples are from pumpkin and frost moon events.
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Also: Night's Edge and Venom Staff (credit @jinjoohat below).

Size 5 (Special case) - While most big swords make for surprisingly small, size 2 items (e.g. Fiery Greatsword) the Breaker Blade turns out to be ridiculously big in that department too! (Thanks to Gabriel Iobagiu for this suggestion on YouTube).
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Not always. Mushrooms are 16 pixels wide (exactly 1 tile), but 18 pixels high. Doors are 14 pixels wide and 28 pixels high. Lesser healing potions are 14x24, bottles 16x24, chairs 12x30... in one word: busted.
Well, it was just a guess based on intuition (kinda need to get that worked on, always forgetting) / I tested some of the items that you suggested, mushrooms, bottles and lesser healing potions pass through and fall in the 2-tile hole, sometimes they fall in the 1-tile one and might glitch through blocks. Doors and chairs fall in the 1-tile one as said.
 
Well, it was just a guess based on intuition (kinda need to get that worked on, always forgetting) / I tested some of the items that you suggested, mushrooms, bottles and lesser healing potions pass through and fall in the 2-tile hole, sometimes they fall in the 1-tile one and might glitch through blocks. Doors and chairs fall in the 1-tile one as said.
Yeah, the problem here is that since they're moving, they can easily pass over the hole. If there was a wall right after the 1-tile gap, they'd probably drop through.

Makes me think about a differnt way to do this: multiple layers of conveyors above each other. The top layer lacks the last, say, three tiles, the second layer the last two, the third layer the last one and the bottom layer goes all the way through. The wall they go against can be actuated, though the conveyors continue on the other side. If any items are dropped in, they'd be pushed against the wall and drop to the respective height. Then the wall is opened and they can go to their respective destination.
A similar construction could be used for the height filter: All items go as far as they can and are then dropped downwards into the respective shaft.
 
Just a slight note, unless you plan to dump 1x1 items straight into lava, you need at least 2 tiles deep hole, otherwise same items merging causes them to clip inside the conveyor belt and become stuck.
 
Yeah, the problem here is that since they're moving, they can easily pass over the hole. If there was a wall right after the 1-tile gap, they'd probably drop through.

Makes me think about a differnt way to do this: multiple layers of conveyors above each other. The top layer lacks the last, say, three tiles, the second layer the last two, the third layer the last one and the bottom layer goes all the way through. The wall they go against can be actuated, though the conveyors continue on the other side. If any items are dropped in, they'd be pushed against the wall and drop to the respective height. Then the wall is opened and they can go to their respective destination.
A similar construction could be used for the height filter: All items go as far as they can and are then dropped downwards into the respective shaft.
Now, depending on usage, height sorting might no needed as for practical, non-experimental uses /
Btw, the last hole is not for 3 tile-width items specifically, as weapons like tsunami fail to fall through 3 tile gaps.
 
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