Separate null from empty shape#5206

Hi !
It would be great if the empty shape ——– was distinct from null.
The reason behind this is that is, when building a universal factory, we need to analyze shapes corners automatically.
Then, some part of our factory will filter incoming shapes that match that same shape corner.
However, when a shape corner is empty, the signal being sent is not “empty shape” but “null aka empty signal”
In that case the belt filters are disabled and don’t throw the shape in any direction.

Another fix for that would be to throw shape by default in the secondary direction when the signal is off.

i am not sure about why its necessary to have a seperate “Empty” vs “Null” I belive i figured out how to account for that before

Also “null” sent to a filter cause it to stop vs send the shape in any direction and i find that very useful just ot pause an input line when i am working with MaM or at other times when i want to use logic
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The reason is litterally explained above haha. If you can’t differentiate empty shape from null it messes up the filters which completely stop working

The filter has 3 states .. Null = stop the belt
1 or true aka match the signal send the shape through
0 or False aka the signal shape doesn’t match the one on the belt divert

so if the shape is Cu—-Cu then the 1/2 circle is let thru and the others divert … expected behaviour

if the signal is NULL … then all shapes on the belt stop … … if hte signal is conflict for some reason then they stop …. desiered capiblity – for example i use a belt reader that when no shape is on the belt null is sent on the wire … to the filter to pause the other belt until shapes that are ment to meat up in a swapper or stacker are both present on the belts … for instance when a train wagon delivers one shape and a different train delivers another — there are several other uses

I use logic gates and matching to paint things … all the colours are available … when the correct shape shows up … the logic gate opens the correct colour fluid to be sent to the painter
until the belt is empty of that shape … other shapes are diverted … I would really like a sensor to check for the fluid in the pipe and the rate but only belts have that sort of “sensor” so you have to be more crafty in how you manage the logic gates …

the – indicates that part of the shape is empty so I still don’t understand what you would like to have the filter do that is doesn’t do now

I appreciate your interest :) What you say is right. However differentiating null signal from empty shape signal can be useful depending on your factory design. It is also mathematically more accurate.

Specifically, in my factory, but maybe I am being misled somewhere, I create all possible shape corners then assemble them using swappers so that crystals don’t break. First you assemble the 4 corners into 2 halves then those 2 halves into the full shape. However, on assembly time, you need to handle a specific usecase: assembling a corner with an empty corner. In that case, the swap won’t work. So you need to let the non-empty corner go through as is. It is already a half with an empty corner after all.

I do that by checking before the swap if the opposite shape is empty. If so, the non-empty corner bypasses the swapper and goes straight to next assembly step as a half.

However, the signal for empty shape is null and null doesn’t activate any kind of gate or signal. So you cannot create a control signal for your filter by comparing the signal with empty shape to let your corners go sideways. The filter is simply off. So I had to create a workaround to emulate that comparison and it’s a bit dirty and counter-intuitive.

Maybe you managed to create the universal factory in another way to handle empty corners ? Even then, I believe it would be healthy to have several solutions and a clean signal for empty shapes. The goal of such games should not be to struggle for creating basic signals