A guide to bridges and how they help you achieve efficiency and flow (2024)

INTRODUCTION

First things first, since this section is mostly dedicated to those, who are barely beginning their adventure with ONI - Liquid and gas in pipes flow from the green arrow to the white arrow.

In this example, liquids will flow from the left to the right.

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You can cleverly use the fact that pipes don't differentiate between pumps/consumers and bridges. To them, it's one and the same, since all of them use identical white/green arrows. This makes possible to run liquid/gas in circles without any power once you get the material into pipes.

https://gfycat.com/ifr/AdorableEvergreenBluewhale

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Bridges may seem counter intuinitive, as they teleport packets from white to green. Still, you can kind of rationalise it this way - imagine the white part of the bridge as a vent, where liquid is dropped, and the green part of the bridge as the pump that picks it right back up.

See Also

Pipes and pumps: liquid and gas flow basics | Guides Not IncludedPipes / bridges priority cheat sheetThe early game | Guides Not Included

I hope that this will help you to avoid any confusion regarding the packet direction.

Some people prefer to deal with such a situation by making a one-tile gap between each pipe and then crossing them using multiple bridges, but it looks ugly and takes up more space.

It's much better to do it like this, which looks way more neat:

There is nothing difficult here to explain. Look at it as just an extended version of the second picture (times three :D), with a vertical pipe going underneath the main pipelines.

INTERSECTIONS

Intersections split the flow into two halves, as shown below:

P.S Someone rightly mentioned that the percentages given here should be treated merely as approximation over several cycles of operation. A packet passing an intersection will not divide itself like a living cell in two. It will just pick one route and stick to it.

The percentages therefore is the overall amount of oxygen transferred to each vent over several cycles.

FLOW PRIORITY

MAIN PIPE v. AUXILIARY PIPE

Suppose you have a main pipe that feeds a sieve with polluted water from the showers, but also another pipe with polluted water from a geyser. Suppose further that you want the main pipe from showers to have priority when it comes to feeding the sieve. You can achieve that using bridges:

In this example, unless there is no flow from the main pipe (or the packets that go through the main line are less than full), auxiliary line will push their liquid into the main line and support it, achieving constant flow.

Another example showing how you can make a certain pipe wait its turn.

SPLITTING FLOW

When splitting a single pipe with bridges into two pipes, you have to decide, how you want the piping to behave. There are two options:

• Move stuff ONLY through route 1, unless route 1 is backed up, then ALL go throug route 2.
  NOTE: The bridge below is there only to guide the packets in the right direction. Such an application of bridges is a common one, so don't be afraid to use them like this.
  
• Move stuff EQUALLY through route 1 and route 2. Flow is split in half.
  REMEMBER: the split has to happen AT the green arrow, not after, not before, or else it won't work.
  

MULTIPLE CONSUMERS ON A SINGLE PIPE WITHOUT BRANCHING

Connecting consumers like this can have its application, but generally should be avoided (the three vents to the right will not be used).

However, if you have consumers that needs really miniscule amounts of liquid, you can chain them like this (unless you have like twenty of them - always check if the consumers'demand can be supplied by one pipe)

MULTIPLE PUMPS ON A SINGLE PIPE

This is not a desirable situation, as just one pump is enough to saturate the pipe. It could work with buildings that produce material in lesser quantities (let's say PH2O from carbon skimmers), but as a rule of thumb never arrange them like the pumps below (in a straight line, each green going INTO another green).

Instead, stagger them like this, so an individual producer can never occupy someone else's green output point.

In this case though, you don't need to create four vents to service these four pumps nor four pumps to saturate one pipe line! One of each is enough.

GAPS BETWEEN PACKETS

• Splitting pipes into two lines creates a gap between packets if packet in the side branch is not full (happens all the time with almost all consumers). The problem occurs because the pockets in the main line have to stop, resupply the packet on the side branch (with like 10 g or sth) and only then move further.
  
  (P.S this problem seems to be obsolete as of the launch version!)

  To avoid it, make the split at the green arrow of a bridge. Bridges teleport packets, so stopping does not occur in this example.
  

BUS BRANCHING

Buses is a line of multiple pipes going in the same direction transporting vital resources like oxygen or water. You want to branch out of the bus at certain places to deliver these resources, but having multiple pipes makes this a difficult task.

If you want to branch out with only one pipe:

NOTE: Refer to section SPLITTING FLOW to decide whether it's better for you to branch from the green arrow or the white arrow. Here I'm branching from the green for equal distribution.

If you want to consolidate multiple pipes (for example you have 3 pipes with oxygen and don't want to strain just one):

1. Branch out with the first pipe (shown above)
2. Branch out with the second pipe (AS MAIN PIPE - see relevant section)
   
3. OR: Branch out with the second pipe (AS EQUAL DISTRIBUTION - see relevant section)
   
4. Branch out with the third pipe (again, choose whether it's auxilary or main)
   

PUTTING THINGS INTO PRACTICE

20W PIPE-SENSOR FILTER

Filters based on pipe sensors need constant flow of liquid/gas in order to work effectively and filter out what you want.

Let's again use the fact that materials can move in circles in pipes ad infinitum to achieve that constant flow.

• The "staircase" in the middle is where your liquid will circle around forever, unless picked up by the sensor. (see INTRODUCTION)
• Sensors lie on each of the stairs, waiting for a proper packet to arrive and they filter it out into the branching pipes on the right (see MULTIPLE CONSUMERS ON THE SAME NON-BRANCHING PIPE)
• The very first bridge on the left is there to prevent newly pumped liquid (see AUXILARY PIPE) to pass into the filtering circle before the old liquid circles around and has not yet been picked up.

Hope I helped someone with this guide.

I intend on expanding upon this when I have time

Edited May 30, 2020 by Tobruk
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