Optimising the DYSON SWARM and RAY RECEIVERS | Dyson Sphere Program Tutorial

DYSON SPHERE PROGRAM
Build the most efficient intergalactic factory in space simulation strategy
game Dyson Sphere Program! Harness the power of stars, collect resources, plan and design production lines and develop your interstellar factory from a small space workshop to a galaxy-wide industrial empire
Combining Factorio and Satisfactory on a Galactic scale!
ABOUT THE GAME
Dyson Sphere Program is a sci-fi simulation game with space, adventure,
exploration and factory automation elements where you have to build your
own galactic industrial empire from scratch
In the distant future, the power of science and technology has ushered a new age to the human race. Space and time have become irrelevant thanks
to virtual reality. A new kind of supercomputer has been developed - a machine which superior artificial intelligence and computing capability will
push humanity even further. There is only one problem: there isn’t enough
energy in the whole planet to feed this machine.
You are a space engineer in charge of a project launched by the space alliance COSMO, tasked with a massive undertaking: constructing a Dyson
Sphere, a megastructure that would orbit around a star, harnessing all its
power and energy. Only a few decades ago it was considered a hypothetical, impossible invention - but now it’s in your hands… if you can manage to develop this space workshop in some galactic backwater into a galaxy-wide industrial production empire!
ABOUT EARLY ACCESS
While the core mechanics of Dyson Sphere Program are ready, the game still can grow and evolve a lot - and Early Access is just the perfect place for it to reach its true potential. We believe that by letting players experience the main content of Dyson Sphere Program and actively interacting with them to collect their feedback will allow us to improve the game and make it much better than it would be without this Early Access stage. Our plans are for this EA stage to be about 1 year long. But that is not written in stone
KEY FEATURES
◇ Build a galactic industrial empire from scratch: start with a small workshop and improve it until it spans the whole galaxy
◇ Develop your very own Dyson Sphere, a megastructure that orbits
around a star harnessing all its power and energy, from the first screw
to its completion
◇ Explore a vast universe procedurally generated with all kinds of celestial bodies: neutron stars, white dwarfs, red giants…
◇ Gather resources in planets of all types: ocean, lava, desert, frozen,
gaseous planets…
◇ Research new technologies to improve your factories… and discover
the secrets of the universe
◇ Build mechas to fly, sail or jump through outer space and alien planets
◇ Transport materials across the galaxy to your facilities: thousands of
transport ships will flow endlessly to your factories and back!
◇ Design the most efficient automated factory and production line
◇ Customize your factory and Dyson Sphere to make it unique
◇ Design a balanced power network, producing energy in all kinds of
power plants like wind turbines, artificial stars… through conveyor
belts, and you’ve got technology to help your buildings fit the grid automatically during the construction process. You’ve got the best tools
COSMO can afford to build a massive-scale automated production line
SCHEDULE:
Daily at ~15:00 CET
SOCIAL:
Twitch: / nilaus
Patreon: / nilaus
Discord: / discord
Twitter: / christiannilaus
Tips: streamlabs.com/nilaus
Merchandise: streamlabs.com/nilaus1#/merch
KZbin VOD Channel: / @nilaustv8036
#DysonSphere #Factorio #MasterClass

[@drasticbread249]

I'd played well over 100 hours before the other day when I created and launched my first solar sails, such a happy moment to see them orbiting like that for the first time.

[@Nortonius_]

I’d already seen it on Nilaus stream but when I got to see my own solar firefly ring, that’s still probably the best “whoa” moment of this game so far.

[@alessandrouw]

It is important to mention that the signal strength of the ray receivers are determined by their line of sight towards the sphere/swarm, not the star itself. That's why at 22:45 your ray receiver was still working with an increasing signal, even though it was on a "night" part of the planet. The "subscribe" layer of your sphere was partially visible to that receiver.

[@matthewfortney6310]

Definitely worth mentioning that putting the rail guns on a moon is less than ideal. I made that mistake and would almost lose my entire swarm while the gas giant blocked sight.

[@Nilaus]

Good point

[@Pimpmedown]

this is happening right now to me... now i am trying to rush interplanetary trade and set it up on a planet with 2° inclination.... gotta learn from mistakes

[@Anson_AKB]

quite an important hint to have gotten now, before starting to set this up ... when my home "planet" that i started on is a moon of a gas giant ... and the other two (3-4 AU away, quite a distance without warp, one desert and one lava) have tons of silicon and titanium veins, but (almost) none for iron, copper, oil and water/acid. I'm still bingewatching these tutorials, but according to the titles, there seems to be no tutorial for beginners, eg how to select a starting world, whether to abandon a seed and reroll the universe for a better start, how much it otherwise will slow you down when you need to fly back and forth yourself for these long distances, etc.

[@Pimpmedown]

@@Anson_AKB Well there is none because you cant really decide these things. The things to make a world nice to start is if you have a gas giant with several Moons so you dont have to fly far but that is very rare. I never seen it myself in a starting system. Everything else you will only know about when you already did a lot of research. So there isnt really much helping you to choose the world before playing it. Also about the "when to fly to the next one" really depends on your playstyle. Some people like to fly there early while others automate everything before they do that. This game is all about finding your own playstyle.

[@MutantParsleY]

Best location for ray recievers is the planet inside sphere if you can

[@valiakosilla2413]

Is it really? I think that receiver counts just position of star and do not take distribution of solar sails or parts of sphere into account.

[@t3st1221]

You can also just build a secondary ring at max radius to achieve this

[@alessandrouw]

@@valiakosilla2413 Ray receivers must be in line of sight of the Sphere/Swarm, not the sun itself.

[@wemustdissent]

@@valiakosilla2413 Nope in line of sight of the swarm or sphere not the sun. You can see that in Nilaus video where he plops down a ray reciever way outside range of sun (the ground is dark) but it still picks up signal because you can see the "S" in the subscribe sphere in the sky.

[@valiakosilla2413]

@@wemustdissent I made some very fast tests when I began to build a sphere but it seems that I have missed something. Good to know that it works consistently.

[@MichaelKubler-kublermdk]

Yesterday I had my Dyson Swarm die as I had a production hiccup which ended up causing my 3 main planets to run out of power. I had to place down a whole lot of solar panels and wind turbines to get enough production going again. So note: You don't want to rely on the Dyson Swarm power if you don't have a good enough solar sail production. Also, getting the actual Dyson Sphere via launchers is important, but you need Green Cubes to get the Dyson Sphere Stress research done which lets you create more than just a thin line. Green Cubes need Quantum Processors which compete with the creation of your rockets and launch silos.

[@paulstelian97]

When you get the actual Dyson Sphere you can start relying on it for power because the only way it decays is you explicitly destroying it and convert it into a swarm.

[@eggled1566]

I don't think it affects your conclusions, but I think you misinterpreted or misstated the actual point the rail ejectors target. It makes more sense when the swarm orbit (edit for clarity: orbital plane) is the same or close to the planet's, but the point they target is the tangent point (or very close to it) where the sails' orbital direction matches the direction of firing. To put it in more physics-y terms, I'd say it's the point where the sail's orbital velocity best matches it's firing velocity. Notice how in the video, when your first/inner planet is firing, they are always firing at the "bottom" of the swarm orbit (relative to your subscribe text). If they were shooting at a point that orbits along with the swarm, they would gradually pick up that target point as it rises above the the horizon and occasionally shoot either through the star or at a point closer to the planet. Instead, at the beginning of the video, the top edge of the swarm's orbit is the one "going away" from the planet, so none of your ejectors on that south pole can target that point. At some point, the planet orbits the sun and reaches a tipping point where the bottom edge of the swarm orbit changes from "going towards" to "going away". Because it's nearly perpendicular to the planet's orbit, this is the difference between 89 > 90 > 91 degrees as opposed to normal tangents, but it tries it's best.

[@AriManPad8gi]

I love visiting the sphere and sails, it's so Zen :). TY for doing this

[@1squit]

Thanks, you clarified some things for me, re. swarm orbits and use of ray receivers.

[@Rathan5]

Something about making an atom-like bunch of rings at varying axis-tilts and angles just makes me happy

[@_shogun_gaming_]

great vids as always, but i cant find the vid where you explain how the photon generation works?

[@rampp]

Again thank you for the clear information/tutorial; In my game ive delayed setting up a dyson swarm (apart from some sails), this helps a lot.

[@Nortonius_]

I think i’ve been putzing around with 2 planets and yellow science not automated because I’ve been unconsciously waiting for this video to help me get power sorted!

[@oxyuran5998]

"Just find a tidally locked planet." Usually a damn lot of work and not in any way guaranteed. And then there's me who lucks out with one in my home system... XD In general my star cluster is really nice. Except unipolar magnets I got all rare resources in about 3 systems within a 5 light year sphere around the home system. Pretty great start into the game. :)

[@jefffairchild1854]

Who cares what you have? People care about what you can do for them, not about something that doesn't affect them.

[@mwahlroos]

What's your map number? Asking for a friend...

[@oxyuran5998]

@@mwahlroos will look the seed up when I'm back home on Friday. Remind me again, if I haven't posted by the weekend.

[@ecogreen123]

@@oxyuran5998 **6 months later...**

[@rai2984]

@@ecogreen123 year later

[@MrRABC1]

*I'm sure the dev's have clipped the sound for the EM rail guns firing, lol.*

[@Ramschat]

I'm building my first Dyson sphere, and decided to look if tidally locked planets exist in this game (didn't want to look it up, spoilers!). I found one, and had no idea that they are so rare! Lucky me! It's a star with more that 2 luminosity as well! So my first Dyson sphere may turn out to be the luckiest find I get in this game xD

[@ClockworkOuroborous]

Nice!

[@posi_de]

I have analyzed a few universes and found between 6 to 15 per universe. I assume the probability for tidal locked is around 5% in the code. Nilaus has even 16...

[@Ramschat]

@@posi_de that's odd, didn't he say he found none in his galaxy (in this video)

[@posi_de]

@@Ramschat That's why I checked - would be an usual seed...

[@jonathansmith6050]

I also stumbled across a tidally locked planet in one of the systems near my homeworld. Tidal lock is awesome for EM guns as they never lose line of sight (but I ended up having to set multiple orbits since not every point on the sun-facing side of the planet could hit the same orbit. It's also very nice for ray receivers if you aren't yet messing with gravity lenses for them, as ones on the sun side never lose line of sight to quickly ramp up, and maintain, the maximum bonus for continuous operation even without gravity lenses. That planet is still where I'm producing all my critical photons.

[@frankmc8355]

Do you have any control over the period of the "point" the railguns aim at? If you can A) have a swarm outside of your planetary orbit with B) the same period as your planets rotational period, it would be effectively the same as having a tidally locked planet (depending on how far out the sail orbit actually is) I haven't messed with sails though.

[@supleted]

I was wondering why putting all of my ray receivers at the same spot is inefficient. Thanks for the tip!

[@MichaelKubler-kublermdk]

So should I have my EM Launchers in a planet a long way from the sun so I can ABS Always Be Swarming. But the Ray Receivers on a planet close to the sun so it's more likely to see something from the Dyson Sphere / Swarm pretty much all the time?

[@Ulnias]

I wanted to say thank you for all your tutorials. I am currently working on setting up smelters and assemblers on my main planet as I've just unlocked the interplanetary and planetary towers. So I'm trying to get everything better optimized to help in the future. Thank you so much!

[@gid519]

Just here to see if you updated your game.

[@BleuSquid]

I had no idea tidally locked planets were hard to find. I found one in the 3rd closest system to home. I haven't ventured much beyond that yet...

[@ultrainstinct978]

thanks, needed the info that the ray recievers are feeded with splitters xD.

[@MirageGSM]

Did you ever make the second part of this tutorial? Overall I found all your tutorials to be extremely helpful, especially the Manufacturing and global hubs. Until then I tried to use a main-bus system which was a huge CF... Currently my biggest bottlenecks are graviton lenses. Haven't found a good source of unipolar magnets yet, so that might help...

[@Nilaus]

Unfortunately not. But i am returning to DSP soon, so maybe...

[@billymontag5181]

The very first game I started the first planet in the starting system was a tidel locked lava planet...

[@MrRABC1]

*I was sick of tediously adding sorters so I checked out that sorter mod you have been using and man making giant builds has became fun again... thanks dude.*

[@Tenebrousable]

I think the point it's shooting at is only the tangent of orbit going away from shooter. Orthonogal orbit doesn't make much sense in that case, but still that's the principle.

[@Inferno17]

Love it

[@Tyrfingr]

Some genius coding behind this game.

[@ClockworkOuroborous]

Re sails; well, that certainly explains why the save files become so huge.

[@giin97]

Yep. There's a mod to eliminate the redundant information, simply store references instead.

[@elijahcanning3020]

You said in the beginning you were gonna make a video on Rockets and how to make a sphere, but I don't see it.

[@bela_mnnng]

Dude u got me with your "little hidden underlying message" in the sphere design lmao Got a sub from me

[@iFlu]

Could you make a guide on how to use our massive hydrogen production (which is often jamming the prod of oil based components) for each steps of the game?

[@MrMe917]

For 95% of the game I think the solution is "put it in a tank; many of them" until you suddendly need so much of it not even that amount is going to be enough

[@iFlu]

@@MrMe917 i’m starting my purple R&D and I’m sitting on about 400k hydrogen which is jamming red cubes, graphite, graphene, plastic, organic crystals… already have a fractioner setup with about 20 of them chained but it doesn’t suck enough of the production

[@MrMe917]

@@iFlu that was my problem when I was at that point; when you eventually get to the point of mass producing casimir crystals (for green/white science and dyson sphere stuff) you're going to burn through it like it's nothing. If necessary, dedicate one of your system's planets to just storing it

[@iFlu]

@@MrMe917 I already unlocked casimir crystal I think, don’t need them yet but I could start producing some in order to burn hydrogen more efficiently than just wasted energy in 30 power plant. Thanks

[@killerman0073]

18:20 doesn't look like the point is changing at all. Of course there is angle limitations and planet inclinations but if you pick it carefully it seems possible that you found a point that they are allways shooting

[@keineangabe8993]

It moves slowly but it moves. I thought the same thing and was happy when all my ejectors shot at the same time. A few hours later I was confused because suddenly my hole planet lost power because the hole swarm disappeared.

[@lukelblitz3627]

question why did you never make a dyson sphere around your original star,only a dyson swarm

[@Nilaus]

more valuable to make it on the Blue Giant of Ancha system since it had 6 planets and was 1.622

[@jefffairchild1854]

You say "sorry i'm not gonna tell you that until part 2" but i don't see this listed as part 1, i don't see a link to part 2, and there are tons of videos on the right so how am i supposed to find part 2?

[@Nilaus]

I will have to apologise again. I have not made the part 2 yet. I have tge script written, but the timelapse took a week to make, so it got pushed back.

[@TheSkepticSkwerl]

This actually makes me wonder, if you spin the angle of the swarm to match that of your planet's equator, if it shoots more. There has to be a mathematically precise angle for maximum shooting. hmmm...

[@Nilaus]

I was thinkimg the same, but how can you tell from the Dyson Swarm interface where the referemce point is so you align the planet and the swarm

[@jeremyjakob6048]

What about planets with huge polar inclination angles say 45-90degrees? How would this influence design of em ejectors and orbit design

[@lancejorgensen7756]

I've got a planet with a 70 degree inclination and the majority of my rail guns are firing nonstop. Seems to work really well.

[@jeremyjakob6048]

@@lancejorgensen7756 is it for half the year only though? I guess bottom line is locating at both poles if that's the case

[@lancejorgensen7756]

@@jeremyjakob6048 I went and stood at the opposite pole when the season swapped, but the rail guns on the other side kept firing. I'll have to check it again when I get on next. Over a 40 min rotation, so it's a bit slow to test.

[@madkarl4052]

Ray receivers behaviour : different than from the Rail ejector because their l.o.s. is not with the sun but with the swarm, that is always larger, no ? I dont understand why at the pole rather than the equator...

[@madkarl4052]

I do now.

[@Karrppu]

Just FYI, don't update the game. The latest patch breaks Copy Inserters. Wouldn't want your next video getting delayed by having to place inserters manually

[@MichaelKubler-kublermdk]

Good to know!

[@Nilaus]

thanks, but too late unfortunately

[@Joxer205]

@@Nilaus CopyInserters has been updated, and it is nice that it will be a vanilla feature at some point :)

[@K162KingPin]

I'm on my first play through, I'm up to white matrix production but it seems I must create a Dyson sphere now, I launched a few thousand solar sails and setup a couple receivers early on but canceled the project when I realized the sails expire over time. This may be great power production but its also a resource sink. You spend resources on these sails and 30 mins later those resources are just gone. As soon as I could I started making solar panels automatically. Yes they are pricey early game and I had to supplement with coal power for a while. I could do it much more efficiently now that I have more game knowledge but regardless I went to pure solar power as soon as I could. I started with a single row around the equator. Eventually I increased that to 3 rows around the equator. I dont know how many solar panels that is or if every planet is the same size but I would guess its around 300, def under 500 panels. They NEVER expire, just make power forever. When I finally made a dedicated factory planet I did the same, 5 deep around the equator and I covered both polls with solar panels down around where the arctic circle would start. Total probably 2000 solar panels and they more than supply all the power I will ever need for my factory planet as well as never expiring therefore never wasting the materials I put into production. Mabye I'm just too noob to get it or something but this seems like it is by far the best way to generate power even into late game since you don't have to just keep pumping resources into it forever like you do fueled generators or even the dyson swarm.

[@slimeinabox]

16:16 why does the star have resources? were they going to add STELLAR MINING TO THE GAME?!

[@MaybeSomeoneful]

26:00 that’s what I couldn’t figure out, and when you explained it, it’s so simple and makes sense

[@TimLippert]

When you say orthogonal (deals with right angles in perpendicular facing lines).......everyone else would say "perpendicular" since in examples made by you are literally perpendicular in view angle in relation to the example item........and not orthogonal. correct me if I am wrong here, it just seemed out of place and surely no big deal :D

[@Davidlavieri]

does fps really get this bad at endgame after 300h?

[@briancates3576]

How are you getting 61GW out of that sphere? I have 2 fully enclosed shells and I’m only pulling about 40...

[@thargar1982]

The star has a very high luminosity

[@Nilaus]

Blue Giant 1.622 Luminosity

[@Ramschat]

Mine has 95 and is far from done

[@briancates3576]

Ah that explains it, my star is only .7...all my high luminosity stars were prohibitively far from my local area. I wanted to put my primary base in close proximity to my other outposts during my initial expansion. When I decide its time to scale up to 60 white/sec, I’ll favor performance over location.

[@naikrovek]

is anyone going to say how all this stuff relates? the game narrator doesn't tell you, the game guidebook doesn't tell you, and I can't find a video that describes how the swarm/sphere stuff is related. I don't want to build a swarm, I want to build a sphere. what's the swarm for? it isn't explained. the descriptions for all the technologies in the game read like very bad AI text. what are the solar sails for? how do you build a sphere? apparently everyone knows except me.

[@sneakyshot7886]

yee buddy

[@frankmc8355]

Also, are you sure the power per sail doesn't depend on how large the radius is? It really should according to the physics of it

[@alessandrouw]

The bigger the radius, more sails fit in it, but the power per sail is the same, also the luminosity of the star helps

[@frankmc8355]

@@alessandrouw so yeah, not really following physics. Radiation heat flux (i.e. power per square foot or square meter) is inversely proportional to squared distance from the star according to physics, so power per sail should drop for further away orbits since presumably the area of the individual sails is staying constant.

[@alessandrouw]

@@frankmc8355 Yeah, I don't think the game takes that into account, at least not yet. You can even put solar sails behind a dyson shell, which would limit the luminosity in real life, but in game it will still generate power equally.

[@Nilaus]

yes, I am sure. Power of the Swarm depends on number of sails and the luminosity of the star. As far as I can tell there is no limit to the number of sails in orbit

[@VincenzOmaha]

No tutorial only moar build!

[@iurk0_streaming]

Find a tidally locked planet, set up the railguns in the tropic lines facing the sun, put a crap ton of ray receivers at the equator facing the sun, then profit

[@Nilaus]

so many things wrong with that statement...

[@iurk0_streaming]

@@Nilaus Lol, can you name one?

[@travisjamesmajor]

It just makes no sense to me to use non-renewable power in the early/mid game...

[@Nilaus]

Resources in this game are infinite due ti scaling of infinite upgrades. I will never be in a shortage situation

[@travisjamesmajor]

@@Nilaus Thanks for the reply! Can you expand on that a bit? Do you mean resources are infinite because you can just keep colonizing new planets? Or is there something I'm missing?

[@halo007Mex]

@@travisjamesmajor there is a repeatable research that reduce the usage of veins and increase the output

[@JohnWittle]

Ahhh, I can tell you never got into KSP :P there's a lot of orbital mechanics vocabulary that would help you describe some of these concepts the "plane of the ecliptic" of a planet is the plane of that planet's orbit around the star, so-called because anything *sharing* that same plane is capable of creating an eclipse calling it the 'rotational plane' is actually *wrong*, because rotation is a planet's spin, not its orbit, and because the axis of a planet's rotation isn't necessarily perpendicular to the plane in which that planet orbits. This is true of earth, for instance; the earth's poles are not pointed at solar north/south. If you were going to use a term like 'rotational plane', you'd probably use 'revolutionary plane'. A planet's rotation is its spin, its revolution is its orbit around a star. Seriously go play kerbal space program, there's that XKCD comic where monroe charts his understanding of orbital mechanics over the course of his life. high school physics gives a small bump, then degree in physics gives another small bump, then "actual job at nasa" gives a third small bump, then the line goes exponential at "started playing kerbal space program" :D xkcd.com/1356/ it's a fantastic game there's a ton of other ideas that are simply very hard to convey, and I could feel you struggling to explain them. thinking about orbital lines of sight is hard! you'd be a lot better able to explain this stuff if you'd spent time actually piloting ships into orbits, guiding satellites into synchronous orbits, making orbits perfectly circular, etc, the sort of stuff you do in KSP. Go check it out :)

[@fare-5174]

"You're not going to find a tidally locked planet in your playthrough" A day ago I did, in my home system. Guess that's game seed for you?

[@JADED1620]

zero explanation of photon generation.....

[@SenaMeushi]

Dunno if you've seen the mod, but there's a mod that makes your railguns shoot to any available orbit if their selected one is unavailable. Really really handy.

[@Nilaus]

I literally mentioned that in the tutorial so it wouldn't be suggested...

[@MutantParsleY]

Why do you say EM instead of electro-magnetic? I don't understand nobody reads it like that.

[@Nilaus]

because it says "EM" and not "Electromagnetic". The "Electromagnetic Turbine" is called just that, yet most people call them Green Engines

[@AnotherAgnostic]

So confusing.