Bridge Engineers needed....

[cammo2003]

Hmm, looking good as always, jeronij!

And thanks for the fix on the Tsing Ma Bridge, it's going to form the most important river crossing in my region. And this new one is looking great for some of my less important crossings in the north of my region.

[stewart_garden]

I like it Jeronij!  It is a very attractive bridge.

Whilst I agree with the comments that it looks a bit slender at midspan, your use of extra-strong concrete is noted!

If you did think about refining the model then perhaps you might consider making the arch rib marginally thicker and making the deck (roadway) a little deeper.  Nevertheless I would use it in my city without any modifications, so well done  .  I might ban heavy trucks from using it until I am satisfied your extra-strong concrete is really extra-strong though 

Stewart

[tommiej]

those bridges look very nice!! i really want them i my cities!

[pilotdaryl]

Hey Jeronij, although I'm not much of a good modeller, I'm actually interested in making a few realistic bridges for urban areas--freeway bridge anyone?

[Shadow Assassin]

Looks good, but I just get the feeling the actual bridge deck is a little bit thin... it could be thickened slightly.

[jeronij]

Hey Jeronij, although I'm not much of a good modeller, I'm actually interested in making a few realistic bridges for urban areas--freeway bridge anyone?

Great¡¡, you can start reading the few posts in this Bridge Engineers Board, including the tutorial, and them start your own thread where you can show us your work in progress 

[rotaryspdpunk]

Hey Jeronij, would you be at all interested in rendering that bridge on the diagonal so it can be made into a lot-based bridge?

[jeronij]

Hey Jeronij, would you be at all interested in rendering that bridge on the diagonal so it can be made into a lot-based bridge?

Mmmm....well...I would be interested, why not  ?, but it will take some time to make the composition in MAX.  The bridge seen in the pic is 10 tiles long (orthogonal), so it will be shorter if we make it a fixed diagonal.

[stewart_garden]

Hi everyone,

There hasn't been much activity on this thread for a while so I thought I would try to inspire some by posting suggestions for types of bridge that I think would enhance the game.  These aren't requests for content, merely ideas intended to inspire members of the community thinking about making bridges.

Also, this post isn't intended to be comprehensive: it would be great to see others posting other examples of bridges that they think would enhance the game.

If anyone is inspired by any of the below, I would be happy to do any research or grunt work that might help them along.


1) Low level/city centre bridges:

There are few road bridges (maybe about 3) in the game that look 'right' in the context of a river crossing in a city centre, so we would really benefit from some more options in this department.  Here are two ideas:

Waterloo bridge in London is a good example of a 'modern' arch bridge. (link)

Blackfriars bridge in London is a good example of a Victorian wrought iron bridge. (link)

2) Variations on the cable-stayed bridge:

The 'in-game' bridge is a cable-stayed bridge with diamond-shaped pylons and a single plane of cables.  However there are a number of different variations on that theme related to the configuration of the pylons (towers) and the stays (cables).

i) I or H shaped pylons with two planes of stays, such as the Second Severn Crossing in the UK (link) or the Øresund Link between Denmark and Sweden (link).

ii) Diamond shaped pylons with two planes of stays, such as the William H Natcher bridge in Kentucky (link) or the Vancouver Skybridge in Canada (link).

iii) I-shaped pylons with a single plane of stays, such as the Centenario bridge in Panama (link) or the Sunshine Skyway bridge in Florida (link). (The Millau bridge model released about six months ago on the various exchanges fits this set)

There are further variations on the theme, particularly those with a single pylon, but I have endeavoured to keep this post manageable.

3) Movable bridges:

I realise that (to the best of my limited knowledge of game mechanics) it isn't possible to make bridges that actually move (save for Peg's lot-based set).  However, when placing low-level bridges across a river in the centre of a city the in-game (and NAM) bridges can look like they wouldn't allow passage of river traffic.  Cities like Chicago have a number of these bridges, and my thinking is that it would be nice to have bridges that look like they can open for river traffic even if they can't.  This type of bridge would also be extremely useful for entrances to harbours etc.

This website (link) has an extensive summary of bridges in Chicago.
This New York government document (link) has a summary of bridges on the Harlem river, and the Wikipedia article (link) also has some information.


I hope this post inspires a few SimCity bridge engineers.  Please let me know if I can help in any way.

Stewart

[jeronij]

Hello s-g, thanks for the explanation and the useful links. I am trying to finish a trestle bridge at the moment,but I know where to go when I want to start a new one 

[threestooges]

jeronij (or anyone else who would be interested). After looking through the pages here (and after having completed a road trip around the western US) I would be more than willing to assist in any way I can. My BAT skills are more or less non-existent (though if someone could tell me where I might get ahold of it I might be able to pick it up as I go...you do have to start somewhere after all) but I am happy to learn and do what I can to help increase the number of available bridges out there.

[jeronij]

Thanks for your offer threestooges  . Greatly appreciated 

Actually the basic need for this project are modellers, because without bridges, there is nothing to mod  . However, I hope that sometime in the short future, some modellers will be interested in making some nice custom bridges, and then any help with the modding will be greatly appreciated. ( Rayden I dont forget you  )

If you want, in the meantime, start to model something with the BAT, this is a great place to start:

http://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=140&threadid=78721&enterthread=y

Again thanks to all the members who are supporting this project 

[threestooges]

Thank you very much for the quick reply, and all of the information you have provided. I have picked up some great tips from the link you provided. At the moment, I am currently working on a replica of a lift bridge (known locally as the "Steel Bridge") in Portland, Oregon. I do have a few questions regarding bridges and the BAT:
-Regarding the surface that the road texture is placed on: does that need to be at z=0? What determines the road level (above the ground)?
-Regarding bridge orientation for exporting: How should it be placed (with the piece centered at 0,0,0 or with a corner set at 0,0,0)?

Thank you again for the opportunity to work on a project like this, and also for maintaining such a great site.

[jeronij]

Hello again,

some quick answers:

1)  For a standard bridge yes. deck level = 0   The real (above the ground) height is managed by the .exe
2)  For rendering, the center of each piece should be at x=0, y=0  (z depends on the model, but as mentioned in point 1, the deck must be at z=0)

I hope to see some pictures soon .... 

[Sir Charles of Dunlap]

Hey, I was working on a bridge forever ago, but gave up, after I was ignored somewhere else, I'm not complaining though. Anyways, will you take just the models? I am not sure where I am at anymore. I can send you the unrendered models if you would like. I was planing on it being a rail bridge.

-Charile

[jeronij]

Charlie,
Can you post some pictures of your model ?¿ I`d like to see what we are talking about 

Btw, I have slightly edited your post. Remember the site rules pls 

[DuskTrooper]

Heh, it's been a while since I have been really (or semi) active in this community.  I have been kind of interested in making bridges as of late (like I was supposed to a year and a half ago...).  So, what do I need to do?

[jeronij]

It would be great to see some bridges from you DT ¡¡¡

You can start reading and following the Begginers Tutorial:

http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=930.0

Then you can start your model, and open a thread in this board so we can follow the development, and you can request for help if necessary 


I hope to see some progress soon 

[DuskTrooper]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!  I'll start puttering around with bridge experiments, and we'll see where that leads us.

[Sir Charles of Dunlap]

Okay there's what I have. I am not sure what else needs to be done, I would look at tutorial, but the last time I worked on the bridge was forever ago, well I will still check it out. Sorry about the bad post... It is broken down into 16x16 pieces, and I didn't insert the transit texture yet. It is going to be a rail bridge.