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HOW TO: Build a land bridge

Started by Rayden, February 07, 2007, 05:15:27 AM

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IamMcGee


threestooges

-IamMcGee: To make a land bridge without using the tutorial above, just make sure the area you are trying to cross is very high. Otherwise, the game will attempt to slope the land on each side. I suggest using the method described in the tutorials here though, it offers much more flexibility.

IamMcGee

Quote from: threestooges on November 22, 2008, 02:46:46 PM
-IamMcGee: To make a land bridge without using the tutorial above, just make sure the area you are trying to cross is very high. Otherwise, the game will attempt to slope the land on each side. I suggest using the method described in the tutorials here though, it offers much more flexibility.
thanks a lot, i will check it !!! And it will be better if developers gave the hot key to plops bridges when drags a road  (any way this is in the past).

Ennedi

#23
Quote from: threestooges on November 22, 2008, 02:46:46 PM
-IamMcGee: To make a land bridge without using the tutorial above, just make sure the area you are trying to cross is very high. Otherwise, the game will attempt to slope the land on each side. I suggest using the method described in the tutorials here though, it offers much more flexibility.

I have a pleasure to announce that the situation was improved  ;D

1. When I released my slope mod a few months ago in the LEX, I noticed that it makes creating land bridges much easier. My slope mod enables - amongst other things - creating bridges as below:



But unfortunately it was possible only for road bridges. Building land bridges for other networks was still difficult.
The reason is that the same transit networks parameters are responsible for various effects. If we want to have smooth roads without the "digging effect" appearing when the network goes across the slope and then reaches the flat area, we must decrease the value of the "Maximum Displacement beyond the Reference Plane" property. Unfortunately the same property must be as high as possible to make creating land bridges easier.
So our demands are opposite and the only way to solve this problem is to use temporary mods.

I made a special plugin which makes creating land bridges (for all networks ) really easy. It is attached to this message.
If you want to use it, you should create a subfolder in Plugins called "zzz_TemporaryMods" (it will be useful for other tasks) and place my plugin into this subfolder. Then launch the game, open the city, build bridges when you want, save the city, exit the game and remove the plugin.

This is the first mod from the "Temporary Mods" series. All of them don't change the savegame file, so they can be removed from Plugins after use.
They can't stay in Plugins because they change other game parameters and disable other tasks. For example my "Bridges Placement" plugin disables placing roads on slopes.

In fact, this is "two in one" mod. It has two functions: placing land bridges and levelling the terrain using transit networks. It is possible because all networks built with this mod installed are completely flat. So we don't need to place piece by piece to level the terrain. You can simply drag a road and you will level a 1 tile wide stripe.

But now we are in "How to build a land bridge" tutorial, so I should show bridges  :)

1. Of course we can build not only land bridges using this mod, but water bridges too. This function is greatly improved, we can adjust the water bridge height in a wide range - compare two pictures below (look at the slider position in the bridges window):





Now, why did I make networks completely flat in this mod? Because it is very practical when we build a bridge. Even if the network go uphill or downhill after the bridge, we usually need a few flat tiles and then start the slope. It looks much more realistic. If I wouldn't do it, I would need to level the terrain next to the bridge end and it is sometimes difficult.
This is the bridge end in my mod:



We can drag the flat network as far as we need



Or we can make only a few flat tiles and then start a slope (after removing the mod from Plugins):



Here are some bridges (various networks) - we can adjust their height and length in a wide range.



Now land bridges: This one can be built without any problem  :)



Attention - I noticed an interesting problem here:
When I made this bridge, then bulldozed it and tried to build it again, I was unable to do it



The same happened when I removed street tiles on the left side and started from the existing street on the right side:



But when I started from the "free" end, the bridge appeared immediately



After some other experiments I can say it is the best to have both bridge ends free, ie. we should start from placing bridge and then connect the network to it's ends. Sometimes it is not necessary and sometimes it is.

Now a nice rail bridge...



Some other rail and road bridges...



Short rail bridges on the steep slope...





Attention: There is an important difference between water and land bridges: When you build the land bridge, you don't have the height slider in the "Choose the Bridge" window.
Does it mean we can't adjust the bridge height? No. We can adjust it by changing the start point (if the terrain shape enables it).
Here we have two highway bridges. I started on the left in both cases, but I changed the strt point and I achieved two different bridge heights.
(There is a graphic glitch on the first picture, you don't see the yellow highway "shadow and the right part of the bridge. Such things happen sometimes, but it is not important here - we compare left bridge ends).





Sometimes (not very often) another glitch can appear - in that case you must destroy the bridge, eventually level some terrain and try again.



Here are some highway bridges, no problem with them too:



At the end I'll show a special bridge: We want to make a bridge over this little shallow canyon (maybe we will want to make a stream here?)



First we drag a road and make a wall. Why? Because we want to create bridge ends and to have them on the same level.



Then we remove the central part of the wall and flatten the terrain, leaving wall's ends.



Now we drag a road and...



Ready!
Or maybe this one will be better... ;)



It was a little thing but important for me. It is very difficult to create a bridge in such place and then make a stream under it, having a hole to collect rain directly in the projected stream center... $%Grinno$%

Edit: Please share your opinions after using this mod! It would be nice to hear something for you before releasing, I'm going to do it after about two weeks. If you will find any problem please inform me, I will try to repair it (or to include a warning in the readme  ;D)

Adam
New Horizons Productions
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homefryes

Ennedi, I like the looks of what you've done.  &apls Once I'm actually back to playing the game, I'll be sure to give it a try.

— Don
Utility Poles Project [linkie]
Ashtabula (the MD) is not dead; it's just on a really long hiatus!
Check out Homefryes' BATatorium

RippleJet

Adam, excellent solution with the temporary levelling mod! :thumbsup:

Andreas

This is pretty neat indeed. I was very impressed with the smooth appearance of my network when using your slope mod, but it was very hard to create bridges that I could raise high enough to allow ferry traffic. With your temporary mod, this should be a piece of cake. :)
Andreas

rooker1

Super idea, this will be in my plugins tonight. 
This should amke so many things so much easier. 
I love the leveling idea, now I can spend more time playing the game and less time placing one road tile at a time.  ::)
&apls
Robin  :thumbsup:
Call me Robin, please.

Pat

Adam wow!!! Thank you this will help me out a great deal!!! I love your tutorial addition....

Don't forget the SC4D Podcast is back and live on Saturdays @ 12 noon CST!! -- The Podcast soon to Return Here Linkie

TownMaster2005

This is absolutely brilliant and has just solved a problem that I have been toying with for the past week.  &apls. Where can I find the Bridges Placement plugin as that sounds like a temporary tool that one most definitely needs.

FrankU

Hi Townmaster, the plugin is a small attachment to the tutorial post. To be absolutely clear: take a look at the bottom of post number 24.

TownMaster2005

Hi FrankU. Thanks for clarifying; I had assumed that there are 2 mods and not that they are all wrapped up into one.

dwelln8hss32

Late comment on this thread, but really glad I found your temporary bridge mod, Adam! I use your slope mod (love it!) but having the darnedest time placing a rail bridge over a wide river. I'll give it a try! Thanks for creating this!!!  :thumbsup:
All metropolitan dreams start somewhere... in the minds of many, in the feet of less, but in the hands and hearts of only few.

ArthurBaz


solovinodelmal

#34
Hi, I'm trying to build a RHW-4 land bridge with this mod but somehow it always tries to build it with a little slope at the beginning and the end, and the bridge's height is lower than the edges when built, here's an image of it:



Both edges have the same height, and if I try building it from the other edge seems allright, no slope but the RHW-4 direction is inverted. It's not a plugin conflict since I tried just with NAM and this mod and removed the rest of the folder.

Any ideas on what am I doing wrong? Thanks

vortext

Jollipeigh we're well aware of the ImageShack debacle which has rendered many, many tutorials and MDs defunct. Please refrain from bumping nearly three year old threads. Thank you.
time flies like a bird
fruit flies like a banana

Fasan

#36
solovinodelmal;
Maybe this tutorial will help you here a little.
Look in the middle of page after the "Brückenbau und Ufergestaltung".
http://www.simforum.de/showthread.php?t=186740&page=19