Bridge height

[vistla]

Just curious, but I've noticed that in order to make a (ground) highway bridge high enough for a ferry to pass underneath, the elevation must be at least 280.5M, (I beleive the water surface elevation is set at 210M). Elevated highways are 15M's higher than thier ground counterparts, so theoretically I should be able to acheave this at an elevation of 265.5M. Except, this does not work. Does anyone know why, and can this be fixed?

[jeronij]

If you are using a terrain mod, your sealevel may be adjusted differently .... just in case   

[Ennedi]

I think the game makes a calculation necessary for placing a bridge using the terrain level under the network, not the network surface level. If you want to check if I'm right, you can make a flat surface, place some ground highway and elevated highway (also rail and El-rail to have more complete information), and then turn on the TerrainQuery (using Extra Cheats Plugin or typing TerrainQuery in the code window which appears after clicking Ctrl X) and check the height for various networks.
Using TerrainQuery you can also check your sea level (placing a cursor at the seaside) without opening the terrain mod file.

[SC4BOY]

Just a quick note.. maybe of no use to you, but I happened to run into this issue a couple of days ago.. I made a rail bridge and avenue bridge across a harbor river. I use 0.5m above sea level for my ports and one "lot lifter" of 15m (15.5m above water) would not allow the "ship clearance". However by lifting it some more.. less than 30m but still pretty high.. very close to that I'd say, it would clear... this would be in the 25-30m above the water.. Sorry I can't be more precise

[vistla]

Thank you for your help and sugestions. I will try all 3 of them.

[Gaston]

Sorry to ressurect a dead thread but my question is almost exactly the same and I don't thik it was ever really answered properly.

My question is:
    Is there a mod or a way of modifying the required height that a bridge must be above sea/water level to allow "ferry" traffic to pass.   It would seem to me that nearly 100 ft (30 m) is a bit extreme.     I think half that height is plenty myself.     Bridge height mods allow bridges to be built at basically sea level, but that is impractical in most cases (except for crossing swamps).   But when you have mile after mile of ramps (due to logical grade restictions) leading up to a bridge, it doesn't look right.    [aside: I wish center lift / rotating draggable bridges were possible.   Even if they were only eyecandy]

Perhaps my question is more specific than vistla's original.


---Gaston

[Swamper77]

Looking around the bridge exemplars that define the bridges, I don't see any properties that indicate what the minimum height for ferry clearance is. I did notice that every bridge has a different "ceiling height", which apparently is defined as the distance between the road top and the water below the bridge. But that doesn't seem to relate to the issue. It may be a game defined constant for the ferry clearance height that cannot be modified which is causing your problem.

-Swamper

[Gaston]

Hmmm ferrys don't seem to clear ANY bridges unless they are at atleast at an elevation of 280⁺ m except of course the hump shaped road bridge.     I suppose my main concerns are the train bridges.

---Gaston

[smoncrie]

Gaston, to answer your original question, you can use joerg's Bridge Height Mod available in the mods section at Simtropolis.  This works quite well, but there is an error in the suspension cable texture used in the Large Suspension Ground Highway Bridge.

The mod changes the MinClearance property in the bridge exemplars.  This also changes how high the game thinks the bridge needs to be to allow ferries to pass.  With this mod you can sometimes make a ferry go right through a low bridge.

The link is: http://www.simtropolis.com/modding/index.cfm?p=details&id=314

[Ennedi]

I use the Bridge H1 mod from a very long time and my bridges must be at least 30⁺ m high to allow ferries movement.
I agree with Swamper77, I analysed bridge properties too, the "ceiling height" has nothing common with the minimum bridge height needed to allow ferries. However, some bridges have bigger "ceiling height" ie. the bridge deck structure is higher and the real (visible) clearance is lower than 30 m. The bridge height is calculated from the sea level to network level.

I suppose this parameter is hard-coded in the exe.

Adam

[Gaston]

Okay, so I guess the simple answer to my question is "NO you can't have lower height bridges (and with it lower height run up ramps) without loosing the ability to have ferries."   I really appreciate everyone looking into this for me.    Too bad there isn't a way to change this.   


---Gaston