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OT: Bridge building / mechanical engineering video game

How do you brace a curved bridge like this where you have to go from a lower level to a higher level?

Is the S-curve canted in the right direction?

Cant the curve the opposite way so the vehicle drives straight onto the bridge roadway and in the physics simulation the bridge tends to fail immediately at the left anchor point.

Do it this way and apply triangluar bracing underneath on the left hand side, cross the bracing over thru the centerline and place it above on the right and the bridge tends to buckle as the vehicle crosses the midpoint.

Reply to
bitrex
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I would think that entry and exit should line up with the terrain, else there will be shock loading on the bridger when the vehicle runs out of shock-absorber travel, or when it lands having been airborne.

If the game is not using real physics all betts are off :) me included,

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Reply to
Jasen Betts

Yeah, that makes sense. I don't know if it's possible to build a bridge with a roadbed curved in the way it is in the pic using only wooden beams (only building material available to the player at this point) that are strong under compression but can't be tensioned; need to ensure the tie points at the ends have the load redistributed to put pressure on them, not pull on 'em.

Pretty sure it's using NVidia PhysX to do the solid/soft body dynamics as most PC and game consoles do, using the GPU as a "physics accelerator" for parallel calculations:

Reply to
bitrex

Same as you would a bridge where the ends are at equal levels. The basic idea is to keep the arch type bridge roadway always in compression with all the vertical and outward pressure applied at the abutments. The resulting arch appear a bit contorted with an offset crown. The arch would never change direction, which would place that segment into tension instead of compression.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558
Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

If you're into simulations, try the Kerbal Space Program (KSP) simulation game ($40):

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558
Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

I have that one! I've played it a bit and managed to get Jeb Kerman successfully into orbit, unfortunately there wasn't enough fuel left in the tank in my "design" to make a de-orbit burn. Tried pointing the capsule at the ground and the expended tank assembly "upwards" and jettisoning it at the lowest point in the orbit to get a little action =

-reaction which I thought was a clever hail mary but that didn't work either.

Finally had him go outside and try pushing with the spacesuit maneuvering thrusters but he lost his grip and...Well ad astra per aspera etc.

Overall though it feels like a "game" that's a bit too much like real work

Reply to
bitrex

I found that for just a short gap where there's not too much difference in elevation between the abutments simply designing a standard "Pratt" truss bridge and angling it up into place seemed to work well and come in with the lowest budget. Not very exciting but KISS

The later levels allow some more creativity, this one I found worked well with a ah...y'know, your standard double-lifted arch supported roadbed junctioning into yer ah...type 2 underslung truss-type structure, or whatever:

Reply to
bitrex

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