New Tacoma Narrows Bridge

[Guest rweber95]

A new, nearly duplicate suspension bridge now sets just West of the old Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Is there a simple way to make a copy of the existing Tacoma Narrows Bridge and approach roads and place it next to the existing bridge? I did a quick search of the Beginners Guide but didn't find any help with respect to duplicating an existing object.Bob

[Jim Robinson 122]

You should be able to easily place another copy of the bridge alongside the existing one, the approach roads are another story. I think SBuilder may be able to do the roads but I'm not sure because I've never been able to muster the patience to learn the program.To place a 2nd copy of the bridge you'd need to know the GUID of the library object which appears to be 64bfc4184f93ecf5a103709582d3382f. Then you'd have to either place the object with some scenery placement app or with an XML file compiled to .bgl with bglcomp.exe which is included in the BGLComp SDK available here:http://download.microsoft.com/download/b/9...comp2_setup.exeIf you'd rather not mess with it I can make you a .bgl that you can drop into a scenery folder to add the bridge. Tell me where it should be, it'll take 5 minutes.Jim

[Guest rweber95]

Since I've never tried to make scenery for FS and haven't installed the require programs, I would like it if you could whip this one out. The new bridge is 150 feet to the right of the existing bridge as viewed from the Tacoma Narrows Airport. You can see it here http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr16narrowsbridge/I also use the upgraded textures provided by tnbtexturesrepaints.zip and is much more realistic.You can email me a eng95 at comcast dot net.Bob

[Jim Robinson 122]

It never dawned on me at first about this new bridge, I remember now last spring they had issues with getting part of it across Washington because it was too heavy and they couldn't get enough axles under it or something, the fuzz wouldn't let them haul it. It sat at a rest stop in Post Falls Idaho for what seemed like months. It was all over the news at the time. I actually drove by there once on the way to Spokane and saw it sitting there.Anyway, here's what I came up with. I tried it at 150' apart which would be center to center and they looked too close together. The website said 185' so I changed it to that. They still look a little too close to me, so maybe the 185' was edge to edge instead of center to center. The 5 minutes are up, so I guess they stay like this :) . They look OK, oddly enough the roadway lines up better with the new bridge than the old one in my sim, especially on the airport side of the narrows. I think it's because my ground is slightly elevated because I have some mesh in use for the area and the ends of the bridges are partially buried.You can put the .bgl into a scenery folder under addon scenery and add it in the scenery library or you should be able to just drop it into the SceneryNamwScenery folder which is where the default bridge resides.Jim

[Guest rweber95]

Jim,Thanks for the fast response. I download new_tnbrdg.zip and unzipped it. I tried the .bgl file in namwscenery folder but it didn't show up in fs9. Also moved it to addon sceneryscenery folder and tried to add it in the scenery library but it didn't show up. Hex editor shows the binary file is 8b bytes. Do I have the complete file? Is there something else I need to do to make it show up?Bob

[Jim Robinson 122]

Hmmm, I just downloaded it, deleted the original and dropped it in NAMWScenery and it worked. You mentioned textures, what exactly does this consist of? I searched for tnbtexturesrepaints.zip but couldn't find anything. Can you double check that filename, and did you get it here from Avsim? If it's truly textures only and the original bridge still shows up there shouldn't be any problems.new_tnbrdg.BGL is a very small file, if I right click it and choose Properties I'm seeing "Size - 140 bytes", "Size on disk - 16.0 KB (16,384 bytes)". It only places the bridge at a specific location in the sim so the .bgl basically contains the lat/lon coordinates, heading, and the GUID for the object and that's about all. The actual model of the bridge is contained in Seattle.bgl which should also be in NAMWScenery. Check that you have Seattle.bgl, mine is showing "Size - 2.08 MB" and the Modified date is Thursday, June 12, 2003, 7:50:10 PM.The only other thing is your scenery complexity must be at "Normal" or above. I noticed at "Sparse" the new bridge dissapears but the original one remains.Jim

[mnmon 0]

Yeah, but none of these have the style of the original. :( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0Fi1VcbpAI Mike

[Guest rweber95]

I tried your new_tnbrdg.BGL on a virgin copy of FS9 and it does work. My augmented copy of FS9 has the new textures from tnbtexturesrepaints.zip and new_tnbrdg.BGL doesn't show. I found tnbtexturesrepaints.zip on Avsim by searching for narrows and restricted to FS2004 scenery. The file is by Steven Rosenow.Bob

[Jim Robinson 122]

OK, found the file, tnbtexturerepaints.zip without the s. Yep, textures only so it shouldn't have anything to do with the new bridge not showing up. So you have an unmodified Seattle.bgl (it's date and filesize match mine), and your scenery complexity is at "Normal" or above and you're still not seeing it?Do you have any other nearby scenery installed that may be "excluding" the area? If so, you might try placing new_tnbrdg.BGL into whatever scenery folder the nearby scenery is installed into. If an exclude .bgl is present covering the area and at a higher priority than the folder containing new_tnbrdg.BGL, the new bridge won't show up. If this is the case however, it's likely that the scenery's author may have repositioned the bridge for greater accuracy, in which case my new bridge probably won't appear alongside it, but maybe further up the narrows or something.Jim