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MSFS20 Taxiway bridge - how to make the plane taxi over it?

RomanDesign

RomanDesign

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I have created a bridge, and terrain to accommodate it (terraforming is a mess in MSFS, but I somehow managed it). However when trying to taxy over that, the plane jumps like crazy, and I think it doesn't see the bridge at all. How to make it to be able to support the plane? I enabled "collision material" in Blender2MSFS but it makes no difference. Should I use "Road material"? But then I'd have cars driving over that.

1618547501058.png


Also, terraforming appears OK when close, but goes a bit crazy when a little farther off. Any ideas how to do it better?

1618547483290.png
 
I notice at airports in the sim that the plane does a similar thing over bridges. EHAM is one example. Not sure if you can solve it or not.Can you use apron?
 
To use apron how? The apron just follows the ground, right? It did before I cut it and placed a bridge there.
 
Collision material rarely works for me. I always use road material for surfaces a plane uses.

If there's the slightest break in the road material surface the plane will go mad. You only need a 1-2cm hole and the plane will sink into it or jump. Maybe it's something to do with the transition from the official terrain to your bridge.

I assume there has to some sort of in sim active traffic route for cars to use your surface, they won't appear just anywhere where there's a road surface, but I'm not completely sure. Does your bridge allow the traffic below through it?

I've had lots of problems with terraformed terrain twitching from a distance putting aircraft carrier models on top of terraformed runways. Making the runways as square as possible reduced it but you still get weird effects from a distance. It's some sort LOD thing which means I've no idea how to cure it.
 
OK, thanks for the input. I'll try road material and see what happens. I have an elevated road model at the landside of my airport that I used road material on, and cars just started driving on it. There is a default map road under that though, but not on it.
 
RomanDesign said:
I have created a bridge, and terrain to accommodate it (terraforming is a mess in MSFS, but I somehow managed it). However when trying to taxy over that, the plane jumps like crazy, and I think it doesn't see the bridge at all. How to make it to be able to support the plane? I enabled "collision material" in Blender2MSFS but it makes no difference. Should I use "Road material"? But then I'd have cars driving over that.

View attachment 72196

Also, terraforming appears OK when close, but goes a bit crazy when a little farther off. Any ideas how to do it better?

View attachment 72195
Click to expand...
How did you manage the terroforming the terrain? I used rectangle tool and polygon, they are both hard to controll
 
superspud said:
Collision material rarely works for me. I always use road material for surfaces a plane uses.

If there's the slightest break in the road material surface the plane will go mad. You only need a 1-2cm hole and the plane will sink into it or jump. Maybe it's something to do with the transition from the official terrain to your bridge.

I assume there has to some sort of in sim active traffic route for cars to use your surface, they won't appear just anywhere where there's a road surface, but I'm not completely sure. Does your bridge allow the traffic below through it?

I've had lots of problems with terraformed terrain twitching from a distance putting aircraft carrier models on top of terraformed runways. Making the runways as square as possible reduced it but you still get weird effects from a distance. It's some sort LOD thing which means I've no idea how to cure it.
Click to expand...
This is how I've managed it. I no longer create taxiway bridges, but instead create "tunnels" on each side using terraforming...one caveat: these tunnels are not completely hollow, its just a visual trick.

Ok so working on a completely flattened airport, I create the underpass using terraforming rectangle (with a slope using the profile tool), but the taxiway itself lies on the airport flattened terrain....so it will not jump around. The taxiway bridge model is just the taxiway edges that hide the wall where the terraform ends and I model a wall into the taxiway object that extends into the floor, to then texturize as an underpass...or just paint black. The idea is to hide the ugly terraform edge. The taxiway section itself is a normal SDK ground poly applied to the terrain. When placing the taxiway bridge object, I allow the edges to be just an inch above the taxiway ground level....but you can make it flush.

Lastly, I create the taxi bridge origin significantly offset and away from the underpass terraformed rectangle, so the taxi bridge origin clearly lies over flattened terrain, and it will never jump.

Is this a perfect solution? no as it is not a real bridge. Does it work? absolutely, no more jumping regardless of end user LOD terrain settings or GPU performance. I've seen airports from top developers failing over bridge objects......so I came up with this solution.
 
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Heres pretty much how it goes.
 

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In MCX' PDF Manual, Arno appears to have kept procedures for MCX' MSFS AutoPlatform feature comparable to that for FS2Kx:


"When you want to add a platform that should follow the shape of your object there is another way to add them however, using the Auto platform function. Pressing this button on the toolbar brings up the Auto platform window, see Figure 6.25. In this editor you can select how much the normal of the triangle should be pointing upwards and optionally you can also specify that only triangles with a specific texture should be considered. ModelConverterX will then make a platform of all triangles that meet these filter conditions. So if for example you select your roof texture and an upwards value of 0.7 you can quickly make a platform of your roof."

1767813841078.png

​

Hmmm... this merits testing with a MSFS Terra-formed terrain "Tunnel" as well as with a 3D model TaxiWay overpass bridge. :scratchch

One might wonder how many of the legacy caveats from FS2Kx still apply in MSFS coding of Platforms:

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/custom-terrain.77831/post-234898


IIRC, sloped terrain surfaces- not 3D Models- require surface Normal angles to be adjusted 'relative' to FS local terrain mesh ground surface.

But AFAIK, non-terrain mesh surfaces made using a 3D Model for the intended FS user controlled SimObject navigable surface, will require its surface Normal angle to first be adjusted horizontally so it is coplanar to the top surface of the object.

Depending on whether the 3D model top surface has a slope 'relative' to the base plane of the 3D modeling application 3D Axes, Platform Normals may vary by slope 'relative' to the 3D modeling application world axis base plane of that 3D object.

IIUC, this what the MCX Attached Object Editor Auto-Platform feature is used to edit.

When the 3D model is finished and converted to a FS SimObject, the vertical / Z-Axis top finished surface plane itself can be rotated to any pitch or bank angle when 'placed' as a FS scenery object relative to local 3D world terrain mesh ground surface ...when rendered in FS at run time.


IIUC, the techniques used in this process should also work for making hardened surfaces over land that allow FS aircraft to be fully supported while keeping underlying terrain levels at correct elevations. ;)

It will be interesting to see if these 3D model and terrain attributes can all be duplicated in MSFS.


A FS2Kx water ramp leading to a surface (above ground !) using hardened platforms onto which one can pilot a user aircraft is:

Thumb Harbour - PF31 (Added 07.14.2011)(Updated 02.11.2012) by Xavier Carre' at Return To Misty Moorings (aka "RTMM")

http://www.return.mistymoorings.com/scenery/#Thumb Harbour

1767816386358.jpeg



BTW: One can pilot an aircraft beneath the raised platform as well as up onto the raised platform itself ...with both water and platform elevations correctly displayed ! :wizard:

Hint: Turn off user aircraft 'crash detection' to taxi underneath the platform to inspect this scenery and see how the elevations are all working properly.


GaryGB
 
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