Rope Suspension Bridge Builder Kit, Mesh, Copy/Mod Versión 1.0

Rope Suspension Bridge
Builder’s Kit

Sorry but I no longer have land to display this. If you are interested, IM me in world and we can rez it in a sandbox. I'll bring cookies.

Make your own rope bridge, from a few m to 140m long.

The kit comprises nine different curvatures (from 0.125 degrees per step to 2.0 degrees per plank), each in a 16-plank and a 4-plank length, and three additional single plank lengths that will work with those for fill-ins rather than having to scale the bridge too much to fit an exact gap.

Flat, the 16-plank section would be 5m long but the more curvature, the shorter (measured in a line from end to end) it becomes of course.

Choose the curvature to fit the length you need to span; longer gaps need a lower curvature. Estimates/guidelines given below. Then rotate by the given angles and move additional sections together, link and you have your bridge.

Physics is Analysed Solid mode for Prim Physics type, which at the supplied size means you cannot accidentally walk up the sides and over the edge the way you could with plane physics.

Also included are end poles to secure the bridge, three plank textures (with Normal maps and AO mapped for extra realism) and two rope textures with Normal map. Texture the parts yourself as you desire. You can make single ropes to join the bridge to the poles using rezzed cylinders (4cm diameter). Better to do it that way and let you build the bridge into your terrain than try to make a ‘fits all sizes’ solution that actually fits nothing. Besides, link the cylinder ropes to the bridge and poles and they won’t even cost any extra LI – it will be absorbed by the mesh.

UV and AO maps are available to download at the link in NC. However, the texturing mapping is so easy you can just drop wood and rope textures on there and scale as required. There are 7 faces: Top ropes, Bottom ropes, Link ropes, Plank-tie ropes, knots, knot ends*, and planks. The planks are mapped so that eight of them map onto a single texture, 2-across and 4-down, so they don’t all look identical if you drop a texture on. Works well!

*Knot-ends are on one end only of each section and are intended to be made visible only if that section is an end section at that end. When joining sections, the idea is to vanish the knot-end (100% transparent) on the one part, and push the remaining rope into the knot on the other section. That way you have some lee-way in fitting, and don’t get flickering from overlapping rope (it’s hidden in the knot on the other side).

Land impact is good for the very strong LOD that the bridges are designed for. At Viewer LOD factor 2, you can see the bridges from across the sim. 16-plank parts are about 4.3LI and 4-plank sections about 2.5LI. The shorter sections are higher for their length in order to keep the LOD similar to the long sections so you don’t get them changing out of step, but you only need those to fill in and finish an end, not for the main run. End poles are 1LI.

At Viewer LOD of 2, you do not notice the change down in LOD when moving. That’s my goal when designing; make it seamless.

The sections are named with the rotation angle per plank. For instance, 0.25 in the name means each plank is rotated 0.25 degrees from the last. So a 16-plank section has an angle difference of 4 degrees total. That’s how much you need to rotate each section from the previous one to line up the curve.

Choose an angle/radius of curvature based on how ‘saggy’ you want the bridge, and the length you require. Note that in RL these bridges are not very saggy; that makes them unsafe. Instead they are cranked tight and flat. This is SL though so just have fun! The radius of curvature is a good guide to the maximum length you can use those sections for too although you could get away with more if you want.

0.125 deg on a 143m radius curvature
0.175 deg on a 102m radius curvature
0.25 deg on a 72m radius curvature
0.375 deg on a 48m radius curvature
0.5 deg on a 36m radius curvature
0.75 deg on a 24m radius curvature
1.0 deg on a 18m radius curvature
1.5 deg on a 12m radius curvature
2.0 deg on a 9m radius curvature

Tips: Texture the part before joining sections, then shift-drag to duplicate ready-textured copies. Duplicate in the direction of the bridge to keep sections aligned. Rotate the new section by the required angle (16*Step or 4*Step), then you need to adjust vertically and horizontally. When close, do that by tweaking the numbers in the edit box rather than dragging; it’s easier.

Give me a shout in world if you want a bit of help, but please keep in mind that you need basic building skills (only basic - moving and linking stuff and applying textures) to put this together and it's not my job to teach that.