The Mother of All Breakable Contraptions

[BlackMetalWolf]

Oh yes, I'm doing it. I'm going from making crappy things like this

[url]http://www.garrysmod.org/downloads/?a=view&id=60969[/url]

to vastly expanding my horizons... laterally of course. I'm about to embark on creating a massive spring arch bridge who's prop count may be above the 1,000 prop benchmark. I figured if I ramble enough I might have enough text here to look good alongside what I'm about to present to you. because when I'm not rambling, I tend to be a man of few words... and most of them mean nothing. now there are more words, but most of them still mean nothing. I do warn you, that many of you are going to be dissapointed as I am singling out low end PC's with this project. You will not be able to play with it. nonetheless, I'm sure some nice guy with more money than you will happily make a badly edited You Tube video to suit your needs. Onward with the point.

So far, 603 props

progress - bout 25%

what is it? if you haven't bothered reading anything by now, its a bridge... featuring realistic weld strengths and pseudo deformation with ball sockets. why am I bothering to make this thread? Because its fucking huge and I might need the motivation from people threatening me with death if I do not finish this. This will take me alot of time, motivation is a good motivator. Enjoy, a small project of utter magnitude. a first of many.

Let the preview images commence

[img]http://filesmelt.com/dl/Bridge_of_hueg.png[/img]

(well, I might have issues with the image while something is broken, if it shows up... horay. if not, i left a link to it)
EDIT
(As it turns out, if you experience issues with flash while uploading to the likes of megaupload, filesmelt or imageshack where you get an app hang for like 2 seconds and flash crashes... It's probably adblock plus that's doing it)

[Bubbus]

That thing's going to murderate low-end pcs, unless you mean that by "singling out" them, you're disregarding them. I like the design, you could reduce the phys calcs required when smashing the thing with some creative parenting on those arches etc.

Btw that OP was pretty difficult to read without having to figure out what you're talking about. You don't need ramble if you've got content.

[BlackMetalWolf]

[QUOTE=Splambob;29745889]That thing's going to murderate low-end pcs, unless you mean that by "singling out" them, you're disregarding them. I like the design, you could reduce the phys calcs required when smashing the thing with some creative parenting on those arches etc.

Btw that OP was pretty difficult to read without having to figure out what you're talking about. You don't need ramble if you've got content.[/QUOTE]

cheers, hopefully now my OP makes sense.

[Beanz]

that's pretty slick. it would be awesome if you put deck on it and then recorded video while you drive over it with a really hevy car :D

[AnotherGuy]

makes me wish you could simulate wind in gmod

[Bombardier.]

I will threaten you to death if you don't finish this.

[RedReaper]

Source's weld physics are great for destructable bridges. I made this with stacker yesterday.[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHgQALH9-7M&feature=related[/media]
:v:

[Beanz]

[QUOTE=AnotherGuy;29746940]makes me wish you could simulate wind in gmod[/QUOTE]

you can have wind in gmod.

[Cinnamon]

[QUOTE=Beanz;29748107]you can have wind in gmod.[/QUOTE]

But not in a way that could lead to utter chaos and destruction atop a towering, unstable bridge.

[Beanz]

[QUOTE=MrWhite;29749161]But not in a way that could lead to utter chaos and destruction atop a towering, unstable bridge.[/QUOTE]

i havent actually tried this so im not 100% sure it works but i think trigger_push and env_wind can be used to push physics objects and release force welds. as i said im not sure but i can do some testing when i have free time.

[editline]11th May 2011[/editline]

much like this

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oluT7eDDrNI[/media]

[RedReaper]

1:54 Bill Nye the science guy :science:

[Unslinga]

wouldn't it be possible to make an addon to simulate all types of wind?

[Falcqn]

[QUOTE=Unslinga;29753205]wouldn't it be possible to make an addon to simulate all types of wind?[/QUOTE]

Yeah, you could make a lua script that affects props based on their box sizes.

[Pritchard]

I can see this lagging out servers soo bad

[Tolyzor]

Realistic weld strength eh?

Well I'm sceptical you have managed that, so here's the proper equation for you;

[URL="http://wiki.garrysmod.com/?title=Physics#Force_to_break_forcewelds"]F = force_max * 30.325 * sqrt(m)[/URL]

Where "F" is the breaking force in gmod force units (gfu), "force_max" is the number you plug into the weld break force dialogue box, and "m" is the lowest mass of the pair of constrained props (Kg).

I suppose you will be relating the strength to real joint/beam ultimate load cases, specified in newtons...

Therefore, to convert from gmod force units to Newtons;

Newtons = gfu * [URL="http://wiki.garrysmod.com/?title=Physics#Definitions"]0.01905[/URL] (Read [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimensional_analysis"]the wiki page on dimensional analysis[/url] to see how I do this)

Finally, in-case you can't re-arrange equations, the number you need to plug into the weld break force dialogue box, for a given breaking force in Newtons, is the following;

[b]force_max = F / (30.325 * sqrt(m) * 0.01905)[/b]

Where "force_max" is the number you plug into the weld break force dialogue box, "F" is the breaking force in Newtons, and "m" is the lowest mass of the pair of constrained props (Kg).

[AnotherGuy]

^fag

[highlight](User was banned for this post ("Why reply" - Orkel))[/highlight]

[Pringles.]

^dick

[BlackMetalWolf]

[QUOTE=Tolyzor;29804770]Realistic weld strength eh?

Well I'm sceptical you have managed that, so here's the proper equation for you;

[URL="http://wiki.garrysmod.com/?title=Physics#Force_to_break_forcewelds"]F = force_max * 30.325 * sqrt(m)[/URL]

Where "F" is the breaking force in gmod force units (gfu), "force_max" is the number you plug into the weld break force dialogue box, and "m" is the lowest mass of the pair of constrained props (Kg).

I suppose you will be relating the strength to real joint/beam ultimate load cases, specified in newtons...

Therefore, to convert from gmod force units to Newtons;

Newtons = gfu * [URL="http://wiki.garrysmod.com/?title=Physics#Definitions"]0.01905[/URL] (Read [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimensional_analysis"]the wiki page on dimensional analysis[/url] to see how I do this)

Finally, in-case you can't re-arrange equations, the number you need to plug into the weld break force dialogue box, for a given breaking force in Newtons, is the following;

[b]force_max = F / (30.325 * sqrt(m) * 0.01905)[/b]

Where "force_max" is the number you plug into the weld break force dialogue box, "F" is the breaking force in Newtons, and "m" is the lowest mass of the pair of constrained props (Kg).[/QUOTE]

thank you, I'm doing college physics and you've just helped me immeasurably. but its going to be Pseudo realistic. because of the way welds work in Gmod, it seems to work from the center of two props and that isn't good for simulating a load bearing situation like a bridge, it becomes unrealistically flimsy. The strengths I'll use will be the bare minimum force required to make this a load bearing bride. I've gotten quite good at this.

now- Progress

I made a maintenance catwalk though the bridge, and also completed the beam structure. Now all I need to do is add a road, a toll booth with barriers, lampposts and a sidewalk, safety barriers, signs and a little more decorative trussing. Now at exactly 800 props, it should begin to look like I mean business with this thing :3

[img]http://filesmelt.com/dl/ImNowSerious.png[/img]

[RedReaper]

Jesus god...:iia:

[Sestze]

A small question, couldn't you use ballsockets instead of welds to force the objects to have weld-like properties as the joints, instead of center-to-center?

I mean, you might need a double ballsocket to prevent the beam from rolling in some cases, and you could use an absurd amount of friction to prevent the majority of rotational movement.

[RedReaper]

[QUOTE=Sestze;29946621]A small question, couldn't you use ballsockets instead of welds to force the objects to have weld-like properties as the joints, instead of center-to-center?

I mean, you might need a double ballsocket to prevent the beam from rolling in some cases, and you could use an absurd amount of friction to prevent the majority of rotational movement.[/QUOTE]

I've been using very short rigid ropes with geometry to prevent twisting, and it seems to work. High friction isn't a great method of doing that in my personal experience. Tends to get stuck in fucked-up poses or spaz out (though an adv ballsocket w/ freerotate could simulate the metal's properties somewhat in deformation.)

[Sestze]

I was mistaken about the regular ballsocket tool, to get a joint, you'd need to use something like ballsocket linedraw or use PA to place the ballsockets. I'm not sure if that amount of tedium is worth it.

[BlackMetalWolf]

[QUOTE=RedReaper;29952477]I've been using very short rigid ropes with geometry to prevent twisting, and it seems to work. High friction isn't a great method of doing that in my personal experience. Tends to get stuck in fucked-up poses or spaz out (though an adv ballsocket w/ freerotate could simulate the metal's properties somewhat in deformation.)[/QUOTE]

yes, I'll be using a mixture of welds and ball sockets. Progress is slow, I cannot figure out how to build the roadway. it should support 2 lanes of traffic and some lampposts down the center. but finding the right props.... pfff.

anyway, I'll not give up. I've come too far.

[BlackMetalWolf]

Ok people, me having a creative block has gotten my probolem solving skills into this.

The person who comes up with the best deck will have it put onto the bridge, and mentioned in the download. it has to be as wide as the bridge itself (a little over 2 hl2 I beams wide), and you only need to make one section. I will be repeating this along the bridge.

So, heres your template

[img]http://filesmelt.com/dl/templayte.png[/img]