I am not sure the level to which this has been discussed before, but to be clear, I am not talking about multi-floor operation. It may be similar in terms of effect, but the simulation would probably not change much from the existing code (I guess. I am not a developer)
The idea is to have either a tunnel or an Air bridge/Over bridge that allows people to cross service roads in the airport. Or allows service vehicles to “pass through” where the terminal would be.
Simulation wise, for passengers, it would be just like walking through any other corridor of the airport (without the vehicles on the service road affecting their movement).
For the vehicles, it will be just like any other piece of road where their movement is not affected by any passengers. Essentially, simulation wise, they just move through each other.
The difference between this and multi floor is that here, the passengers are only on 1 level. (On multi floor, there will be passengers on the 1st floor and passengers below them on the ground floor).
This should be similar to how underground baggage is not affected by passengers, vehicles, etc on the ground floor.
To ensure no simulation problems, this can be implemented using design rules like crosswalk for placement of the Over bridges. Eg. They can only be placed over a service road with terminal buildings on both sides of the road.
I can share a practical application tomorrow using one of my designed airport.
I am looking at it the other way round. Implement this and multiple terminals is half done.
Then crossing taxiways and stands remains (along with shuttles/trains etc
That can be worked on later if required if this is available initially as a temporary solution.
But this would need multiple floors to work, you can’t squeeze a fuel truck under a walkway unless it’s raised. In ways jetways already do this but I doubt this will happen until a multifloor update.
I understand your point, but in multiple floors, the program needs to handle multiple floors of passengers.
Here, path finding and program wise, all the passengers and vehicles are on the same floor, but visually, it looks like the passengers are on the 2nd floor when they are on the over bridger (or looks like they are underground if the passage is a tunnel instead)
Essentially, in terms of programming, it will be an area where vehicles and passengers pass through each other simulation wise, but visually, one of them would disappear below.
Maybe if the devs could step in and steer the discussion, because even I am unsure if I am right or wrong.
I reckon it could be implemented without multiple floors, in that passengers could disappear into one end and reappear at the other.
But I think we could probably do this with multiple floors and without any specific add ons. Rather than a specialist object it could just be built as a corridor on a separate floor. Seems easier.
To me tunnels maybe works like the baggage system, maybe we don’t even get to see people in transit which is fine for now. I would love a remote terminal myself with underground paths to link to main terminal.
See how the outer terminals on the Eastern block are so far away for the service vehicles? Funnily enough, the South East corner is where I have the most space in the terminal to handle large gates.
Agreed, the baggage handling, depots, etc should probably be 1 set North of each terminal block for optimum reach, but assuming that I only had resources for 1 centralised hub, I would have no choice except to put it in the centre.
How having the Eastern terminal connected by an Overbridge allows faster vehicle movement by going through where ther terminal was and does not hinder passenger movement.
Most modern, bigger airports have on the main terminal more then one floor for arrival and departing. But also on the sattelites or the “fingers” they have PAX-Floor at minimum one floor above the ground, because you need the ground floor on the sattelites and fingers for:
bus gates to stands
baggage system (un- and onloading from belt system)
smaller vehicle depot
staff room
streets / connections like in the design from @vikhattangady
technical stuff (pipes, boilers, water system …)
So yeah, I think that @Olof and Fredrik COULD build a thing like a “bridge” without introduce a multi floor system, but it would only help a small amount. Big terminals will only be interesting with multiple floors. In real life you have no space to build terminals like you all showing in the airport design thread (they are great btw!!). The Terminals mostly are just a small amount of what space you need for apron and runways. Here it seems the other way round. Look at the design above. The Terminal is bigger then the whole apron.
But before we can build big terminals with multiple floors, I guess the game needs more optimization to handle all the pax.
