Busch Gardens Williamsburg recreations.

Hello everyone! I've been working for a bit now on recreations of BGW rides. I'm doing it in a "through the ages" series, during critical years of the parks history. The year I am starting with is 1992, since 2/3 of those coasters are now long gone. As someone who was very close to these old arrows, and worked on them, I wanted to get an inch for inch as-accurate-as-possible recreation to them! I will later move on to 1997, 1999, 2007, 2011, 2015, etc.

All of these are a work in progress in various stages of development.

Loch Ness, still a work in progress

Storage Rail!

It's 1992, so the lift speeds still allow the double loop!

And here they go!

Here comes the wolf! VERY early in working with this.

The livery is coming along, but not done.

Already working supports on Drachen Fire even though the track is still slightly off here and there.

Still some kinks to work out on DF. The only thing harder than getting pumps out is putting intentional but specific pumps in!

I want to make these as authentic as possible. LNM is now within 5 feet of accurate, and REALLY feels right, but the supports are slow work getting them right. I'm having more trouble with wolf due to the suspended coaster not really swinging quite right. My biggest issue is going to be the 3ds on these. I'm just starting out learning, so starting with the LNM tunnle but it's a steep curve. I'll eventually want to do realistic queue houses, props/scenery, and a very ambitious (hopefully possible) recreation of the DF trains. This project will be a while in the works, but hopefully it's worth it!

Looks awesome man can't wait to visit that park next year

[Turbo]

I approve of these lol, are you going to be doing 90's and modern day?

[Coasterkidmwm]

Looks phenomenal so far! Keep up the great work. Love you progress on the arrow loopers especially.

Wow! I am really excited for this project. I'm seriously digging it. All the coasters look great so far! The car textures are also incredible! His did you make them? Are you going to have custom trains for Drachen Fire!

[Blase Rhine]

Ahhh big bad wolf! One of my favorite rides before they tore it down. Please make sure you take your time on this so it can be very accurate. Will you also be doing a verbolten recreation?

Wow.... No rush on this one. This is a very ambitions project to recreate BGW.

Looks amazing! It's making me more excited for my first Busch Gardens trip next year

Thanks guys! It will be a slow process sadly, but that's due to the fact that I'm being very picky to make sure they're as close to 100% authentic as possible! Once these are shaping up, I'll do a 1997 version of the park, with a modified Drachen Fire and added Alpengeist/Wild Maus. I will continue to move trough the years up to present eventually! I'm hoping by the time I get to the modern era, we'll know everything about the new coaster, and there will be a solution for the Verbolten drop track.

I actually just made the textures in MSpaint lol, I'll be doing better versions in photoshop eventually. I do hope to make custom Drachen Fire trains, but my 3ds skills are total crap right now. If any 3d modeling wizards want to team up on this, I'd be happy to collaborate, otherwise I'm just working it all out myself as I go!

I am excited to see those Drachen Fire Trains. I guess I would call them Arrow 3rd gen/Low profile trains.

stevecoaster wrote:

I am excited to see those Drachen Fire Trains. I guess I would call them Arrow 3rd gen/Low profile trains.

Actually MK1200's and I cannot wait to see them either. Also thanks for the car-texture how to.

[SauronHimself]

Don't forget to build the Trapper's Smokehouse. Their ribs are so good.

As for your Loch Ness, there's no need to compare to the same "poorly shapen" track installed in NL! =)

It's inspiring me think about doing Busch Gardens Tampa Bay.... Cedar Point would be awesome too but imagine the GPU needed to handle that?

[TTD03]

Wow! What a cool thread, nice idea you have, can't wait to see how it progresses!

Small update:

Maintenance area and switch tracks for wolf, and one of the two loop supports for LNM

I will eventually add more free nodes to the LNM loop supports to make them more "curved," but happy with where it's at for now. I hope to get the other loop done tomorrow.

I also did a lot of "fine tuning" on the track for wolf I have thus far to get the trains to swing right and for it to follow the actual (surprisingly bumpy) arrow track from the real thing. I got some new angles where I see just how many bumps there really were on that section, and after putting them in, the trains swing a lot more like they did in real life!

Lower Loop Truss

Will try to "smooth out" even more at a later date.

Switches

LNM us looking very realistic!

[afro85]

Is the frist time I see that loop support done so Well! Great project!

[TallonD83]

Holy *(^# LNM looks amazing! Definitely following along and would be glad to help with anything you need! I can do a litle bit of texture work if you need it!

[TTD03]

Looking great!

[Blase Rhine]

Looks great so far. Great support work on LNM. Keep it up!

[SauronHimself]

OP, how are you basing the accuracy of your tracks? Are you using the Google Maps overlay?

Thanks guys! To answer a few questions:

The place I could really use help is with 3ds. I'm really not picking up modeling very fast. Also: Has anyone here had luck with car textures on the front of the suspended trains? I'm having a very difficult time with the front of the trains. I don't have photoshop and nolimits on the same computer, so I'm using MSpaint right now. It really isn't good enough for finding the contours of the suspended trains. I'll be installing photoshop again soon, so if there isn't already someone super on the ball, I'll just do it myself in a week or so.

To answer how I'm checking the track, I am not using google earth as it is warped and not 100% accurate due to the overlays of images. Also, DF and Wolf are long gone. I do, however, have LOTS of reference photos and videos. Also, I worked on a bunch of these rides many years ago! Basically, I start with a bastardized section of track, get the stats as close as I can, use reference photos to refine things, then compare it to a POV video overlayed on a NL2 PoV. I won't really start on supports until it's as close as I think I can get it. I only started on the DF supports because everything through the batwing is accurate, and I was getting frustrated with some of the later elements so I took a break to put the supports in.

If anyone is good with 3ds and wants to help, here's a list of items I would love to have, from most desired to least desired for each ride. I can help you find photos/give stats as needed for each!

LNM:
The tunnel. It just isn't the same with a concrete tube.
Station/queue
Maintenance bay (there's tons of photos on google thanks to their coaster tour)
Queue scenery
Track catwalks/ladders/loose article catch mesh.
More accurate lift motors.
Big cheezy LNM head that used to be at the end of the tunnel.
Tunnel strobes.
Land of the Dragons structures

BBW:
Village huts/scenery
Station/maintenance bay.
Queue
Evac rolling stair cases
Evac bench for safety brakes
Bumper Cars/San Marco Bridge
Air Wolf

Drachen Fire:
TRAINS! Anyone who could help work on them, I'd love to help get a very detailed version of the trains out (with functioning tracer lights)
Station/Queue
Maintenance Bay
Block Breaks staircase
Archway under the second corkscrew/Viewing area inside the helix/under the batwing
Catwalks/ladders on the track (same as LNM)
Gift Shop

Alpengeist:
A zero car/skis for the trains
Station/queue
Maintenance bay.
Flume Bridge
Various huts/houses that the rides goes near/under/through
Fake snow
Log Flume
Evac platforms for lift/block brakes
Block brake staircase/path
Safety net on the Immelmann that was added in 1998
Lift Crown ladder

Objects usable on all coasters:
Chain Link fence
Black "spiked" fence
CCTV camera
Phone box

If anyone wants to help with that, I have all the pictures/information you'll need to get started, I'm just not very good at modeling myself.

Also, further down the road I'd like to use captured audio for the more "authentic" anti-rollback sound on the arrow loopers and wolf, and more realistic break run sounds extracted from video of the coasters, but that will be much later down the line. I have lists for Apollo/Griffon/Wildmaus/Verbolten as well, but we'll cross those bridges later once I get the current works-in-progress further along!

I'm looking over scripting to start getting into it more, and if it works out I'll be making an Arrow anti-rollback sound for a Phantom's Revenge recreation that you could use! I'd also be willing to help out with other sounds if I figure it out. Won't be for a while though, I currently know nothing about scripting

Awesome thanks! Yeah, Loch Ness and 1992 Drachen Fire aren't the same without it! After '92, Drachen Fire got new rollbacks that were completely silent, so easy enough there! Just need to figure out how to script out the sound all together!