DynamicPlatforms Bridges

Place a framework, build your own bridge over it, and let the framework handle the movement.

Give your harbour an opening bridge, your stronghold a drawbridge, or your next ambitious build a folding crossing. DynamicPlatforms Bridges supplies the moving framework, while you build the deck, railings, and decoration with Valheim's building pieces.

Public beta — please read

Version 0.2.0.

The core mod is intended to be generally feature complete, but it has not been extensively tested, particularly in multiplayer, with large structures, or alongside other mods.

The UI is currently a placeholder and has not had a UX pass. The menus and controls are functional, but their layout, wording, and ease of use are still being worked on. Please report confusing interactions as well as bugs.

Back up your world before testing. Report bugs, performance issues, UI feedback, and feature requests on Discord. Your feedback will help shape the release.

Six ways to move your own design

Bridge type	Movement
Drawbridge	A single deck pivots around its hinge.
Double drawbridge	Two leaves open from opposite ends.
Vertical lift	The whole deck rises to open the crossing.
Retractable	The deck slides back or telescopes into sections.
Rolling	Linked sections curl into a rolling bridge.
Fold-up	Linked sections fold into a stacked arrangement.

The framework hides when you finish building, leaving your construction visible. Use familiar materials and details to make the bridge feel part of your world. This is a vanilla-friendly building tool, with vanilla assets used for the framework and buttons, rather than a fixed bridge model that decides the look for you.

More than an opening deck

• Customize the structure. Adjust width, length, anchor position, and hinge placement. Where the bridge type supports links, choose their dimensions to suit your design.
• Tune the motion. Set speed and easing, then adjust the relevant opening angle, lift height, retract distance, or folding direction. Double drawbridges can stagger their leaves, and an optional auto-close timer handles the return trip.
• Build at different poses. Work with the bridge closed, partly open, or fully open. Show, hide, or isolate links locally to make awkward sections easier to reach and build on.
• Place controls where they make sense. Bridge Buttons can toggle the bridge or act as dedicated open or close controls.
• Ride the movement. A player aboard does not prevent the bridge from moving. You can walk or jump rather than being locked in place; take care on steep or folding sections.
• Set access and protect settings. Choose Everyone, Ward access, or Builder only for operation. A separate builder lock protects edits.
• Name and find your bridges. YOUR BRIDGES lists your character's saved frames in the current world, including unloaded ones, with names, locations, and map markers.

DynamicPlatforms Bridges is standalone. You can use it on its own or alongside DynamicPlatforms Elevators.

Build your own deck and work with the bridge held at different opening positions.

Getting started

1. Find Bridge Frame and Bridge Button in the hammer's Dynamic Storage section. These beta pieces currently cost one Wood each.
2. Place a Bridge Frame, look at it, and press P to open the editor. Choose your bridge type, dimensions, and motion settings.
3. Build your deck, railings, and decoration on the blueprint in build mode. Build an actual deck: the blueprint hides when you finish.
4. For linked bridges, use the build-pose and link visibility controls to help reach each section. Leave room for railings and other parts when they fold together.
5. Select Finish building, place a Bridge Button, and try a slow opening and closing trip before increasing the speed.

To edit again, look at the frame, a bridge button, or an attached ordinary floor or wall and press P. Storage pieces retain their own appearance-editor shortcut. Return to build mode when changing the structure.

For management without looking at a bridge, check Bridge Editor → Open Your Bridges in the BepInEx mod settings. This opens the catalogue and resets the checkbox after use.

Adjust the movement and preview how your bridge opens before finishing the build.

Performance by design

DynamicPlatforms Bridges has been built from the ground up with performance in mind:

• Less repeated work per block. Attached pieces stop running their own attachment updates once linked, and stationary bridges avoid unnecessary member-position updates.
• Movement calculated together. Link poses are calculated in a shared pass and reused for the attached pieces, reducing repeated calculations on segmented bridges.
• Shared movement timing. Clients calculate travel from shared timing information rather than receiving a new position for every block on every frame. Saved positions are still updated periodically and at stops.
• Simpler collision during travel. Optional floor and side-wall boxes per link reduce the number of decorative solid colliders being moved. Doors, containers, control buttons, and triggers retain their relevant collision, and original solids return at stops.

The COLLISION tab lets you measure an automatic approximation, adjust manual dimensions, and inspect the outlines. Bridge collision is an approximation: it can span gaps or openings and omit roofs or interior obstacles. Use full collision if the simplified boxes do not suit your design.

These choices target avoidable update, calculation, and collision costs. Rendering, lights, particles, moving pieces, rider handling, and multiplayer synchronization still have a cost. Larger builds and more elaborate folding arrangements will cost more. Performance gains have not been established through extensive benchmarking; reports from different PCs and multiplayer sessions are especially useful during this beta.

A few things to know

• Leave room for the whole movement. Check both the closed and open shapes, including railings and folded links. Riders can hit surrounding terrain or buildings, and a steep deck can throw them off.

• Some pieces cannot travel with a bridge. Portals, beds, crafting stations, and other platform frameworks cannot be attached. These restrictions apply to attachment to the bridge, not ordinary building elsewhere.

• Dismantle a whole bridge. YOUR BRIDGES offers Delete bridge with a confirmation warning. Visit the stopped bridge first so every attached piece is loaded and close its containers. The server checks permissions, then removes each piece through its actual owner, drops native building resources and ordinary container contents at their piece positions, keeps the frame until last, and refreshes the list. Protected or busy containers and changed ownership stop deletion while preserving remaining pieces. Contents over water or a gap can fall below the bridge. You can still remove pieces individually in build mode and use the hammer or editor on an empty frame.

• Returning from 0.1.9 or earlier? Measure automatic collision once in the COLLISION tab, or finish building again. Older unverified measurements keep full collision until updated. Auto measurements are checked against the loaded structure before a trip.

Installation and multiplayer

Requires BepInExPack Valheim and Jotunn. Install through your mod manager with the listed dependencies, or place DynamicBridges.dll under BepInEx/plugins/DynamicBridges/ for a manual installation.

Every player and the server must have the same mod version. The host or an admin can configure building and movement limits.

Other Dynamic Mods

	Explore the collection
	DynamicStorage Materials — materials displayed as growing piles, crates and barrels, with an appearance editor and optional labels.
	DynamicStorage Forge — ores, scraps and refined metals for your workshop.
	DynamicStorage Ammunition Piles — barrels for arrows, bolts and Ballista missiles.
	DynamicStorage Mead Hall — themed mead storage with labels and Quick Grab.
	DynamicStorage Butcher’s Hall — raw and cooked meat storage for your butcher area.
	DynamicStorage Tanners Hall — hide racks and visible pelt piles for your tannery.
	DynamicAquatics: Ponds & Aquariums — coming soon.
	DynamicPlatforms Elevators — build your own lift onto a blueprint frame. You design its floor, walls and decoration; the framework moves your creation between floors.

Help improve the beta

Please share your creations and feedback on Discord. For a bug or performance report, include the mod version, whether you are playing solo or multiplayer, your other mods, and what happened. Screenshots, logs, the bridge type, and approximate piece and link counts help reproduce the issue.