Three Animated Wind Turbine Models for FSX.
These three wind turbine models are based on the models used in my freeware FSX Power Project.
Covering three of the main wind turbine types in use around the World, each model can be independently scaled to match blade length and hub-height above ground.
A red obstruction light is included & visible at night.
The Gmax source files are included for making further models with different textures or physical modifications.
Note that the rotating hub has been named 'tick18' allowing the Gmax model to be exported as a fs2004 model if you have the fs2004 SDK.
These are very low polygon count models allowing wind farms of 300-500 turbines to be built with minimal impact on frame-rates.
The three models are contained in the model library - wt_rp_wind_turbines.bgl - place this file into your FSX\scenery\global\scenery folder.
The texture file - wt_rp_white.dds should be placed in your FSX\scenery\global\texture folder.
The obstruction red light effect file - wt_rp_redlight.fx - should be placed into your FSX effects folder.
These 3 files would need to be distributed with any scenery placement files you publish (freeware only)
The GUID numbers for each turbine models is:
04336fda-4cc7c17a-f70b49b2-0b3ec425 [3x20-metre blades - slow]
d7a4c83f-431589db-568d63ab-d5d4bf5a [2x20-metre blades - fast]
e199a777-4731646d-0387a9be-d538c8b8 [3x20-metre blades - fast]
The default model sizes [unity scale] are 20-metre blades [sweeping a diameter of 40-metres] & 40-metre hub height.
The default tower size is 100-metres - 40-metres above ground & 60-metres below ground, allowing the height of the tower to be increased or decreased by adjusting the height of the model above ground either positively or negatively.
To resize a model to 30-metre blades & hub height of 60-metres simply rescale to 1.5 times.
If you need to have a turbine with 30-metre blades but a hub height of 50-metres, rescale to 1.5, the subsequent hub height of 60-metres will need to be reduced by 10-metres by changing the model height. As model heights in FSX are in feet, multiply 10x39 and divide by 12 which requires that the model needs to be lowered by 32.5 feet. In practice I would normally round this to 33 feet. (This applies to the FSX Object Placement Tool - other scenery placement tools may possibly use metres for object altitudes.)
To save confusion, all default turbine models are the same size.
The twin bladed turbine is normally only used in small to medium sized real World turbines.
The 3-blade fast turbine should be used when down-scaling for blades 20-metres long or less.
The 3-blade slow turbine should be used when up-scaling for 20-metre blades up to 60 or 70 metre blades as used in the World's largest turbines.
These models can be freely used in your wind farm projects and shared as freeware - would appreciate an acknowledgement of the source of these models when you use them.
Ray Porter
February, 2014.
