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alexferrer

Thermal simulator

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Hi, 

I am a long time glider pilot and was a bit disappointed with the thermal simulator on X-plane 10, so, I wrote a python plugin to better emulate the behaviour of thermals on Xplane. 

 

It is still an early release, but it is already quite usable. 

 

The code is at  https://github.com/alexferrer/xplane_thermals

 

 

 

Advanced concepts already implemented: Regular Thermals (not dynamic lift) tend to have a strong core of lift followed by outward softer layers of lift. Thermals drift with the wind as they gain altitude. Thermals rise till they reach cloudbase or the top of the lift. At this point they dwindle off. When a wing of a plane hits a thermal and the other wing does not, the plane tends to roll against the lift. When the wing of the plane is on a roll, the thermal roll factor is reduced (less arm momentum) Thermals gain and loose strength along with the height of the sun in the sky
 
A random thermal generator menu allows the user to select quantity of thermals, size and strength. The thermal placement is random, but smart enough not to set thermals above water surfaces.
 
A thermal visualization aid (shows markers where the thermals are) exists with an option to turn it on/off on the plugin menu
 
Todo: Thermals have cycles, begin, middle, end and they tend to keep a basic timming.
 

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Thank you so much for this, I'm very  keen to see improvements in x-plane for gliders.

 

I'm a trainee glider pilot and so I have a some experience with the real thing. I found that your thermals are much more realistic. The instructions for installing python interface are a bit vague but once I got it running it was very easy to install your scripts.

 

Are you still actively developing this project?

 

FSX has an online community (ukvga) which run what is effectively a simulated gliding club. The infrastructure for gliding is much more mature for FSX with many airfields and plugins available. I have developed a couple of airfields for fsx but there is so much that is better about x-plane so I will now be re building them for x-plane.

 

If I get time I would like to put together a tutorial on how to get python interface up and running and install your scripts. I know I't pretty straightforward but if you haven't done any python It may be a little intimidating. My reasoning is that the more people use x-plane for gliding the more people are going to develop plugings and stuff like you have.

 

Are you ok for me to do this?

 

 

 

 

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