Units of Measurement

Information

Stormworks: Build & Rescue has a lot of controversy and misconceptions regarding the units of measurements used within the game. Due to the nature of how the game was built; there is no consistency in cross-over with real-world measurements.

Table of Units

Unit of Measurement	Shorthand	Usecase	Additional Information
Metres	m	Distance	A block in the builder is 0.25 m, 4 blocks is a meter. Player is 7 blocks tall.
Metres Per Second	m/s	Speed	The Speed sensors in game output the value in m/s.
Rotations Per Second	RPS	Engine Speed	This is the default output value unit that both Prefab and Modular engines use to measure engine speed.
Litres	L	Fluid Volume	This is the default output value unit for both modular and prefab fluid tanks.
Litres Per Second	L/s	Fluid Transfer Rate	This is the default output value unit for various components when measuring the transfer of fluids through the component (manual fluid valve, fluid variable valve, etc).
Stormworks Mass Unit	SWMU	Weight	This is what the game measures weight in, displayed when hovering over the "Spawn" button in workshop.
Swatts	sW	Electricity	This is the measure of power stored within batteries in Stormworks.
Swatts per Second	sW/s	Electricity Rate	This is the measure of power consumption or production in Stormworks. This is the output unit of the generator components.
Celcius	°C	Temperature	This is the measure of temperature.
Radiation	Rad/RU	Radiation	The output from the radiation sensor. Arbitrary. 2 Rad's will severely impact the player; 8 Rad's will impact the player in a hazmat suit.
Torque		Inertia	The Torque Sensor does not measure Torque. Instead, it measures the inertia (how hard it is to move) of a connected system. This can be seen by the fact that the output doesn't change when an engine is off vs. on.

Volume and Fluids

The volume calculations in Stormworks are physically accurate. Since a single block is 25×25×25cm, each block holds exactly 15.625 L of fluid. The fluid tanks also adhere to this:

• Small tank: 1×1×2 = 31.25 L
• Medium tank: 2×2×3 = 187.50 L
• Large tank: 3×3×5 = 703.125 L

Mass

The mass unit in particular has some unique quirks attached to it.

• All liquids have a mass of 0.1 SWMU/L, unless they are in a custom tank. Liquids inside of Custom tanks instead weigh 0.2 SWMU/L. See trivia.
• Gasses have no mass.
• Players and NPCs weigh 70 mass, unless they are in a seat. Seated characters have no mass.
• All items in a mineral hopper (both fish and minerals) weigh 1SWMU each.

Swatts

All generators use swatts as their output unit. A generator at 1600sW/s will take exactly one second to fully charge a small battery. Electricity generation depends on generator size and rps.

The capacities for most components are known:

• up to 10 swatts of "residual energy" might be kept by generators, solar cells, breakers, relays and all similar components
• 300 swatts for hardpoint connector
• 1600 swatts for small battery
• 12800 swatts for medium battery
• 256000 swatts for large battery

Trivia | Notes

• Torque is a relatively arbitrary unit.
• There is no 1:1 with SWMU and any real world units of weight/mass. Doing so would result either in water being too light, or humans weighing 700 kg.
• Whilst there is no real life equivalence most units; the developers still use the Metric system for naming conventions a majority of the time.