Dynamic Day/Night Cycle: User Manual

Overview

The DayNightCycle component simulates a full day-night lighting cycle in real time, controlling ambient lighting, sun direction, fog, water color, and updating a UI clock.

Supports:

• Smooth time progression
• Manual time setting
• Scene-wide lighting transitions
• Fog and water color blending
• Runtime and editor-friendly workflow

Component Setup

Attach the DayNightCycle.cs script to a GameObject (typically an empty GameObject called DayNightController).

Required assignments

• sunLight: the main directional light representing the sun. This is a child of the rotationPivot.
• rotationPivot: a Transform whose X rotation simulates the sun’s movement.
• sceneCamera: Camera for background color transitions.
• timeText (optional). TextMeshProUGUI object for displaying the in-game clock.
• waterRenderer (optional). Renderer for the water surface.
• waterColorProperty: Name of the water color shader property (_WaterColor by default). This can be changed to match your specific shader.

Inspector Settings

Time Settings

• startTimeOfDay: Hour of the day at scene start (0-24).
• cycleSpeed: Time progression speed multiplier.
• TimeOfDay (read-only). Current in-game time.

Reset Settings

• resetSpeed: Speed at which time resets smoothly.
• forwardsOnly: Forces time resets to only move forward.

Directional Light Settings

• rotationOffsetY: Y-axis rotation offset for the sun’s path. This lets you control rotation angle in the scene.

Fog Control

• enableFogControl: If true, fog color and density are controlled automatically.

Water Settings

• waterRenderer: Renderer using the water shader.
• waterColorProperty: Shader property controlling water color. This uses MaterialPropertyBlocks.

Lighting Time Settings

Four lighting profiles. Click the buttons at the bottom of the component to set those values:

• Daybreak
• Midday
• Sunset
• Night

Each profile includes:

• ambientColor
• sunColor
• backgroundColor (camera background color)
• sunIntensity
• shadowStrength
• fogColor (if enabled)
• fogDensity
• waterColor

These define the scene’s environmental settings for that time period and automatically blend between them.

Runtime Controls (Public Methods)

Call these methods from other scripts, UI buttons, or events:

How It Works

• Update(): Increments _timeOfDay based on cycleSpeed.
• UpdateLighting(): Calculates sun rotation and interpolates environment settings between the two closest time profiles.
• UpdateTimeUI(): Updates the on-screen time display once per minute change.
• ResetTimeSmoothly(): Smoothly interpolates _timeOfDay over time when called.

Best Practices

• Use rotationPivot as the parent of the sun light for easier Y-axis control.
• If using custom fog or water solutions, disable enableFogControl or clear the waterRenderer reference.
• Keep cycleSpeed low for realistic day-night transitions (e.g., 0.05 to 0.2).

Example Setup. Quick Start

GameObject: DayNightController Attach Script: DayNightCycle

Assign references:

• sunLight → Your main Directional Light (Sun). You can adjust the Y rotation to simulate the Sun’s height at different times of the year.
• rotationPivot → Empty GameObject or the parent of the sun light.
• sceneCamera → Main Camera.
• timeText → TextMeshProUGUI object (optional).
• waterRenderer → Water plane renderer (optional).

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