Unity DAY AND NIGHT In 6 Minutes!

Let's make a simple day/night cycle controller in Unity3D!

[lildgamedev]

If anyone's wondering why their game is super dark at night with this method, it's probably because your environment lighting source was set to skybox. I chose color and then this works great! I also added a fog density variable with thicker fog at night which is a nice touch.

[cdd]

Dang if only I had seen this before the end of the ludem dare compo It would have really added some polish. Great channel btw.

[lildgamedev]

Bruh this dude is like a coding GOD. I paused like 50 times trying to keep up lol

[odd-man]

I love the people that give code for free, don't stop coding!

[AvitheTiger]

This looks so cool! I've my own Day/Night script that changes out directional lights, skyboxes, and fog colors. This looks so much smoother!

[Orionhart]

Awesome stuff! Just put it into my game and it's working great. I have a custom time system since my game is realtime but we wanted the days to be sped up, but thankfully I created enough pure functions for translating the timing that made this almost instant to pop in.

[VRwithAndrew]

Nice work, Glynn! Simple, and certainly looks good enough to get the job done. :)

[Palerider]

Really great tutorial! Thanks for putting it together for us. I just found your channel and immediately subscribed ;-). Short, single-topic tutorials make the world a better place for everyone.

[nevercanyoucant]

I cant figure out how to get those multi colored gradients at 1:52.... ;___;

[sadravin]

Excellent, this is exactly what I was looking for, and it is simple to use. Thank you.

[SnutiHQ]

Very nice tutorial, like how you structured the data and used validators, never kneew this was even possible! 😱 This is awesome!! 😁👍 🌜🌞

[mathiasbruin]

Straight to the point and a clear explanation, great tutorial

[joshvanwyk]

Thanks for this great video! Really easy to follow and does it's job wonderfully

[theuniverse.]

This is a really good tutorial, thank you bro

[Zukomazi]

Thanks this works perfect for a open world project I'm developing

[capybaratech]

Thank you for your help Mr. Glynn. God bless

[Roxy_Rox]

amazing tutorial
all I changes was a I added a public float to change the day length in editor

[mikesellers]

I took the script from the video, along with changes made by @cuckoo gaming below, and made some additional changes. This script now speeds up the late night hours, increases the directional light & softens the shadows toward noon. The rest of the class from the original script remains the same. (This was made using Unity 2019.4.19f1 LTS.)

public class LightingManager : MonoBehaviour
{
//Scene References
[SerializeField] private Light DirectionalLight;
[SerializeField] private LightingPreset Preset;
//Variables
[SerializeField, Range(0, 24)] private float TimeOfDay;
[SerializeField, Range(-10, 10)] private float speedMultiplier; // used to adjust the cycle time. Note that values < 0 will reverse it!
[SerializeField, Range(1, 10)] private float nightSpeed; // how much to speed up late-night hours
[SerializeField] private float maxIntensity = 1.5f;
private float baseIntensity = 0f;
[SerializeField] private float maxShadowStrength = 1f;
[SerializeField] private float minShadowStrength = 0.2f;
private float nightSpeedUpStart = 20f;
private float nightSpeedUpEnd = 4f;
private float dawn = 6f;
private float dusk = 18f;
private float noon = 12f;

private void Start()
{
// default values
speedMultiplier = 0.1f;
nightSpeed = 10.0f;
baseIntensity = maxIntensity / 2f;
}

private void Update()
{
if (Preset == null)
return;

if (Application.isPlaying)
{
//(Replace with a reference to the game time)
// speed up the time in dead of night
if (TimeOfDay > nightSpeedUpStart || TimeOfDay < nightSpeedUpEnd) // speed up the passage of night from 9pm to 3am
{
// TimeOfDay += Time.deltaTime * speedMultiplier * nightSpeed;
TimeOfDay += Time.deltaTime * nightSpeed;
}
else
{
TimeOfDay += Time.deltaTime * speedMultiplier;

// adjust light intensity and shadow softness for time of day
if (TimeOfDay >= dawn && TimeOfDay <= noon)
{
DirectionalLight.intensity = baseIntensity + (baseIntensity / (noon - dawn)) * (TimeOfDay - dawn);
= minShadowStrength + ((maxShadowStrength - minShadowStrength) / (noon - dawn)) * (TimeOfDay - dawn);
}
else if (TimeOfDay > noon && TimeOfDay <= dusk)
{
DirectionalLight.intensity = baseIntensity + (baseIntensity / (dusk - noon)) * (dusk - TimeOfDay);
= minShadowStrength + ((maxShadowStrength - minShadowStrength) / (dusk - noon)) * (dusk - TimeOfDay);
}
else
{
DirectionalLight.intensity = baseIntensity;
= minShadowStrength;

}
}
TimeOfDay %= 24; //Modulus to ensure always between 0-24
UpdateLighting(TimeOfDay / 24f);
}
else
{
UpdateLighting(TimeOfDay / 24f);
}
}

[samisalama]

DUDE thank you so so so so so much you are life saver thanks for the tutorial thank you so much

[csab_csab]

Great tutorial, thank you so much! :)