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A versatile and realistic Day-Night Cycle System. Control lighting, ambient colors, sun movement, fog, and time display in a seamless 24-hour cycle. Perfect for immersive open-world games.
Render pipeline compatibility
The Built-in Render Pipeline is Unity’s default render pipeline. It is a general-purpose render pipeline that has limited options for customization. The Universal Render Pipeline (URP) is a Scriptable Render Pipeline that is quick and easy to customize, and lets you create optimized graphics across a wide range of platforms. The High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) is a Scriptable Render Pipeline that lets you create cutting-edge, high-fidelity graphics on high-end platforms.
Unity VersionBuilt-inURPHDRP
2022.3.35f1
Compatible
Not compatible
Not compatible
Description

Day-Night Cycle System is an advanced tool that brings realistic, fully adjustable day-night transitions to your Unity projects. Tailored for open-world, simulation, and atmospheric games, this system enables you to create captivating environments that respond naturally to the passing of time. The system offers smooth lighting transitions, a realistic sun arc, and intuitive customization, all controlled via a simple Inspector interface with minimal setup.


🌞 Key Features

  • Realistic Sun Path
    The sun follows an elliptical arc across the sky, simulating a natural path from sunrise to sunset. Control the sun's height, path radius, and position to match the environment and time of day, adding depth and immersion to any scene.
  • Smooth Lighting Transitions
    Customizable lighting colors and intensities for both day and night add vibrant realism to your world. An adjustable AnimationCurve enables smooth color and intensity transitions during dawn, noon, dusk, and night, giving full control over your scene’s mood at every hour.
  • Dynamic Fog Controls
    The Day-Night Cycle System supports distinct fog settings for day and night, letting you fine-tune fog color and density to reflect atmospheric changes as the day progresses. Perfect for creating morning mist, sunset glow, or foggy nights.
  • Ambient Light Adjustments
    Ambient colors change smoothly with the day-night cycle, reflecting the time of day. The result is a seamless blend of background lighting, creating a believable environment for players.
  • Time Display with TextMeshPro Support
    Show in-game time with an optional TextMeshPro text display, formatted in HH:MM AM/PM. Whether it’s dawn or midnight, players can stay immersed in your game’s world, with an intuitive timekeeping system that shows the passage of time.
  • Flexible Timing & Custom Start Time
    Set the duration of the entire cycle in real-time seconds, control the time scale to speed up or slow down the cycle, and define the starting hour, whether that’s sunrise, high noon, or twilight. This flexibility supports a wide variety of gameplay styles, from slow-paced simulations to time-sensitive survival games.
  • Event Triggers for Day/Night Transitions
    Unity Events allow custom functionality at the start of each day and night. Use these triggers to sync audio, gameplay events, AI behavior, or other environmental effects to the cycle’s transitions, enhancing interactivity and immersion.

🎮 Who Is This Asset For?

This Day-Night Cycle System is perfect for developers creating open-world games, simulators, atmospheric adventures, or any project where dynamic, realistic environmental transitions are key. It's suitable for:

  • Open-World Games: Add depth with natural day-night transitions.
  • Survival & Simulation: Allow time-of-day mechanics to impact gameplay, like visibility, AI behavior, or resources.
  • Atmospheric & Story-Driven Games: Use lighting and fog to set the mood, from a serene morning to a foreboding midnight.

Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced developer, the system is straightforward to set up, customizable to any level of detail, and works out of the box for Unity’s built-in, URP, and HDRP pipelines.

🔧 Easy Setup and Customization

The Day-Night Cycle System is designed for rapid integration and ease of use:

  • Intuitive Inspector Interface: Adjust every aspect of the cycle, including sun path, light colors, fog density, and timing.
  • No Coding Required: Drag and drop the system into any scene, customize in the Inspector, and your day-night cycle is ready.
  • Advanced Customization: For more control, the system is modular and extendable, giving experienced developers options to add custom effects, tweak parameters, or integrate with other gameplay systems.

Compatibility & Performance

  • Works seamlessly with Unity's Built-in, URP, and HDRP pipelines.
  • Optimized for performance with minimal overhead, ensuring smooth gameplay experiences even in larger, complex scenes.
Technical details

🌞 Key Features

  • Realistic Sun PathThe sun follows an elliptical arc across the sky, simulating a natural path from sunrise to sunset. Control the sun's height, path radius, and position to match the environment and time of day, adding depth and immersion to any scene.
  • Smooth Lighting TransitionsCustomizable lighting colors and intensities for both day and night add vibrant realism to your world. An adjustable AnimationCurve enables smooth color and intensity transitions during dawn, noon, dusk, and night, giving full control over your scene’s mood at every hour.
  • Dynamic Fog ControlsThe Day-Night Cycle System supports distinct fog settings for day and night, letting you fine-tune fog color and density to reflect atmospheric changes as the day progresses. Perfect for creating morning mist, sunset glow, or foggy nights.
  • Ambient Light AdjustmentsAmbient colors change smoothly with the day-night cycle, reflecting the time of day. The result is a seamless blend of background lighting, creating a believable environment for players.
  • Time Display with TextMeshPro SupportShow in-game time with an optional TextMeshPro text display, formatted in HH:MM AM/PM. Whether it’s dawn or midnight, players can stay immersed in your game’s world, with an intuitive timekeeping system that shows the passage of time.
  • Flexible Timing & Custom Start TimeSet the duration of the entire cycle in real-time seconds, control the time scale to speed up or slow down the cycle, and define the starting hour, whether that’s sunrise, high noon, or twilight. This flexibility supports a wide variety of gameplay styles, from slow-paced simulations to time-sensitive survival games.
  • Event Triggers for Day/Night TransitionsUnity Events allow custom functionality at the start of each day and night. Use these triggers to sync audio, gameplay events, AI behavior, or other environmental effects to the cycle’s transitions, enhancing interactivity and immersion.
Created with AI

documentation is mocked out using grok and is then fine tuned by the end developer, mostly to ensure proper grammar and english is utilized

Day Night | Simple Day Night System & Framework

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License type
File size
2.5 MB
Latest version
1.0
Latest release date
Nov 13, 2024
Original Unity version
2022.3.35
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Day Night | Simple Day Night System & Framework
$4.99