fs_day_cycle - further clarifications

This page refers to Day Cycles in the new Environmental Enhancement system, and does not apply to viewers 6.3.9 or older.

Currently, see SL Wiki: Day Cycles for all available information about creating day cycles.

Day cycles are composed of one or more sky settings, and a water setting.

The long key frame slider at the tops is used to split the day length into times of day, each of which would have its own sky. Thus for a “real” day cycle, you would have the sun low in the east at sunrise, at the zenith at noon, and low in the west at sunset. Further, it is possible to have different day cycles at different heights.

• Clone From: Copy a day cycle from one sky to another. Typically used to replicate, for example, the ground level settings to higher skies.
• Load from: Load a definition from an existing day cycle.
• Clear: Clear all the settings for the height/water you have selected.

Click on one of the buttons on the left to work with that specific sky or water.

To add or edit a time of day key frame, left click on the horizontal bar, either on an existing key frame, which is indicated with a small block, or in a new position.

• Add Sky: Creates a blank sky definition which you can edit.
• Load Sky: Loads a sky from a sky asset.
• Delete Sky: Removes the currently selected keyframe.

When working with water, the 3 buttons above change accordingly.

Rather than using existing sky or water definitions, you can also input the data directly into the day cycle windows. See the following sections for specifics:

• Sky Tabs
• Water Tab

To add a day cycle to your parcel, see here; to add it to a region, see here.

This refers to day cycles which have day and night of equal length (eg, 2hrs day, 2hrs night, or for those wanting RL day length, 12hrs day, 12hrs night).

If you wish to create a day cycle that is equivalent to the “legacy” day cycle, of 4 hours, divided as 3 hours of day, 1 hour of night, then see below.

For day cycles where day and night are of equal length, the default day cycle, pictured above, is already set up correctly, and nothing needs to be changed. The percentages are:

This is a special section for those who would like to create the old style of SL day cycle, meaning 3 hrs day, 1 hr night.

All of the day cycles supplied as assets in the SL Library are linear. That is, the days and nights are equal in length, 2hrs and 2hrs respectively. If you wish to replicate the “legacy” day/night cycle of 3 hrs day, 1 hr night, you will need to adjust as follows.

• Copy the default day cycle into your Settings folder, then edit it.
• The midnight and noon keyframes are correct at 0 and 50%, but all the rest have to be changed.
• Make a keyframe half-way between 0 and 25%; this will be your sunrise, 06:00/6AM. Delete the 25% keyframe.
• Make a keyframe half-way between 75% and 100%; this will be your sunset, 18:00/6PM. Delete the 75% keyframe.
• Make a keyframe half-way between 0%, midnight, and your sunrise; this will be 03:00/3AM.
• Make a keyframe half-way between your 06:00/6AM and your noon; this will be your 09:00/9AM.
• Make a keyframe half-way between your noon and your 18:00/6PM; this will be your 15:00/3PM.
• Make a keyframe half-way between your sunset and the end midnight; this will be 21:00/9PM.

Consult the table below for exact values. Sadly, there is currently no way to insert keyframes at exact value; you will have to eyeball it.

Many explanations taken from this SL wiki page.