lapinkarhu

A simple question: Is it possible to permanently alter the trajectory of the sun in the game, so that during midday it would blaze from a 60-70 degree angle, instead of being the flat toplight it is now. Are there any tutorials for altering basic elements such as this?

Ok, I've lived all my life in Finland, which is quite far up north. And it annoys me to no end that the sun in Skyrim follows a completely wrong trajectory. The sun in Skyrim is like the California sun: Short mornings and evenings, and a very long midday, with the sun blazing directly from above. I know the Bethesda headquarters are on the same altitude as California, so I guess that's what they are used to. But in the northern countries the sun travels on a much lower trajectory, even during midsummer. In other words, mornings and evenings are loooooong, but midday is relatively short. And even during midsummer (When days would be almost 24 hours long), the sun blazes right above you only for a very brief period of time. Northenr countries are cold exactly because of the trajectory of the sun. While I don't think the time of the year is specified in Skyrim, it would make most sense to assume it's autumn (Judging by the color of leaves in certain locations). In Autumn the day/night cycle can be like it is in the game. But the sun would follow a MUCH lower trajectory. It would only ever rise up to roughly 60-70 degree angle, no higher than that. The light would almost always be sidelight, with no toplight, not even during midday. I would LOVE to have a mod like this. While this might seem like a completely pointless mod to make, it would make the whole game more atmospheric and visually pleasing. Sidelight/backlight looks much prettier than toplight - Something that Witcher 2 got beautifully right (Along with almost every Hollywood movie ever made). I wonder if this would be tough to do? I have no idea if it's possible for me to personally adjust some values in the game, I've never modded anything.

Just to clarify thought, it wouldn't be nearly always a sunrise or a sunset as how many people think of them, with golden colors, etc. But the "golden hours" would also be expanded to twice their current length - Followed by a "blue hour" before it actually gets dark, and the same thing again before the sun rises. It seems that currently the highest angle for the sun in Skyrim is around 80-90 degrees, which would fit the conditions on Maryland (Or California, Spain, etc). To have a "Northern Sun" effect, the highest angle during midday should be around 60 degrees or so, and the sun would rise and set slower. While that change in the trajectory might not sound like much, it actually makes a really big difference. The days could still be of equal length. Of course in the midsummer we have very short nights - Or no night at all. But if we assume that Skyrim happens in the fall, days and nights would be about the same length as they would be in southern countries. And in the winter we have nothing but a sunrise... And then immediately a sunset. Because the day can be only an hour long, or less. :)

Well, according to the ES lore, the sun is a "hole" in the fabric of reality punched by some God. So any scientific plausibility can be ignored. If we would assume that Nirn were a real planet in real space, then it would actually matter. Northern parts of Earth are cold EXACTLY because of the trajectory of the sun. But like I explained, this mod would be good for different reasons: 1. It would make the northern region of Skyrim feel more northern. This would increase immersion and the illusion of realism. since we gamers are all living on Earth, emulating Earth's conditions will make the world of Skyrim feel more real to most of us. The nature/climate/weather/ etc in the games tries to emulate Earth anyway, why not make it even better? 2. It would bring more variety to lighting conditions. A lot of gamers would probably see this as a good thing, as visual variety makes a game more pleasing to play. 3. It would make the game more attractive and atmospheric to look at. Look at Witcher 2. Look at almost any visually handsome and atmospheric movie ever made, and you will see a distinct lack of toplight. Even on films that were shot in California. ...I think that's 3 pretty good reasons for a Northern Sun mod. But obviously nobody is going to do some massive overhaul mod to achieve this. However, if it would be possible to do this simply by tweaking some attributes in the game, it might even be a very easy mod to make. Maybe someone would even like to have it as an option in their weather mod.

I joined the forums just to say this: Skyrim looks awesome. With the stupid scaling system of Oblivion gone, this might not even need mods to be a great game. But one thing really bugs me: Skyrim is obviously supposed to be in the North. Where as mid-Cyrodiil was representative of the lush Middle-Europe and South-Cyrodiil was more Mediterranean (And swampy parts of south-USA), Skyrim is clearly supposed to be more like Northern Europe (Or Northern America), taking influence from the volcanic rock and tundra of Iceland, the grand mountains of Norway and Alaska, the forests of northern Sweden and Canada, etc. But there is one thing that is wrong in all the footage we have seen so far: The sun. Northern sun follows a different trajectory than a southern sun. Bethesda studios are in Maryland, USA, which is roughly on the same level with North-California and South-Spain. They clearly have a Maryland sun in their game. In almost every video and every still, if it's not cloudy, the sun is blazing almost directly from above. But this is not how it goes in the north - Even in midsummer, you get toplight only a couple of hours in the midday, at max. After that it's different degrees of sidelight. Outside of the summer, you get no toplight AT ALL, and it's all sidelight. As someone who has lived in Finland all his life, it's really jarring for me. The sun seems to behave exactly like it behaved in California, where I have lived. It's toplight most of the day, and the sun gets quickly up and down in the morning/evening. In the North you should get much shorter midday, and much longer mornings and evenings. Disregarding the climate conditions in the north, there are other reasons why this would be better: Sidelight/backlight is a lot more attractive and atmospheric to look at. For example Witcher 2 used a lower trajectory of sun to great effect - One of the reasons why the game looked so great. It had excellent use of "natural" light. Toplight tends to look kinda ugly and flat - movies avoid it for a reason. Also, emulating the northern sun would create more variety to lighting conditions - Instead of having 2 hours of morning, 12 hours of top-heavy midday and 2 hours of evening (Which is roughly how it was in Oblivion and Fallout 3), the sun would rise and fall slower. Each lighting condition would be prolonged - With the exception of midday, which looks the ugliest anyway, and which looks way too emphasized in Skyrim. I want a more attractive and atmospheric game with more variety in natural light. A game that would also feels more "northern". So a question is: Do you think it would be possible to some day get a "Northern Sun" mod? This would simply mean lowering the trajectory of the sun. I don't how complicated such task would be - Would it simply mean changing some values for the sun, or would that screw up the textures, light maps, etc? This might even be impossible to do within the limitations of the graphics engine, I have no idea really.