Day Cycle

Powerful day-night cycle system with editor visualization and real-time controls, supporting multiple Suns and Moons, lunar phases, seasons, events, and Timeline.

Key features

• Flexible day-night cycle system with support for multiple Suns, Moons, and custom celestial bodies
• Simplified astronomical model with seasonal solar shift and lunar phase simulation
• Editor-driven workflow – configure and preview celestial motion directly in the Unity Editor without entering Play Mode
• Built-in visual debugging tools: orbital paths, daily parallels, ecliptic line, and latitude/longitude grid
• Global planet settings via ScriptableObjects (latitude, day of year, orbital tilt, time scale)
• ScriptableObject configurations for celestial bodies, allowing reusable Sun, Moon, and custom object setups
• Centralized GameTime system representing in-game time and calendar date
• Modular celestial body controllers responsible for updating object orientation and movement in the scene
• Rendering pipeline adapters for integration with different Unity render pipelines
• Extensible architecture allowing developers to implement custom celestial body logic or rendering adapters
• Time-based gameplay events such as sunrise, sunset, day start, and night start
• Timeline integration for cinematic control of time and celestial motion

Compatibility

• Unity Built-in Render Pipeline
• Universal Render Pipeline (URP)
• High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP)

Performance

• Lightweight system designed for runtime efficiency
• Uses simplified orbital calculations suitable for real-time games
• Minimal runtime overhead – most configuration and visualization tools are Editor-only

DayCycle is a flexible day-night cycle system for Unity that simulates the movement of celestial bodies across the sky. It supports multiple Suns, Moons, and custom celestial objects, enabling a wide range of sky setups from realistic worlds to stylized or alien environments.

The system is based on simplified astronomical calculations, providing believable solar movement, seasonal shifts, and lunar phases while remaining lightweight and easy to integrate into existing projects.

DayCycle can be fully configured directly in the Unity Editor without entering Play Mode. Built-in visualization tools display orbital paths, daily parallels, the ecliptic, and latitude/longitude grids, making it easy to design and debug sky movement.

The package includes an event system that can trigger signals for sunrise, sunset, day start, night start, and other time-based gameplay mechanics. Timeline integration allows precise control of celestial motion in cutscenes and scripted sequences.

DayCycle is suitable for many types of projects including open-world games, survival games, simulators, strategy games, and stylized worlds with multiple stars or moons.

All parameters such as latitude, day of year, time of day, orbital tilt, and celestial bodies can be customized, allowing developers to create both realistic Earth-like skies and completely fictional planetary systems.