With a new day/night cycle, Decentraland’s sky has been made dynamic. It’s full of new possibilities and nuances.
The designers intend for Decentraland to be a more credible environment and for it to feel more alive. At the same time, however, they want it to maintain a wide range of possibilities for creators. Their first initiative towards achieving this goal has been to create a dynamic sky that changes with time, adding fresh shades and colors to the world.
This feature is designed to create a unified experience for all players, synchronizing the state in all sessions so that everyone can appreciate the same sky at the same time. They will all be looking at the same sun setting over Genesis City.
Each cycle lasts one hour, starting at 0:00 UTC and repeating itself 24 times during the day. This means that the state of the sky is predictable, so content creators will be able to synchronize their events accordingly if they so desire.
If you’re a night owl or an early bird, do not fret. You can still choose to live in your favorite time of day forever! Go to settings and set the sky time you prefer without affecting other players.
Features for developers
One of the fundamental features of the new skybox tool is the ability to define “zones” and “signals” to send to the SDK. This means that developers will be able to know if it is day, night, dawn or if a shooting star is crossing the sky.
This will allow them to create truly unique experiences: turning on street lamps when it’s getting Dark, unlocking a hidden door at a specific time, or transforming NPCs into werewolves when the full moon rises!
As of now, these mechanics conflict with the players’ ability to set the sky at their preferred time, so it is subject to a vote in the DAO to gather everyone’s thoughts on the matter. It will be discussed in the next few weeks.
In the meantime, a new day is dawning in Decentraland! You can check it out right now and revisit your favorite scenes in a whole new light.
