Celestial Lighting

Celestial Lighting simulates the sun, moon and planet to get beautiful visuals without affecting gameplay.

Sun and Shadows

- Seasonal sun positoning that changes angle of the shadows
- Sunrise and sunset simulate twilight and can be seen in the north / south lattitudes.
- More dynamic shadow casting.

Night and Moon

- Night brightness from starlight, airglow and moonlight.
- The moon simulates a full lunar cycle and casts its own shadows.
- Darker nights controllable with a slider.
- Darker interiors controllable with a slider.
- Colour drains toward blue-grey in low light - the Purkinje shift -

Sky and Weather

- Rain, snow, fog and cloud dim the sky, per weather. Many modded weathers are supported.
- Sky colour temperature shifts warm and cool with the sun's altitude.
- Auroras during solar flares with custom animations.
- Eclipse events are modeled more realistically.
- Polar Night visual effects at high lattitudes.
- Blood-moon nights turn crimson if Vanilla Races Expanded - Sanguophage is installed.

Environment Aware

- Space has accurate solar sunsets / sunrises and realistic lighting.
- Underground areas don't get sun shadows and effects.
- Glowforests and Lightless Emperion are lightless.
- Anomaly Unnatural Darkness events supported as intended.

Settings and Presets

Every effect has its own on/off switch. Available pre-sets:

- Cinematic (default) - Less physics-bound. Brighter nights and interiors.
- Realistic - Emulates the real-world more closely. Interiors are pitch-black and nights are dark by default.

FAQ

Q. Does this change gameplay?

No default setting does and never will.

Optional settings may have some impact:
- Natural eclipses. Simulated eclipses that occur when the moon passes the sun.
- Realistic day length. Makes days their real-world lengths as opposed to vanilla. This allows for polar summers and winters.

Q. Are the darker nights are purely cosmetic?

Yes, the game lighting values remain the same.

Q. Can I add or remove it mid-save?

Yes, both. The mod adds no defs, items or buildings to your save.

Q. Performance Impact?

I've done a few optimization passes and it should be minimal. The aurora effect is modestly expensive, but short-lived.

Q. What mods is it compatible with?

Realistic Axial Tilt is supported. Check it out for gameplay changing behavior.
Planetsmith is explicitly supported.
Realistic Planets 2 is supported since lighting was removed.
Dubs Skylights, re:doors and anything that adds windows should be supported.
Ambient Light is supported


Q. Known conflicts?

Perspective: Eaves - Celestial Lighting re-implements the functionality so this is not needed.
Tilt the Planet! - Celestial Lighting hits the same systems. Does a lot more and worth checking out.
Any mod changing basic lighting -- we make a good guess if daylight hours change, but direct lighting changes are likely to break things.


Q. Did you use AI to make this mod?

You'll have to look elsewhere for good ol' organic, pasture-raised code.

Q. Can I use pieces of this mod in my work?

Absolutely. https://github.com/Jeffrharr/CelestialLighting