Time cycle

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The timecyc.dat file contains the information for how to display the sky, weather effects and time of day. It is split into the many sections. There is one line of data per hour in the game, per weather type. In the Vice City timecyc.dat, there is an extra section at the bottom of the file named "EXTRACOLOURS". These extra colours are used for building interiors, but should function the same.

A comment in the timecyc.dat file is preceded by a series of slashes ("//") and they will precede each type of weather, and time of day in the file.

File Format

The following lists describe format of the timecyc.dat in each game.

GTA 3

This section is incomplete. You can help by fixing and expanding it.

Vice City

Column Name	Data Type	Description
Amb	Color	Controls amount of ambient color on static map objects, like most buildings, structures and landmasses.
Amb_Obj	Color	Controls the amount of ambient light on dynamic objects, like pedestrians and vehicles.
Amb_Bl	Color	Effect unknown, changing produces no visible results.
Amb_Obj_bl	Color	Effect unknown, changing produces no visible results.
Dir	Color	Controls amount of direct light on pedestrians and vehicles.
Sky top	Color	Color of the top of the sky.
Sky bot	Color	Color of the bottom of the sky.
SunCore	Color	Color of the sun's core image.
SunCorona	Color	Color of the sun's corona image.
SunSz	float	Size of the sun's corona sprite.
SprSz	float	Size of the sun's core sprite.
SprBght	float	How bright sprites will be.
Shdw	integer	Intensity of pedestrian, vehicle, and lamp shadows. 0 is transparent, 100 seems to be about "normal", and values past that make the shadow darker and darker. 500 will produce almost pure black shadows.
LightShd	integer	The cast light alpha on traffic signals and lampposts. changing produces no visible results.
PoleShd	integer	Lamppost shadow alpha. changing produces no visible results.
FarClp	float	The clipping plane that limits maximum visibility. Setting the value to a smaller number produces a short visibility range, wheras larger numbers mean you can see further. If the number is set too low (i tried 20.0), the game will get glitchy, and may not load textures! The average value for this entry is 2000.0 and most of the map is visible with this value.
FogSt	float	Fog start position relative to camera? Negatives allowed. Untested.
LightOnGround	float	Effect unknown, changing produces no visible results.
LowCloudsRGB	Color	Sets colour for low thin clouds. Untested.
TopCloudRGB	Color	Sets colour for topside of large clouds. Untested.
BottomCloudRGB	Color	Sets colour for underside of large clouds. Untested.
BlurRGB	Color	RGB values for Trails. If you have not somehow enabled trails on your game, then the values will not be noticable. 0 for no trails, 255 for a pure white screen. If your going to change them, follow the pattern R* set with their setup, as a little bit goes a very long way.
WaterRGBA	Color	Controls the color of the water. On the pc version of the game, the water texture is greenish-blue. It needs to be converted to grayscale to fully see the effect of changing the water color in the timecyc.dat, as the colors defined in this file, are multiplied by the water texture color ingame. The last part of RGBA, the A, is the alpha channel and it controls the level of transparency for the water. 0, will make the water totally transparent, while 255 will make the water as opaque as the game will allow.

San Andreas

In San Andreas the format is nearly the same, but some of the sections are left out.

Column Name	Data Type	Description
Amb	Color	Controls amount of ambient color on static map objects, like most buildings, structures and landmasses.
Amb_Obj	Color	Controls the amount of ambient light on dynamic objects, like pedestrians and vehicles.
Dir	Color	Controls amount of direct light on pedestrians and vehicles.
Sky top	Color	Color of the top of the sky's gradient.
Sky bot	Color	Color of the bottom of the sky's gradient.
SunCore	Color	Color of the sun's core image.
SunCorona	Color	Color of the sun's corona image.
SunSz	float	Size of the sun's corona sprite.
SprSz	float	Size of the sun's core sprite.
SprBght	float	How bright sprites will be.
Shdw	integer	Intensity of pedestrian, vehicle, and lamp shadows. 0 is transparent, 100 seems to be about "normal", and values past that make the shadow darker and darker. 500 will produce almost pure black shadows.
LightShd	integer	The cast light alpha on traffic signals and lampposts. changing produces no visible results.
PoleShd	integer	Lamppost shadow alpha. changing produces no visible results.
FarClp	float	The clipping plane that limits maximum visibility. Setting the value to a smaller number produces a short visibility range, wheras larger numbers mean you can see further. If the number is set too low (i tried 20.0), the game will get glitchy, and may not load textures! The average value for this entry is 2000.0 high numbers can cause draw distance problems.
FogSt	float	Fog start position relative to camera. Negatives allowed. High numbers can cause draw distance problems
LightOnGround	float	Effect unknown, changing produces no visible results.
LowCloudsRGB	Color	Sets colour for low thin clouds. Untested.
BottomCloudRGB	Color	Sets colour for underside of large clouds. Untested.
WaterRGBA	Color	Controls the color of the water. This value multiplies the texture's color and the last value 'A' is the alpha: 0, will make the water totally transparent, while 255 will make the water as opaque as the game will allow.
Alpha1	integer	Alpha for RGB1.
RGB1	Color	Color correction 1
Alpha2	integer	Alpha for RGB2 value
RGB2	Color	Color correction 2
CloudAlpha	Color	Defines alpha level of the clouds * 0 - no clouds * 255 - opaque clouds.

GTA 4

This section is incomplete. You can help by fixing and expanding it.

Tools

• VC:Weather
• G-CYC

External Link

 GTAForums: Modding timecyc.dat for Vice City