Time cycle

The timecyc.dat file contains the information for how to display the sky, weather effects and time of day. It is broken 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.

Note: 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.

The following lists gives the name of each column group in the format Column Name (Data Type). A describes is supplied for each.

Vice City TimeCyc.dat Structure

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 TimeCyc.dat Structure

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

Here is a list of the columns San Andreas uses:

• Amb (Color)
• Amb_Obj (Color)
• Dir (Color)
• Sky top (Color)
• Sky bot (Color)
• SunCore (Color)
• SunCorona (Color)
• SunSz (float)
• SprSz (float)
• SprBght (float)
• Shdw (integer)
• LightShd (integer)
• PoleShd (integer)
• FarClp (float)
• FogSt (float)
• LightOnGround (float)
• LowCloudsRGB (Color)
• BottomCloudRGB (Color)
• WaterRGBA (Color)