a-super-sky

fancy, lightweight, drop-in day-night sky component for A-Frame. Utilizes a-sun-sky and aframe-star-system.

features

• sunrise, daytime, and sunset feature beautiful rayleigh scattering colors in the sky
• fog component creates feeling of darkness after sunset, that then retreats as stars slowly fade into view
• moon rises and sets, creating a blue rayleigh glow in the sky
• stars fade out, and then fog again comes in just to create a feeling of shadows retreating at dawn.

demos

• play with live functioning code on glitch: https://glitch.com/edit/#!/remix/a-super-sky
• this repo's demo html: index.html in this repo
• this repo's live demo: https://kylebakerio.github.io/a-super-sky/
• see live demo on glitch: https://a-super-sky.glitch.me/

compatibility

System Resources

• runs easily in oculus quest 2's native browser. seems to run super smooth in cardboard as well.
• to reduce resource demands, reduce starCount and add throttle.

A-Frame version

• Absolutely works with A-Frame 1.0.4 & 1.1.0.
• Sun/Moon work with A-Frame 1.2.0 with stars disabled star-system dependency isn't updated with the changes to THREE.geometry yet needed for 1.2.0 updates (it's a 4 year old project that uses particles for the performant star effect). Disable the stars with showStars: false to get sun/moon without stars, or moonCycle: false to only show sunrise/sunset/darkness without stars or moon, and it'll work fine in 1.2.0.

how to add

add sources to project:

    <script src="/super-sky.js"></script> 
    <script src="https://unpkg.com/[email protected]/dist/aframe-sun-sky.js"></script>
    <script src="https://cdn.rawgit.com/matthewbryancurtis/aframe-star-system-component/db4f1030/index.js"></script>

then add sky to your scene:

      <a-scene>
        <a-sun-sky 
        id="sun"
        material="side: back; rayleigh: 1; luminance: 1;"
        super-sky="cycleDuration:.1; moonCycle:true; showStars:true;";
        ></a-sun-sky>
      </a-scene>

see super-sky.js schema for options. comments explain their use.

TODO:

• cause sun/moon/stars to optionally affect scene lighting
• better method for changing moon rise/set position than a-scene rotation
• enable better control of sun/moon trajectory through sky
• code could be cleaner and more well tested--it's really something I shared as soon as I threw it together and got it working. "Better rough than never."
• slightly rotate world while stars are in sky to create star movement
• fix sudden shift from blue-darkness sky to grey-darkness sky after moonset resulting from rayleigh and/or luminance shift
• currently night is 3x the length of day. This would imitate only northern winters/southern summers that have 8 hours of daylight, e.g. 10am to 6pm. ability to tweak this would be desirable.
• moon with phases would be an excellent improvement.