Unrealistic sunrise/sunset times

[DuctTapeGuru]

Is there a way to change sunrise and sunset times in a route to be more reflective of the geography in which a route is set? It is not daylight in Illinois in winter at 6:00PM as far as I know.

[EvolutionMan]

I believe that by default, the program determines sunrise and sunset times based on latitude and longitude of the route itself. I've noticed it varies depending on the season as well, with winter being a good example - less light around sunrise/sunset versus summer.

There are specific settings in a route's environment files (which can be found in the route's EnvFiles sub-folder) that determine the cycles for the two natural satellites (the sun and moon) - you could try modifying their cycle times for a start and see what happens.

[ossie]

This is a question that has been asked fairly regularly over the years (including by me) and typing something like "sunrise" into the forum search will give you some of the previous threads. The short answer (if I remember correctly) is that ORTS doesn't have the flexibility to adjust to "local" times in routes. It can't replicate a place that has 16 hours of daylight in summer for instance.

Onto thinner ice (memory wise) I THINK that the .env files could be edited to set local sunrise/set times for routes and MSTS had the ability to read that info but ORTS doesn't, but don't take that to the bank!

Edit. I see Davon got his answer in while I was working on mine. This is one of the more recent threads on this subject which leaves me with the impression that editing doesn't work. I'm sure if Paul sees this thread and has been able to make any further progress on this issue, he'll update us.

https://trainsim.com/forums/forum/open-rails/open-rails-discussion/155000-or-sunrise-sunset-times

[oper190]

Just was running a Winter activity on Shuswap. The sun did not come above the mountain until after 9am to 10am, then at noon though mid sky, it was low, barely over the tops of the mountains, so I do suspect that latitude plays a goodly part. On routes lower south it is definitely higher in the sky.
Looking at a map, the New York metro area, where I grew up and live up to 2 years ago, is at about the same latitude as mid Illinois. Sunsets there in the heart of Winter would be around 4:30-5pm - mid December - ( standard time, 5:30 - 6pm Daylight savings ). Does OR account for the time change? A Sunset of 6:30pm would not be unthinkable earlier or later in Winter.

[eric]

It is not daylight in Illinois in winter at 6:00PM as far as I know.

And if it was, they would find a way to tax it.

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[DuctTapeGuru]

And if it was, they would find a way to tax it.

It's not daylight at 6PM in Ontario in winter either, but if it were, Premier Fraud (oops...Ford) would also find a way to tax it.

I did find a debug command in the game for daylight offset (Shift+Alt) that is an OK work around while I tinker with environment files.