Environment
Tools → Environment… (Shift+E) determines when and where your layout stands and what the sky above it looks like. The settings belong to the plan. The window stays open, and every change shows up immediately in the 3D view.
The Environment tool window.
Usually the two sections Time and place and Sky are enough. All settings at the very bottom unfolds the rest: sun and moon light, ambient light, fog, exposure.
Time and place
The decisive question sits at the very bottom: Environment follows the simulation time. When it is set, sun, moon and sky follow from Date, Time and location. When it is off, you set the sun's position by hand.
- The Clock runs in Real time, stands still Fixed, or runs Custom faster or slower.
- Select location… offers cities; otherwise you enter coordinates. Compass direction sets where north lies on your layout, and with it, from which side the sun comes.
- stores the clock as it stands now as the plan's start, running or not; resets it back to that. They are the same buttons as for the start point of a train or a walker.
The location picker, opened from Select location…
The clock shows your time zone, the sky shows the location
Someone planning a Swiss layout from Canada sees the right sun at an hour that looks wrong.
Sky
Background decides how much the section offers at all: Plain background, Background follows the sun (the same color, darkening with the time of day), or Sky with sun, moon and stars. Only the computed sky brings stars, clouds with a wind direction, and the endless flat ground, so the layout doesn't float in nothing. The clouds move with the clock.
What the sun's position switches
From the sun's altitude, Raily derives five conditions that apply throughout the plan:
| Condition | When it applies |
|---|---|
day |
the sun stands above 10° |
night |
it stands below −6° |
twilight |
in between |
dawn / dusk |
the same span while the sun is rising or setting |
A lamp with night|dusk then turns on at sunset. How a condition is written is
described under
Signals, barriers and blocks. If the sun stands still,
use twilight: dawn and dusk only exist with a sun that moves.
Too dark or too bright?
Check in order: does the environment follow the simulation time, and is it currently night there? Is the sun's position set very low by hand? Is Exposure off, or Ambient light set to zero?
See also
- Getting started 7: Decorating: the
lamps that wait for
night - Plan properties: the background color