Setting up a roblox day night cycle script is honestly one of the easiest ways to level up your game's atmosphere without needing a ton of complex code. When you first jump into Studio, the default lighting is fine, I guess? But it's static. It's always high noon, the shadows are harsh, and nothing ever changes. If you're building a survival game, a roleplay map, or even just a chill showcase, having the sun actually move across the sky makes the whole world feel way more "alive."
I remember when I first started messing with lighting settings. I'd manually change the time of day in the properties tab and think, "Okay, that looks cool," but then I realized I had no idea how to make it move on its own once the game actually started. It turns out, the logic is pretty straightforward, but there are a few different ways to approach it depending on how smooth you want the transition to be.
Why Bother With a Time Cycle?
You might think it's just a cosmetic thing, but a roblox day night cycle script actually dictates the "vibe" of your gameplay loop. If you're making a horror game, the transition from dusk to night is where the tension builds. In a farming simulator, the sunrise tells the player it's time to get back to work.
Beyond just the "feel," it's also about variety. If a player spends three hours in your game and the sun never moves, the environment starts to feel a bit stale. When the lighting shifts, colors change, shadows stretch out, and the whole map looks different every ten minutes. It's a low-effort way to keep the visual experience fresh.
How Roblox Handles Time
Before we actually write any code, you need to know where Roblox hides the "time" settings. If you look in your Explorer window, you'll see a service called Lighting. This is where all the magic happens.
Inside the Lighting properties, there are two main ways to control the time: 1. ClockTime: This uses a 24-hour scale (0 to 24). 12 is noon, 0 is midnight. It's the easiest one to script. 2. TimeOfDay: This is a string (like "14:00:00"). It's a bit more annoying to script because you have to deal with string formatting, so most people stick to ClockTime.
The goal of our roblox day night cycle script is basically to tell the game: "Hey, every few seconds, add a little bit of time to the ClockTime value."
Writing a Basic Script
Let's get into a super simple version. You don't need to be a Luau expert for this. You just need a Script (not a LocalScript) inside ServerScriptService.
```lua local lighting = game:GetService("Lighting")
while true do lighting.ClockTime = lighting.ClockTime + 0.01 task.wait(0.1) end ```
That's it. That's the bare-bones version. If you put that in your game right now, the sun will start moving. But, let's talk about why this might not be perfect. The 0.01 increment and the 0.1 wait time determine the speed. If you want the day to last longer, you'd make the increment smaller. If you want a "timelapse" effect, you'd make it bigger.
I used task.wait() instead of just wait(). If you're still using the old wait(), you should probably switch over. task.wait() is more efficient and plays nicer with the Roblox task scheduler. It's a small habit, but it's a good one to pick up early.
Making it Smoother
The simple script works, but if you look closely at the shadows, they might "stutter" as the time increments. If you want that buttery-smooth cinematic look, you might want to look into something a bit more refined.
One way to do this is to tie the time change to the RenderStepped or Heartbeat event, but that can be overkill for a simple clock. Usually, just finding the right balance between the wait time and the increment amount is enough.
Another thing to consider: do you want the night to go faster than the day? A lot of developers do this because players sometimes get bored in the dark if they can't see what they're doing. To do that, you'd just add an if statement inside your loop:
```lua local lighting = game:GetService("Lighting") local daySpeed = 0.01 local nightSpeed = 0.05 -- This makes night go faster
while true do local currentTime = lighting.ClockTime
if currentTime > 18 or currentTime < 6 then lighting.ClockTime = currentTime + nightSpeed else lighting.ClockTime = currentTime + daySpeed end task.wait(0.1) end ```
Lighting Settings That Actually Matter
A roblox day night cycle script is only half the battle. If your lighting settings are ugly, a moving sun just means you're seeing different angles of "ugly." To really make it pop, you need to mess with the properties in the Lighting service.
Atmosphere and Fog
The Atmosphere object (which you can insert into Lighting) is a game-changer. It adds realistic air density and haze. When the sun goes down, the atmosphere automatically picks up the colors of the skybox, giving you those deep oranges and purples. Without an Atmosphere object, the transition from day to night can look a bit "flat."
OutdoorAmbient
This is the color of the shadows. During the day, you might want a slightly bluish tint to the shadows to mimic the sky's reflection. At night, you want this to be very dark, but maybe not pitch black (unless you're making a hardcore horror game). A common mistake is leaving OutdoorAmbient too bright at night, which makes the world look washed out.
ExposureCompensation
This is like the "ISO" on a camera. If your night is too dark and players are complaining, you can script the ExposureCompensation to increase slightly when ClockTime is between 20 and 4. It helps players see shapes even when the "sun" is gone.
Performance Considerations
One question that comes up a lot is: "Should this be a server script or a local script?"
If you put your roblox day night cycle script in a regular Script on the server, every player will see the exact same time. This is usually what you want, especially if your game has timed events (like a shop that only opens at night).
However, updating the Lighting service on the server every 0.1 seconds does take up a tiny bit of network bandwidth. For most games, it's so small it doesn't matter. But if you have a massive 100-player server and you're trying to optimize every single byte, some people prefer to send the "start time" to the client and let a LocalScript handle the actual movement. For 99% of us, though, a server script is just fine and much simpler to manage.
Dealing with the Skybox
Your skybox makes a huge difference. If you use a custom skybox that has a giant, painted-on sun that doesn't move, your roblox day night cycle script is going to look ridiculous. The "real" sun will be moving, but the painted one will stay still.
When picking a skybox from the toolbox, look for "Procedural" ones or ones that don't have a baked-in sun and moon. Roblox's default sky is actually pretty good for this because the sun and moon are dynamic objects that follow the ClockTime perfectly.
Adding a "Clock" UI
If you've got the cycle working, you might want to show the players what time it is. You can do this by having a ScreenGui with a TextLabel and a small LocalScript that monitors the Lighting.ClockTime property.
Since ClockTime is a number (like 14.5 for 2:30 PM), you'll need to do a little math to format it into a pretty string. Or, you can just use Lighting.TimeOfDay and pull the first five characters of the string. It's a nice little touch that adds a bit of "utility" to the visual effect.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day (pun intended), a roblox day night cycle script is one of those set-it-and-forget-it features. Once you find the speed and the lighting settings you like, you usually don't have to touch it again for the rest of your project's development.
Don't be afraid to experiment with the colors. Maybe your world has two suns? Maybe the moon is neon green? The script stays mostly the same; it's the environment variables that let you get creative. Just remember to use task.wait(), keep an eye on your OutdoorAmbient, and make sure your night isn't so dark that players leave because they can't find the door!