Time in Cyberpunk 2077.

[joecool548]

So I was really curious as to how long a day was in Cyberpunk. I re-watched the 48 minute demo and quickly got to work. Just to clarify, I did not use DST.

Using this image with the tree and estimated shadow length, the sun's position is around 47 degrees. Sunpostion.info makes my life much easier, as it calculates the position of the sun based on a location. I used Wastonville CA as it is very close to the geographical location of Night City. Here are the results. (The video timestamp is 9mintues and 20 seconds.)

The site says that the Sun in a 47 degree angle for Watsonville CA, which is 10am. So V wakes up at around 10am. Ok now for the next image.

At the 27:32 timestamp, I took this screenshot. Using paint I drew a line from the point of Jackie's head, to the edge of his head shadow. Using a protractor and a 90 degree angle for reference, the suns position is around 28 degrees. Now lets see what SunPostions.info has to say about Watsonville CA.

Ok, so at this point of the video the time is 16:00 hundred hours or 4pm game time. V woke up at 10 am game time, them meet Militech at 4pm game time. Now for the confusing part. The time difference between the time stamped videos 27:32(4pm game time) minus 9:20(10am game time) is around 18 minutes real time. 10am from 4 pm is 6 hours. So 6 hours of game time went by in 18 minutes real time. So what about the end of the video?

Since the sun is down, their is no clear indication of shadows created by the sun. This time stamp was taken at 47:24. If we subtract 47:24 from the other time stamp 27:32, the time difference is around 20 minutes in real time or 7.5 hours game time. I can't really explain it all too well, so I made this table in note pad.

From V waking up, to the end of the Going Pro mission, around 13.5 hours of game time passed by. That's 38 minutes of real world time. Doing all of the calculations, I can conclude that one full day in Cyberpunk is 72 min or 1.2 hours in real time. Again all estimated. I went by the sun's position, so their may be some error. If I miss calculated anything, do let me know.

 

[animalfather]

time is passing too quick if thats the case. i prefer a 4h=24h in game.

 

[Rawls]

Gotta love math. Have a redpoint. So 18 minutes IRL = 360 minutes in demo. That's what ... 3 seconds = 1 minute or so? IIRC TW3 was 6 seconds = 1 minute. Hopefully they'll slow down time a bit.

 

[sv3672]

If I recall correctly, one game day has been 96 minutes in the Witcher series (15x time scale), while 72 minutes or 20x scale is usual in Elder Scrolls and Fallout. It is not a major difference, however.

 

[hallfing2080]

This thread hurt my head. I suck at math. T_T

 

[Rawls]

If I recall correctly, one game day has been 96 minutes in the Witcher series (15x time scale),

Was it 4 seconds = 1 minute? You're probably right. I trust your memory more than my own.

 

[jervi]

Well, that's easy for me since my favorite MMORPG also uses 72-minute days

time is passing too quick if thats the case. i prefer a 4h=24h in game.

I can see a problem there. Say for instance that there is a place you need to be that is only accessible from 2200-0200 (10pm-2am) in-game time, and you only have a couple of hours a day to play. With the time at 6:1, that means that you may have your game effectively halted for three days whereas something more like Witcher (15:1) or Fallout (20:1) will allow you to play at least one full IG day per RL night. As one who has spent plenty of time AFK in Ryzom waiting for the IG game clock to hit the right number, I'd have an issue with anything slower than 12:1, though I wouldn't want more than 24:1 (1 IG day per RL hour) either.

Then again, that assumes that CP2077 has a day/night cycle that actually does something other than simply change the color of the sky. If time has no function then it's all moot.

 

[joecool548]

Well, that's easy for me since my favorite MMORPG also uses 72-minute days



I can see a problem there. Say for instance that there is a place you need to be that is only accessible from 2200-0200 (10pm-2am) in-game time, and you only have a couple of hours a day to play. With the time at 6:1, that means that you may have your game effectively halted for three days whereas something more like Witcher (15:1) or Fallout (20:1) will allow you to play at least one full IG day per RL night. As one who has spent plenty of time AFK in Ryzom waiting for the IG game clock to hit the right number, I'd have an issue with anything slower than 12:1, though I wouldn't want more than 24:1 (1 IG day per RL hour) either.

Then again, that assumes that CP2077 has a day/night cycle that actually does something other than simply change the color of the sky. If time has no function then it's all moot.

I'm sure the day/night cycle affects what you see around you. For instance, more gangs in a particular area at night then during the day. More traffic at noon then night from people coming home from work? That would be very cool. But I can see the day length becoming a problem, if some stores close at night and reopen during the day. Hopefully there is some sort of sleeping or power-nap mechanic, so you can advance time.

 

[jervi]

Hopefully there is some sort of sleeping or power-nap mechanic, so you can advance time.

I find those more hokey than double-jumps or floating damage numbers.

 

[Metropolice]

Dear citizen #4325942,

NCPD appreciates your community service and has sent you a set of previously confiscated, stored militech tactical smart-watches so that you can always watch the time. Why watch the time on your HUD when you can brandish your stylish tactical smart-watch?

Sponsored by Militech - because if it positively reeks of Militech, it is likely involved somehow


------------------------------------------------


In all seriousness (sorry, no tactical watches), I personally think time scale could be adjusted, assuming you are spot on.

To me, half an hour for half a day is "too fast". Some if not many may want to enjoy longer phases of gameplay in the day or at night respectively. We can only really 'guarantee' that if days and nights become longer, or take longer to get through.

I personally suggest that a core night phase takes at least one full real hour not including dusk and dawn. Ideally a bit longer, up to 2-3 real hours maybe. But maybe not more, that might be stretching it. Reason also is that gameplay is changed depending on the time of day. It's not just a pure lighting change but different groups and people (dis)appear depending on the time of day. Imagine wanting to experience Night City at, well, night (duh) and starting clashes with gangs at night, rid the world of evil or simply profit from the loot and ... oh, what's that? Woops. Already getting bright outside again. Tough shit, try again soon. Longer nights (or days) wouldn't feel as "disruptive" in flow is my point.

Now some might say it might be nice to have longer days and nights, but that it could be annoying to get through the 'unwanted time of the day' as you have to wait longer, and some might say they have to wait longer before they could possibly start a mission or activity that may be time of day dependent.


Compromise or convenience feature:

For those or anyone the compromise or solution would be a simple function in the game to sleep or wait to skip time and get to a fixed point. Like sleeping or waiting in Skyrim / Fallout. You can also tie this to specific places or furniture objects if you don't want V literally wait on any spot. The apartment of V should definitely allow that. A recent interview or statement I recall seemed to indicate that you can sleep and have to get up from bed and dress up every time, already kind of indicating you can pass time at least through that measure. Now time simply has to pass slower and people should be happy.

 

[joecool548]

Dear citizen #4325942,

NCPD appreciates your community service and has sent you a set of previously confiscated, stored militech tactical smart-watches so that you can always watch the time. Why watch the time on your HUD when you can brandish your stylish tactical smart-watch?

Sponsored by Militech - because if it positively reeks of Militech, it is likely involved somehow


------------------------------------------------


In all seriousness (sorry, no tactical watches), I personally think time scale could be adjusted, assuming you are spot on.

To me, half an hour for half a day is "too fast". Some if not many may want to enjoy longer phases of gameplay in the day or at night respectively. We can only really 'guarantee' that if days and nights become longer, or take longer to get through.

I personally suggest that a core night phase takes at least one full real hour not including dusk and dawn. Ideally a bit longer, up to 2-3 real hours maybe. But maybe not more, that might be stretching it. Reason also is that gameplay is changed depending on the time of day. It's not just a pure lighting change but different groups and people (dis)appear depending on the time of day. Imagine wanting to experience Night City at, well, night (duh) and starting clashes with gangs at night, rid the world of evil or simply profit from the loot and ... oh, what's that? Woops. Already getting bright outside again. Tough shit, try again soon. Longer nights (or days) wouldn't feel as "disruptive" in flow is my point.

I agree. Longer days should be added in for Cyberpunk 2077 (If my math calculations are correct). And as you stated with the groups of people changing, depending on the time, I think that would be fantastic for game play. Hopefully someone confirms this information.

 

[sv3672]

If my math calculations are correct

They probably are, but I am not entirely sure how much the demo footage can be relied on. It is possible that the game does not simulate the position of the sun accurately, and more importantly, there could be scripted adjustments to the time of day during cutscenes and to make the lighting in the demo look better. For example, in V's apartment at the beginning, the sunlight seems to come roughly from the E, but shortly afterwards on the streets it is from the W, it looks as if several hours have passed in only 3:38. And I think there may be a couple more oddities later in the demo.

 

[joecool548]

They probably are, but I am not entirely sure how much the demo footage can be relied on. It is possible that the game does not simulate the position of the sun accurately, and more importantly, there could be scripted adjustments to the time of day during cutscenes and to make the lighting in the demo look better. For example, in V's apartment at the beginning, the sunlight seems to come roughly from the E, but shortly afterwards on the streets it is from the W, it looks as if several hours have passed in only 3:38. And I think there may be a couple more oddities later in the demo.

That could be true about the sun's position. I just used a city that was geographically similar to Night city, which is Watsonville CA. Of course, it's all just a rough estimate since I rounded everything. But hopefully, the devs can make the day/night cycle a tad bit longer.

 

[Geralt_of_bsas]

If I remember correctly, the demo at E3 had roughly the same amount of gameplay time compared to Gamescom's, and yet when going out of the Maelstrom hideout some journalists reported it was still daytime, and that they never saw night time at any point during the demo.

So I think they just manipulated the time of day there to changes things up a bit, or rather they froze or slowed time back in E3 instead.

 

[Mybrokenenglish]

So I think they just manipulated the time of day there to changes things up a bit, or rather they froze or slowed time back in E3 instead.

This. I wouldn't do these calculations, they probably wanted to show how night looks as well so they just set "night" at the end of the video.

Cool stuff and effert, though.

 

[joecool548]

If I remember correctly, the demo at E3 had roughly the same amount of gameplay time compared to Gamescom's, and yet when going out of the Maelstrom hideout some journalists reported it was still daytime, and that they never saw night time at any point during the demo.

So I think they just manipulated the time of day there to changes things up a bit, or rather they froze or slowed time back in E3 instead.

If that is the case, then the day/night cycle would be extensively longer. However, I can see why CD Project wanted to put some night footage in the demo. That way, people can get a little taste of what Night City would look at night. Can't wait to see what the city looks like at night, while raining.

 

[sv3672]

I suspect the demo is not really a reliable reference on what the time scale will be in the final game, the time of day, azimuth, and time scale were probably adjusted throughout the demo to give the best visuals. As I noted earlier, this scene is only a few minutes after V's apartment, but the time seemingly jumped from 10:00 to 16:00:

Spoiler

And then it remains in the late afternoon most of the time, it is still 16:00 at the meeting point as if time was stopped (note however the different azimuth compared to the Jackie picture above). Maybe there are shorter segments of the demo where time passes normally, but with all the scripting apparently going on, it is hard to tell if it would be representative of the actual game. Anyway, 15-20x scale is quite usual for open world games, so in the end the original estimate may still be right.

 

[Heart Of Dawn]

I'm hoping for the 15x end of the spectrum. FO4's days are just too short.

 

[Randoodle]

Yeah i thinks its a 24 cycle right?

 

[Rawls]

Yeah i thinks its a 24 cycle right?

Yes 24 hour cycle where 72 IRL minutes = 24 hours. At least that's our best guess. Also, welcome to the Forums .