Weather

The Weather plays a very important part in DayZ SA. The game simulate weather conditions, time of day and seasons, impacting on the world you play in.

Although the weather in Chernarus can be unpredictable at times, rarely does it change suddenly, and it generally stays consistent through the course of a day as it does in real life. There are many factors that go into the current weather situation you may find yourself in, including (but not limited to): environment temperature, wind conditions, cloud density, precipitation, visibility. Most notably, it effects your personal level of humidity, which can in turn have effects on the health of your person, such as your temperature.

Weather conditions are server controlled and synced across all clients so all players experience the same weather conditions.

Precipitation (Rain)

Whenever it rains, ambient temperatures drop (clouds hide the sun), and players exposed to the rain will get their cloth and gear progressively more wet (usually at a fairly rapid pace), as a result player temperature may drop, resulting in adverse effects to his health. This can be avoided by seeking shelter inside of houses, under side of trees, or by wearing water Resistant gear such as the Raincoat.

Rain can pose a significant survival challenges to the who are ill equipped, as staying dry and travelling are counter to each other. Luckily, short bursts of exposure (such as running from building-to-building) have little effect on the humidity level of the player. Prolonged exposure is necessary to become wet.

Rain can make it hard to start a fire, when building a Fireplace, it can also muffle firearm shots. Rain water can be be collected to drink.

Raining

Rain showers at sunset

Cloud Density

This particular factor has little effect on the player in a direct sense, but it does change the level of light being cast on the ground just as in real life. Therefore cloud density has an effect on visibility regardless of precipitation or time of day.

A cloudy day

Fog in Chernarus

Day-Night Cycle

Time of day can have a profound effect on visibility and ambient temperature. As sun sets the temperature begins to drop and the world will be enveloped in darkness. During the night, the moon will provide a natural light sources, and a real-life star constellations will be visible in the night sky, both the stars and the Sun\Moon cycle can be used to aid in your navigation during your adventures.

Darkness make it hard to see and to be seen and while the moon might provide some light, in order to explore safely, a light source (e.g. Flashlight, Headtorch, or weapon-mounted tactical flashlight) might be be necessary to see properly, however, you run the risk of attracting unwanted attention from zombies or bandits looking for campfires tracks.

Server configuration recognizes time of day you can either use real time or set it, Day-Night Cycle is also configurable.

Day time

Sunset (dusk)

Night time

Night time

Seasons

Server configuration recognizes time of year (you can either set it or use real time). And it simulates weather conditions such as wind,temperature.

Exact seasonal effects are currently unknown(0.50). There are no visual changes for seasons yet. Presumably, temperature and chance of rain will change depending on the season.

References & Notes

• Your Shadows setting affects how the rain is rendered. If it is set to Disabled, Very Low or Low you will likely see rain inside buildings. If it is set to Normal or above you should not see rain inside buildings. Rocket Q&A on twitter, 13 Feb 2014.