Wouldn't you like just sitting back and enjoying the night sky in a game, knowing that what you see is a perfect represenation of the actual night sky? It is true, a pretty night sky captures the eye (as most WoW players can testify) and there is no prettier sky than the only one we earthlings have had the chance to see, give or take a few planets, moons and nebulae.

Today I was having a conversation with two friends of mine, one of them also a user of Destructoid. The kick-off for the conversation and the inspiration for this blog post was me complaining that Fallout 3 had a completely messed up night sky. I recalled my first experience with this upon exiting the elementary school close to the beginning of the game. The stars were all tiny grey dots of the same brightness. No constellations of course, nothing. It didn't even have any significantly brighter stars that could form any shapes. Of course, that's totally different than anything anyone can see if they look up at night in the real world. To top it off, at some point I had a look at the moon. It's position in the sky was totally wrong compared to its phase, a relationship which can normally be defined with two basic rules: A new moon is close to the sun so it sets a bit after the sun and rises a bit after the sun as well and the full moon rises when the sun sets and sets when the sun rises anew. This was completey screwed up as far as I observed in Fallout 3. As if that wasn't enough, upon closer inspection the starry sky did not move at all. Instead, the moon was moving against the backdrop of a frozen sky, setting south-east. That is wrong in so many levels I cannot begin to describe. Surely the nukes didn't stop the earth from rotating? Even if they did, there's still night and day!

My friends told me that I had not grasped the feeling of the game, that I was looking at the sky when the game was NOT about looking at the sky (which in turn means that anything not directly related to the main focus of the game is perfectly OK to be made with minimal attention paid to it but whatever) and that since Fallout 3 takes place in an imaginary, alternative universe, the creators do not have to realistically depict the sky as it is today in the real world. But... Even though Washington D.C. features in the game complete with existing roads (correct me if I'm wrong) isn't it safe to assume that the sky is the same as it was hundreds of years ago in-game? We're not talking about a completely different universe, say Oblivion's or WoW's universe, but one pretty close to our own experience and one that derives from it and uses it to make said universe hit us harder emotionally, make us feel that we're actually on Earth as it would be centuries after a nuclear war. Is creative freedom this powerful when talking about the imaginary based on reality? Why be realistic when it comes to sun movement but not care about the movement of the moon or the sky in general? Would a sun rising at 6PM be OK because it's Bethesda making a game about something NOT real? At the end of the day, "who cares?" or "Hang on, I'll call the care police". That's what my friends were saying and no doubt many of you.

Truth is I can see where they're coming from. In this day and age observation of the sky is trivial at best. Erroneous night skies make their apperance everywhere from movies to novels to games... People don't know better so they don't really care (developers in turn don't care either).The sky we see today is fundamentally the same sky people of ancient times wondered at and worshiped and the same sky Copernicus observed and realised that the earth rotates around the sun and it's not the other way around. Till the 20th century, the sky was an excellent guidepost, the stars always pointing towards the right direction. Even the first foundations of time-keeping were based on the movements of the sky and moon (let alone the sun) and when during the night certain constellations appear. See Orion rise right after sunset and it's winter alright, follow the direction of Polaris, the current pole star and you'll be visiting the polar bears. And so forth. Today of course these observations aren't at all useful for everyday life so the sky remains up there enchanting everyone with its beauty but giving little useful incentive for further exploration of tis workings and secrets.

I won't lie, less than 2 years ago I was one of many, thinking that the night sky is pretty but difficult to get to know. The movements of the planets, the moon, why the sun rises and sets when it does and what the equinoxes mean eluded me. At least, though, I knew from a very early age that the earth rotates around itself anti-clockwise and that this is what actually makes the starry sky move, as well as the sun and moon, from east to west. And finding out how the rest of this stuff works wasn't that hard at all. Since then I have been able to spot mistakes almost everywhere.

The final question is: Does it all matter? If both people making the game and playing the game can't tell the difference, does it matter? I'll compare the whole thing with having a game take place during a specific time period, say the Middle Ages in England. The game is superb in every way but the buildings aren't correct or something else isn't right, say the language spoken or a piece of armour. Few people will notice, but those which are fascinated by history and historical accuracy will promptly spot the mistake and instantly lose a bit of interest/immersion for the game. Maybe it's not a great analogy because portraying an accurate sky is much easier than certifying the historical accuracy of a certain piece of armour and historical accuracy is much more important sometimes than having a correct decorative backdrop for a game's universe. Cause it is true. In the end, it's all decoration with few gameplay implications, just like the building or the armour. But can we really justify these "astro-errors that were willingly introduced and indicate a profound lack of attention to easily checkable detail" (sic), using only the argument that nobody cares enough? Well, I care! And I'm certain that especially Fallout 3 must have attracted quite a number of people that will have spotted the same thing. Not to say that other games sport a richer nightly display; I've yet to encounter a game that has it right (with the exception of Wii's Weather Channel -- no, it's not a game, I know).

Even if we break this down to pure aesthetics, which one of these would you prefer?

This:



Or this:



Creating a perfect recreation of the sky isn't all that hard. It may be harder than creating a dark background with lighter dots and leaving it that but I believe the coding required for the former would be easy. The skies would be realistic, pretty and keep all the astronomy buffs like me quiet and agreeable.

Further reading:

Death By Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries by Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Norton, 2007
especially Chapter 39: Hollywood Nights

If interested in astronomy and digital observation of the real night sky (and a model game programmers could use), try Celestia or Stellarium, both excellent open-source programs with slightly different focus each.