True Darkness

Early release of the True Darkness plugin for ReSkate, inspired by the True Darkness Minecraft mod.

Make nights feel like, nights. Immersive night-time skateboarding!

The goal of this mod is to make night-time more realistic, more weighty and overall make lights feel impactful like real life. This mod has been through many iterations and is one I personally use, so it is constantly being tested and improved on. Expect bugs and improvements. Right now the functionality is basic but it does include some sliders and toggles for customization. Everything can be accessed in the mod menu by hitting Insert in game and clicking on the True Darkness tab under PLUGINS.

Disclaimer: I am using assistance from Claude, all testing done by me.

If you have a suggestion, comment or want to report a bug, join the official ReSkate Discord server and search "[Plugin] True Darkness Early Release" in the "mod-releases" channel, and I will get back to you.

Requirements

ReSkate 2.1.2 or newer (Plugins Beta).

How to use

Install with the ReSkate launcher (or extract the zip into Mods\ in your ReSkate folder).
Press Insert > PLUGINS > True Darkness and switch it on. It switches the map to night by itself, and gives the map's own time back when you switch it off. Ctrl+F8 switches it on and off while you skate (change the key on ReSkate's Binds page).

Note: True Darkness only works properly at night. On public servers the host may control the time of day, so True Darkness can't switch to night there and results can vary.

Settings

Setting	What it does	Default
True Darkness	Switches the map to night, locks exposure so the game stops brightening the dark, and turns off the sky's ambient light, bounced light and shadow lifting. Off gives the game's own lighting and time back.	Off
Adaptive exposure (experimental)	Off (locked): brightness stays exactly where the EV sets it, like a camera in manual mode. Steady and consistent, so the dark stays dark everywhere. On (auto): brightness adjusts to what you're looking at, like a camera on auto. It adapts as you move between light and dark, but it can shift or "breathe" as the scene changes. Set how dark with Adaptive darkness.	Off
Exposure (EV)	Used when Adaptive exposure is off. 2 to 14. Higher is darker, lights included.	8
Adaptive darkness	Used when Adaptive exposure is on. How much darker than the game's own auto exposure, -6 to +2. Lower is darker; each whole step halves the light, so -2 is a quarter as bright.	-2
World brightness	Fine-tunes how bright the world looks after the exposure, a bit like a brightness setting. Below 0 is darker, above 0 brighter. Small steps make a visible difference, so start between -0.10 and +0.10. 0 leaves the game's own.	0
Sky brightness	How much the sky glows, 0 to 100%. 0% is a black sky; 100% is the game's own sky. A little (5-15%) brings back a faint horizon so mountains show as silhouettes.	0%
Deeper contrast	Darker shadows and mid-tones while lights stay bright, and less blue in the dark. It turns off the map's own colour grade.	On
Edge darkness	A dark vignette at the screen edges, 0 to 95%.	50%
Overall dim	A flat dim over the whole picture, 0 to 85%. It darkens lights too, so keep it low.	0%
Distance haze	Thickens the map's own fog so far hills and buildings fade in layers, like night air. It works from each map's own fog, so it suits every map. The map's own fog comes back when it's off, or when True Darkness is off.	On

Every slider has a Reset button, and Reset all settings to defaults (under the True Darkness toggle) puts every setting back at once; True Darkness itself stays on or off. In the game's menus (the pause menu, settings and the customization screens), the game's normal brightness comes back so your skater and clothes show, and it goes dark again when you leave. Replays stay dark, and edge darkness and dim show in them too: leave them on to record the same look you skate with, or switch them off for a clean replay.

Console

darkness on|off, darkness ev <2-14>, darkness adaptive on|off, darkness adapt <-6-2>, darkness world <-1-1>, darkness sky <0-100>, darkness contrast on|off, darkness haze on|off, darkness vignette <0-95>, darkness dim <0-85>, darkness status

Notes

Settings change one at a time, a quarter of a second apart, because changing several lighting settings at once can crash the game.
When the mod is switched off or the game closes, ReSkate gives every setting back.
skate.'s street lamps mostly light the ground through baked lighting, so exposure darkens lamps and darkness together. Real per-lamp lighting is being worked on.
Only changes your own game; other players see their own lighting.