Sundial – the shadow tells the hour

Valheim has no clock, but it has a very honest sun. This mod adds three ways to read it:

• the Sundial: a stone pedestal with an engraved bronze dial plate, for a garden or a doorstep;
• the Sun circle: a paved stone circle almost ten metres across, with a standing stone in the middle and a ring of hour stones. Build it as the heart of your base;
• the Ring dial (Bauernring): a bronze ring on a cord for your pocket. Hold it up against the sun anywhere, on the road or at sea.

The sundial and the sun circle come in granite, black marble and grausten, to match your hall.

You build the dials, align them to north and then read the time from the shadow. You can align them the way people did for thousands of years or quickly by eye. There is no magic clock: the reading comes from the light that really falls on the stones.

Reading it

Look at the dial and it tells you where the shadow lies, for example:

Shadow on III – a quarter past three in the afternoon · Nón

• E: read it closely. Your Viking says the time out loud.
• Readings go to the quarter hour, like a real dial, with the Old Norse eykt (the eight marks of the Norse day: Ótta, Miðr morgunn, Dagmál, Hádegi, Nón, Miðaftann, Náttmál, Miðnætti).
• By moonlight the shadow is still there. The moon stands opposite the sun, so the scale reads twelve hours early, and the dial knows it.
• No sun, no shadow. In rain and storms the sun is hidden. At dawn and dusk it is too low. Under a roof or a tree the dial lies in the shade.

The sun circle

A standing stone carries a bronze ball on its tip. Valheim's sun runs the same path every day, so at any hour the stone's shadow points the same way, day after day. The thirteen hour stones, from VI in the west through XII in the north to VI in the east, stand exactly where the shadow points at their hour. Their numerals are cut into the side that faces the stone. The southern half, where the shadow never falls, is closed by low boulders.

The circle is laid out the way a real one would be. First come the floor and the standing stone. Then you find north. Only then are the hour stones raised. They rise out of the ground one after another, starting with XII.

Building it on open ground levels the earth beneath it and clears the grass, the way a hoe would. On a floor above the ground it leaves the terrain alone. The levelled ground stays if you remove the circle. A circle built right beside another one levels less far, so it leaves its neighbour's ground alone. Switch the levelling off with LevelGround = false.

Three kinds of stone

• Granite: weathered grey stone with a little moss, for the meadows.
• Black marble: polished, almost black stone with white veins. On the sun circle its numerals are gilded.
• Grausten: the dark, pitted stone of the Ashlands, with ash in its joints.

They differ only in their looks and cost. A dial is still made for the sky of the place where it stands, whatever its stone.

The ring dial (Bauernring)

Farmers and travellers carried these for centuries: a bronze ring with a small hole, hung from a cord. Put it in your hotbar and use it. Your Viking holds it up against the sun, and a close-up shows the ring:

• it swings on its cord for a few seconds and settles;
• a beam of sunlight comes in through the hole, and its spot of light falls on the hours engraved inside;
• it tells you where the spot stands and what time that means: "The spot of light stands at IX · III – the sun is in the east – nine o'clock in the morning".

It works anywhere and needs no north, because it measures how high the sun is, not where. That makes it honest in an old way too:

• One mark serves two hours. The sun is as high at nine as at three, so the marks read IX · III. Which one it is you can tell from the sun, in the east or in the west.
• Vague around noon. The sun hardly climbs near noon, so the spot hardly moves. Between about eleven and one the ring only says around noon.
• Made for one sky. It is engraved for 45° north, the sky of most lands. In the Mistlands and the Ashlands it reads wrong, and it says so.
• It needs sunlight: not under a roof, not in rain, not at night.

Use it again to put it away. It also goes away when you walk off.

The real thing

Valheim's sun turns at a steady rate about a celestial pole due north, every day:

• it rises due east at 06:00;
• it stands due south at noon;
• it sets due west at 18:00.

It is the sky of the equinox. How high the pole stands depends on the biome:

A real sundial only works at the latitude it was made for, and so do these. Each dial is made for the sky of the biome it is built in.

• Sundial: the gnomon's edge rises at the latitude, and the hour lines are engraved with the classic formula tan θ = sin φ · tan t.
• Sun circle: the hour stones stand where a vertical gnomon's shadow points, tan A = tan t / sin φ. On this sky the tip of the shadow walks a straight line from west to east every day.

Under the sky it was made for, an aligned dial reads the time to the minute.

Aligning it: once, with two equal shadows

A new dial does not know where north is. The sundial's plate sits the way you placed the pedestal, so its XII line points wherever the pedestal faces, and it reads wrong. The sun circle's hour stones stay in the ground until north is found. You find north once, with the method the old surveyors used. After that the dial stays aligned for good.

1. In the morning, Shift + E marks the tip of the shadow, which is the shadow of the bead or ball. A chalk circle appears through the mark.
   • On the sundial the tip falls on the plate between about 8 and 16 o'clock.
   • On the sun circle it falls on the paving between about a quarter past nine and a quarter to three.
2. Wait for the afternoon. The shadow swings round, shortens towards noon, then lengthens again.
   • The dial tells you when the tip is nearing the circle, when it touches it and when it lies right on it.
   • A soft chime calls you when it is about to touch, if you are within about 30 m, so you can get on with other work in the meantime.
3. Shift + E again. Two shadows of equal length lie mirrored about north, so north is halfway between the marks.
   • The sundial's plate grinds round to north.
   • The sun circle raises its hour stones.

It is not quite automatic. How well it comes out depends on how well your second mark matches the first. The dial says how it went: spot on, very precisely, fairly well or only roughly. You can measure again any time.

• Marks further from noon give a finer result.
• A mark taken while the tip still only touches the circle leaves the dial a few minutes off.
• If you miss the moment, the first mark waits for you, and tomorrow brings the same shadow at the same hour.
• Hold E to wipe the chalk off.

Timing: a Valheim day lasts 30 minutes, and daylight takes 21 of them, so a daylight hour is about 1¾ minutes. Marks at 09:30 and 14:30 are about nine minutes apart.

The quick way: turn it by eye

No time for shadows? Look at the dial, hold Shift and turn the mouse wheel. The sundial's plate turns with it. On the sun circle, a chalk line on the paving shows where XII will stand and chalk rings show where each stone will rise. Point XII north and let go; the circle's hour stones rise a moment later.

North is up on the map, and the sun rises due east at six. But the dial does not tell you how well you aimed: it says only aligned by eye, and the shadow reads as true as your eye was. Ten degrees off is easily half an hour wrong on the sun circle. The chalk method above sets it exactly, and you can use it at any time to correct a dial turned by eye.

If you would rather skip all this, set AutoAlign = true and new dials point north by themselves. AllowTurning = false takes the quick way out.

Configuration

BepInEx/config/jan.sundial.cfg

• Building (server-synced, admin only):
  • Recipe and Station for the sundial;
  • CircleRecipe and CircleStation for the sun circle;
  • MarbleRecipe, MarbleCircleRecipe, MarbleStation and the same for Grausten…;
  • RingRecipe and RingStation for the ring dial;
  • AutoAlign;
  • AllowTurning: the quick way, turning by eye;
  • MarkTolerance: how exactly the second shadow has to match the first;
  • LevelGround.
• Client:
  • ShowExactTime: adds hh:mm, what the shadow says;
  • ShowEykt;
  • SpeakReading.

Multiplayer and compatibility

• Each dial's heading, the latitude it was made for, how well it was aligned and the chalk marks are stored with the piece, so every player sees the same dial.
• Every player and the server need the mod. It requires Jötunn.
• Everything is built at runtime. There are no asset bundles.

Deutsch

Sonnenuhr (Hammer → Sonstiges, an der Werkbank: 12 Stein, 2 Bronze) und Sonnenkreis (80 Stein, 4 Bronze). Der Sonnenkreis ist ein gepflasterter Steinkreis von fast zehn Metern mit einem Menhir in der Mitte, der eine Bronzekugel trägt. Er ist gedacht als Mittelpunkt deiner Basis.

Beide gibt es auch aus schwarzem Marmor (polierter, fast schwarzer Stein mit weißen Adern, am Sonnenkreis mit vergoldeten Ziffern) und aus Grausten (der dunkle, poröse Stein der Aschlande), jeweils am Steinmetztisch aus 12 bzw. 80 Steinen dieser Art und 2 bzw. 4 Bronze.

Dazu kommt der Bauernring (an der Schmiede, 1 Bronze): ein Bronzering an einer Schnur für unterwegs. Leg ihn in die Schnellleiste und benutze ihn. Dein Wikinger hält ihn gegen die Sonne, der Ring pendelt aus, und durch ein kleines Loch fällt ein Lichtpunkt auf die Stunden innen am Ring: „Der Lichtpunkt steht bei IX · III – die Sonne steht im Osten – neun Uhr morgens“. Norden braucht er nicht, denn er misst, wie hoch die Sonne steht. Darum gilt dieselbe Marke für neun und für drei Uhr (ob Vormittag oder Nachmittag ist, verrät der Sonnenstand), und um Mittag sagt er nur noch „um die Mittagszeit“, weil die Sonne dann kaum steigt. Graviert ist er für 45° Nord. In den Nebellanden und den Aschlanden geht er falsch und sagt das auch. Erneut benutzen oder weggehen steckt ihn weg.

Ablesen: Schau auf die Uhr, dann siehst du, wo der Schatten liegt: „Schatten auf III – Viertel nach drei, nachmittags · Nón“. Mit E liest du genau ab. Im Mondlicht gibt es einen Mondschatten, um zwölf Stunden versetzt. Bei Regen, in der Dämmerung und unter einem Dach gibt es keinen Schatten.

Echt: Valheims Sonne geht jeden Tag um 6 Uhr genau im Osten auf und steht mittags genau im Süden. Jede Uhr wird für den Himmel ihres Bioms gebaut. Die Stundensteine des Sonnenkreises stehen genau dort, wohin der Schatten des Menhirs zu ihrer Stunde zeigt.

Einnorden, einmal und für immer:

1. Vormittags markierst du mit Umschalt + E die Schattenspitze, und ein Kreidekreis erscheint.
2. Nachmittags wandert die Spitze zurück zum Kreis. Die Uhr sagt dir, wenn sie sich nähert, ihn berührt und genau auf ihm liegt. Bist du in der Nähe, ruft dich ein leiser Glockenton.
3. Markierst du dann erneut, liegt Norden genau zwischen den Marken. Die Scheibe dreht sich dorthin, beim Sonnenkreis werden erst jetzt die Stundensteine aufgerichtet.

Wie genau das gelingt, hängt von deiner zweiten Marke ab, und die Uhr sagt es dir: aufs Haar genau, sehr genau, recht genau oder nur grob. Verpasst du den Moment, wartet die erste Marke bis morgen. Hältst du E gedrückt, wischst du die Kreide weg.

Schnell nach Augenmaß: Schau auf die Uhr, halte Umschalt und dreh am Mausrad. Die Scheibe dreht sich mit. Beim Sonnenkreis zeigt eine Kreidelinie auf dem Pflaster, wo XII stehen wird, und Kreideringe zeigen die Plätze der Steine. Richte XII nach Norden aus und lass los, kurz darauf werden die Stundensteine aufgerichtet. Auf der Karte ist Norden oben. Wie gut du gezielt hast, verrät die Uhr nicht, sie sagt nur nach Augenmaß ausgerichtet. Zehn Grad daneben sind beim Sonnenkreis schnell eine halbe Stunde. Mit der Kreide kannst du jederzeit genau nachmessen.

Mit AutoAlign = true richten sich neue Uhren von selbst nach Norden aus, mit AllowTurning = false gibt es kein Drehen nach Augenmaß.

Auf freiem Boden ebnet der Sonnenkreis den Untergrund ein und entfernt das Gras, wie eine Hacke es täte. Ein Kreis direkt neben einem anderen ebnet weniger weit ein und lässt den Boden des Nachbarn in Ruhe. Abschalten kannst du das mit LevelGround = false.