# No access to any way of changing ambient lighting? **URL:** \ **Category:** Help!\ **Tags:** world, udon, sdk3, vrchat, unity\ **Created:** [September 9, 2026, 3:10am UTC](https://ask.vrchat.com/t/no-access-to-any-way-of-changing-ambient-lighting/48924 "2026-09-09T03:10:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![09glich](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/vrchat/user_avatar/ask.vrchat.com/09glich/32/44978_2.png) [@09glich](https://ask.vrchat.com/u/09glich)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 3:10am UTC](https://ask.vrchat.com/t/no-access-to-any-way-of-changing-ambient-lighting/48924/1 "2026-09-09T03:10:14Z")
So I am currently making a day night cycle for my open world game only to get to the part where i was working on some lighting for day and night. and found that I couldn’t access the normal environmental lighting settings. ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/vrchat/original/3X/8/6/86195265247b5cafb3f9c2f022c17d719e98afe1.png) I have tried all 3 of them, and I couldn’t find a way to dynamically change what the scene was using for ambient light Skybox Does not update dynamically at runtime Gradient cant be updated with udon logic Same with Color. I also tried to use a per frame cube map and that also did nothing :\ Now i would find it ridiculous if i had to go and write my own set of shaders for the entire thing and thats very time consuming so i was wondering if there was any other way to do this in worlds or if its just strictly forbidden for some strange reason? ---
**Author:** ![09glich](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/vrchat/user_avatar/ask.vrchat.com/09glich/32/44978_2.png) [@09glich](https://ask.vrchat.com/u/09glich)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 4:53am UTC](https://ask.vrchat.com/t/no-access-to-any-way-of-changing-ambient-lighting/48924/2 "2026-09-09T04:53:28Z")
I believe that i have found a sutible workaround that allow me to do this, For anybody who has this problem in the future. Two directional lights facing opposite of each other on are 45 degree angle difference ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/vrchat/original/3X/1/f/1f6e9ab3c6ea17417622f8bd38d5d9ac1e73cf87.jpeg) You then need to set their Render Modes to Not Important. I dont think shaders are even considered in that render mode but i may be wrong so i have them turned off anyway. thats how i got around this restriction. hope this helps somebody in the future ---
**Author:** ![WubTheCaptain](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/vrchat/user_avatar/ask.vrchat.com/wubthecaptain/32/43797_2.png) [@WubTheCaptain](https://ask.vrchat.com/u/WubTheCaptain)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 2:14pm UTC](https://ask.vrchat.com/t/no-access-to-any-way-of-changing-ambient-lighting/48924/3 "2026-09-09T14:14:49Z")
Depending on what you want to do, a performant baked light solution here may be to use light data with shadow maps in materials? ---
**Author:** ![09glich](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/vrchat/user_avatar/ask.vrchat.com/09glich/32/44978_2.png) [@09glich](https://ask.vrchat.com/u/09glich)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 5:36pm UTC](https://ask.vrchat.com/t/no-access-to-any-way-of-changing-ambient-lighting/48924/4 "2026-09-09T17:36:56Z")
For baked solutions the lighting can be done normaly in unity. My problem was that i couldnt change that value after the map was compiled leading to rediculously dark shadows during thr day or not enough darkness at night time (for my game spasificaly) ---
**Author:** ![shiuk](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/vrchat/user_avatar/ask.vrchat.com/shiuk/32/18317_2.png) [@shiuk](https://ask.vrchat.com/u/shiuk)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2026, 10:56pm UTC](https://ask.vrchat.com/t/no-access-to-any-way-of-changing-ambient-lighting/48924/5 "2026-09-14T22:56:41Z")
You should be able to update (or at least change) the Skybox Material. You should also be able to update the Color. There’s a prefab and a tutorial by iconoclass over here: [![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/vrchat/original/3X/6/9/69c5e29d149e847c98a6cde63fdb4c233584c817.jpeg "Day Night Cycle Prefab and Realtime GI Tutorial") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z6Rn9kwy_A) ---
**Author:** ![09glich](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/vrchat/user_avatar/ask.vrchat.com/09glich/32/44978_2.png) [@09glich](https://ask.vrchat.com/u/09glich)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 6:53am UTC](https://ask.vrchat.com/t/no-access-to-any-way-of-changing-ambient-lighting/48924/6 "2026-09-15T06:53:30Z")
That does exist but I wanted to avoid realtime GI for performance of android as well as i think i am trying to pull off two Completely different atmospheres in different times in the same instance of a game for example. This is full night in the game that i am making ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/vrchat/original/3X/1/e/1e227af35cec4f4bc689b691357f6e881b367cde.jpeg) Compared to Day ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/vrchat/original/3X/f/4/f426233b5d2ce5f69efd3e20b10227246015e2d2.jpeg) This sheer brightness difference was not posible inside just keeping the default world lighting static. making it to bright made night time way to visible and making it to dark made shadows unrealisticly dark.