Well, I got the idea from Delta1045765 on this post. Just wanted to get the formalities out of the way.
So since the day-night cycle exists, does that mean the Halo rings spin? I couldn’t get it out of my head after I heard this question and wanted to see what people think.
Kid Cudi, do you have any advice on the matter?
I would assume Halo rings spin axially about their center as that would be a good explanation as to their surface gravity (as it would produce constant radial acceleration). As far as a day-night cycle, the spinning of the ring about its center would produce a day-night cycle assuming the ring is between the angles of 0 and 90 degrees measuring from the axis normal to the ring’s circular cross section and the average “vector” of the rays coming from the Halo’s “sun.” This way, a shadow would be cast onto the ring from the opposite side of the ring. If at 0 degrees, the entire ring would be lit from one side, and if at 90 degrees, the entire ring would be in shadow.
Whether or not they rotate about an axis other than the central axis (of their circular cross section), I don’t know.
I assume they do, not sure though.
The rings have artificial light and heat to back up the ecosystems preserved there.
I also have questions about the cycle:
When you replay missions from the main menu, what time is it when you begin that mission?
Can you go to sleep to change the time?
I have never really thought about this before. I suppose the Halo rings do rotate or spin so that there is a gravitational pull or rotational push so that things don’t go flying off. It’s kind of like those circular space station concepts that have been around for years now where they spin the outer section of the space station so that you could have gravity of sorts. I’m pretty sure the Halo rings also probably orbit a nearby star as well unless they are free floating in space. The orbit would also cause a natural day-night cycle.
> 2535424974868674;1:
> Well, I got the idea from Delta1045765 on this post. Just wanted to get the formalities out of the way.
>
> So since the day-night cycle exists, does that mean the Halo rings spin? I couldn’t get it out of my head after I heard this question and wanted to see what people think.
Wow, thanks for mentionting me here and creating this incredible thread! Just found a lot here.
They do most definitely spin, as seen in Halo CE. This is more likely there to create a day-night cycle rather than produce the necessary gravity from centrifugal acceleration. Since i’d assume the forerunners, with their tecnology leagues above the UNSC’s (whom employ artificial gravity generators), could generate the necessary gravity on a Halo ring without it needing to spin. Just an assumption.
Yes. In fact, I suspect a ring would have TWO nights, one for when the star is behind the side of the ring you’re standing on and one when its behind the opposite side of the ring, although that one is probably a lot shorter.
I thought the rings also orbit a nearby planet? This certainly complicates things regarding day night cycle.
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> They do most definitely spin, as seen in Halo CE. This is more likely there to create a day-night cycle rather than produce the necessary gravity from centrifugal acceleration. Since i’d assume the forerunners, with their tecnology leagues above the UNSC’s (whom employ artificial gravity generators), could generate the necessary gravity on a Halo ring without it needing to spin. Just an assumption.
The rings are massive enough that they probably generate a small amount of their own gravity, although I doubt it would be anywhere as significant as an Earth level of gravity. And yes, I’m sure forerunners are advanced enough to generate artificial gravity, but often the simplest solution is the best. Why go through the cost and effort to put in a complex technology on such a massive scale when you could simply put a nice spin on things.
The day/night cycle of a Halo Ring would be based around the Ring’s position around the planet. So when it is “night” the sun will set by passing behind the planet (or more accurately, the Ring will pass to the far side of the planet from the sun). So the sun “sets” behind the surface of the planet, and “rises” above the other surface. One thing I want to know is whether or not there will be eclipses as well when the sun passes behind both the far side of the ring, and behind the side of the ring you’re currently on. Also will the day/night cycle also show shadowing effects over the rest of the ring in the skybox? For instance, when the sun is passing behind the far side of the ring, will if visibly darken? And when it passes by the part of the ring you’re standing on, will the far side of the ring still be lit up?
Will missions in different parts of the ring, where the sun instead passes by the left and right sides of the ring, instead of the far side and the side you’re standing on, also have unique eclipse patterns?
Thanks for all the answers, they really helped.
So I understand that the rings DO in fact, spin, so that plays part in the cycle. I also understood that the cycle also depends on the planet the ring might rotate, I never thought of that and I honestly feel stupid not realizing, especially since I spent a good 1/2 of 8th grade doing astronomy :I
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> The day/night cycle of a Halo Ring would be based around the Ring’s position around the planet. So when it is “night” the sun will set by passing behind the planet (or more accurately, the Ring will pass to the far side of the planet from the sun). So the sun “sets” behind the surface of the planet, and “rises” above the other surface. One thing I want to know is whether or not there will be eclipses as well when the sun passes behind both the far side of the ring, and behind the side of the ring you’re currently on. Also will the day/night cycle also show shadowing effects over the rest of the ring in the skybox? For instance, when the sun is passing behind the far side of the ring, will if visibly darken? And when it passes by the part of the ring you’re standing on, will the far side of the ring still be lit up?
>
> Will missions in different parts of the ring, where the sun instead passes by the left and right sides of the ring, instead of the far side and the side you’re standing on, also have unique eclipse patterns?
Do we know that the ring in Halo infinite orbits around a planet? Previous rings obviously have, but I’ve noticed a definite absence of a huge gas giant looming in the sky in all the Halo Infinite media. Might just be that this ring just orbits the star, and the day–night cycle comes from the star passing behind the ring.
In-game, we probably won’t be seeing the star pass behind the far side of the ring. The ring presumably just rotates around its symmetry axis, like we’ve seen in CE, in which case the sun remains on the same side of the ring throughout the day. As it orbits the star, there would be a yearly shift in the sun’s position that eventually makes the ring eclipse the sun twice a year, but I doubt 343i has programmed in such behavior.
This picture from the latest inside infinite shows that the side of the ring that should be in shadow is indeed darker. That lighting seems a bit off though because I’m pretty sure the shadow should be sharper and more diagonal.
I did a little digging after yesterday’s thread. It seems Zeta’s rotation changed after it’s jump from Maethrillian.
Shortly after completing its jump away from Maethrillian, the Halo’s spin slowed down and the ring began to precess.[65] While in the refuge system on its way to collide with the wolf-faced planet, Installation 07 still maintained a day-night cycle of sorts with a noticeable axial tilt relative to the local star. The Halo rotated in a way that the local sun would first fall behind one of the edge walls lining the band,[66] then pass behind the other side of the ring, reappearing at dawn from the top of the opposite edge wall. Dawn was preceded by the illuminated portion of the ring’s terrain growing closer further up the band while the shadow receded. The orange glow of dawn would be partly reflected to some areas still in the shadow of either the other side of the ring or the edge walls.[67] At “noon”, the sun would pass through the middle of the opposite side of the ring directly above the observer—termed the “sky bridge” by Chakas
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> I thought the rings also orbit a nearby planet? This certainly complicates things regarding day night cycle.
>
>
> > 2533274892878579;8:
> > They do most definitely spin, as seen in Halo CE. This is more likely there to create a day-night cycle rather than produce the necessary gravity from centrifugal acceleration. Since i’d assume the forerunners, with their tecnology leagues above the UNSC’s (whom employ artificial gravity generators), could generate the necessary gravity on a Halo ring without it needing to spin. Just an assumption.
>
> The rings are massive enough that they probably generate a small amount of their own gravity, although I doubt it would be anywhere as significant as an Earth level of gravity. And yes, I’m sure forerunners are advanced enough to generate artificial gravity, but often the simplest solution is the best. Why go through the cost and effort to put in a complex technology on such a massive scale when you could simply put a nice spin on things.
Correcting myself after seeing this while looking up the size of the rings:
> The Halo rings achieve their “gravity” through artificial gravity generators - despite their shape, the ring does not need to spin to create its gravitational pull, though they do spin for other reasons unrelated to gravity generation. Due to this, the various Refugia present on the installation’s surface may have different surface gravity, terrain, lighting and atmospheric conditions.
Turns out there are artificial gravity generators on the rings, this is certainly helpful to achieve optimal gravity under various ring spins.
