This is a continuation of the discussion from SWG's V-Sync thread, but moved to its own for improved visibility.

Skyrim's game day cycle is NOT properly synchronized with the game's clock, with days changing at seemingly random times instead of 12:00 AM when it is supposed to. If this continues for extended periods, it can result in a seriously broken clock, which can have disastrous effects on the game's AI. Specifically, any packages that are tasked to be executed on a certain day will become broken because the game day is cycling at... say, two in the afternoon. The cause of this bug is currently unknown, but what is known is that it NEEDS to be fixed, as it IS game-breaking.

There have also been sporadic reports from PS3 users saying this has happened to them, too, though I cannot confirm it for them. If that is the case, the problem might be that the game day cycle is frame-timed (though I can't say for sure what the problem is).

Workaround: if you notice your game clock has fallen out of sync with the game day, wait until precisely the moment the day changes, the type "set gamehour to 0" in the console. This will temporarily fix the clock.

Some have said this can be fixed by not turning off V-Sync, but this does not work for everyone (myself included, it doesn't matter if V-Sync is on or off, the game time is still not synchronized).

Another possible fix is to type this into an elevated command prompt in Windows if you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7:

"bcdedit /set useplatformclock true"

then reboot. This is not recommended, though, and it doesn't work for everyone.

EDIT: There has now been a report in this thread (post #7) that occasionally, Xbox 360 users are experiencing this bug, as well.

Thanks!
Using the "set gamehour to 0" I finally managed to fix my problem, the game used to change day a couple of hours b4 midnight...

By the way, are we sure that using this kind of fixes NPC routines doesn't change or something like that?

The problems occur purely from the de-synched clock, so resetting it should put AI routines back to normal.

However, if any quests were affected by this bug (numerous Dark Brotherhood quests are time-specific), they will remain broken for good.

my days cycle at 9pm.

[censored] weak sauce.


will try "set gamehour to 0"


really.

it has not affected me yet, in my observations, but come on. COuld it be a conflict with you system clock,as opposed to the fictitious clock in game?

I have been able to temporarily fix it by following these steps, but nothing I do will stop it from going out of sync. I have had V-Sync on since I got the game. bcdedit doesn't help. I even started a new game and by the time I got to Riverwood my time was already off by an hour. But on the bight side I have yet to run into a major problem that has been caused by my game clock.

besides it breaking immersion.


that is total crap.

can anyone give cliff notes on how you went about doing this.

Have the bug myself changes at 11:00 at night, have tried resetting gamehour, turning vsync on and off, bcedit, even started a new character still Time does not stay in sync..

Also noticed the same thing happening on my friend Xbox 360, but, it happening at like 7:00 am when it changes the day from them..

so it just not limited to PC Uers, PS3, you can included the Xbox has well. Which means this is game bug itself and not something specific to computer or console's..

Hope they fix this.

Now that's a bombshell... an Xbox 360 user experienced this?

And they need to fix this, since it throws the entire AI system this game uses way out of whack.

/\ agreed good thread, I honestly thought they set the game clock to EST instead of fictitious, because since I started my char. It has changed like clockwork(lol) at 9pm, im not losing hours continuously it always changes at 9pm, and my level 38 is like 160 hrs and 400 game days.

Not sure the xbox 360 users are aware or even checking to see if they have the bug or not

It may not be has widespread on 360, but, I can confirm my friend has the issue on his 360..

Hopefully Patch 1.2 will fix the issue for everyone,,

fixed once, when my clock was switching at 9pm for about 175 days into game time, now that i used the above fix, the clock is jumping around all over the [censored] place, with no rhyme nor reason.

I should of just left it as it was.

Delete

This is a product of NOT having vsync enabled. (ipresentinterval=1 in skyrimprefs.ini)

No it isnt, i havent even touched Vsync and its still out of sync, currently ~3am for me.

Ive tried testing why, but its impossibly hard due to the fact that it is so slowly changing, i think it might have something to do with fast travel/waiting, getting the times wrong when its done calculating.

Delete

If the day doesnt change at or atleast a bit around 12am, its annoying and definitely needs explaining/fixed.

As has been noted in other places, changing iPresentInverval in skyrimprefs.ini does nothing. It must be changed in skyrim.ini, not skyrimprefs.ini.

And for a lot of us, this clock bug has nothing whatever to do with v-sync.

I have not turned off v-sync, and upon starting a new game, the clock was off by an hour already. And we have to be clear by "off"-- since different people are reporting different things.

For me, it is the day NAME that is off, not the hour. That is, if it says "Sundas, 10th of Heartfire" at 10 PM, then at 11:01 PM it will say "Middas, 10th of Heartfire" and then at 12:01 AM it will say "Middas, 11th of Heartfire."

In my case, the actual calendar day IS changing at midnight. The name of the day of the week is what is off, but even there it consistently changes at 11:01 PM. It isn't getting further out of sync, as I play, and I've played for more than 45 hours already. The day of the week changes at 11:01 PM, right from the beginning of the story, and it's still behaving that way.

Just confirmed the bug here, with some more info to add. My game days are "rolling over" at 11PM instead of 12AM. Glanced at the game clock prior to 11PM, and it was Loredas. 11:03PM? Suddenly it's Sundas!

Oddly enough the actual day doesn't switch over...if that makes any sense. It was "Loredas, 10:55PM, 29th of Last Seed, 4E 201" and then a few minutes later it was "Sundas, 11:03PM, 29th of Last Seed, 4E 201."

It doesn't become the 30th of Last Seed until 12AM, like it should.

Edit: and ninja'd. I'm seeing the exact same thing Average Joe is describing.

Interesting... yes, we are talking about the weekday not changing over when it is supposed to, and that is actually the greater of the two evils here. Here's why:

A lot of this game's AI packages check the weekday for when to execute (same as Oblivion). So if a package is scheduled to execute on Loredas at 5 PM to 7 PM, but your clock is out of sync so that it is now 6:05 PM of Fredas with the changeover to Loredas occuring at 6:06 PM, the weekday check is fudged and the package won't execute properly.

Potentially game-breaking? Definitely, especially if the game is relying on an NPC to be somewhere at a certain time on a certain day. Weekday de-sync can potentially cause that package to fail, which if the NPC is quest-required, runs a strong chance of breaking that quest. That's the damage that can be done.

Surely its simply tied to the date (1st/15th/30th etc) and time?

I dont see why any programmer would use the day name.

Especially since the date works fine.

setting the gamehour doesnt fixed the problem for me, out of sync the next in-game day :<

This is a bug carried over from the FO3 engine (not sure whether it was in Oblivion).

It's not the calendar that's messing up, but the day of the week transition, the two of which seem to operate somewhat separately.

So I think you'll find that the calendar has been managing fine, but it's the day of the week that will get all out of whack, changing at strange hours of the day.

Maybe they'll actually fix it this time, but considering how long it's been lurking in the game engine, I'm not holding my breath.

What if the quests aren't yet in progress when the scheduling is off, and you get it fixed before you take them? The quests should be correct, right? If so, we should probably make a list of quests to avoid if you're experiencing this bug, so people can avoid taking them until we get a reasonable understanding of this issue.

Because Saturday and Sunday can occur on varying dates on the calendar. It's not accurate to track them that way. There is plenty of reason for a programmer to reference the day name for scheduling. Since you are basically referencing a constantly recycling loop of seven integers that have names assigned to them, think of it that way. Day 7 (Loredas) and Day 1 (Sundas) are especially important, because NPCs can often have a different set of packages to execute on weekends.

Simply relying on the dates is not a good idea for setting up a weekly schedule of tasks. And redundant, because if you do, you are just going to harken back to that 7-day cycle anyways to make sure the day tracking is correct.

Add my name to the list. My days are transitioning differently than the game clock even as early as when you first enter Riverwood. I've yet to have any game breaking issues from it quest wise, but it is annoying. I remember Obsidian broke their in game clock in NV with the 1.3 patch and fixed it with the 1.4 patch, so hopefully Beth with get on the ball and fix this too.