Have you seen the green flash at sunset in Sea Of Thieves?
A gorgeous little detail that's easily overlooked
As the sun slowly disappears over the horizon, for just a few seconds it's possible to see the edges of the sun glow green in colour. It's rather aptly named the "green flash", and it's a somewhat rare meteorological phenomenon that can happen during sunset or sunrise when the conditions are just right. Thing is, I didn't actually realise that it was a real thing until I saw it in Sea Of Thieves.
There I am just wandering around collecting my loot on one of Sea Of Thieves beautiful tropical islands when the sun begins to set. I like taking a step back and admiring the vistas in Sea Of Thieves sometimes, so I stop what I'm doing and find a nice high point on the island to watch it go down. Right as it's about to disappear, I see it. A little green warble over the edges of the sun.
My immediate thought was, "Oh! What a cool Pirates Of The Carribean reference." You know the scene I'm thinking of - in the third film where they're all running around on their ship trying to escape from Davy Jones' locker, and when they emerge back in the real world there's a blinding green flash.
It wasn't until I thought to Google it after that I discovered what a numpty I'd been. The green flash is an actual real thing! What a brilliant little detail to spot in a video game. I've been playing Sea Of Thieves for three years, and somehow it still surprises me the care and attention has gone into such little things that are so easily overlooked.
I'm absolutely fascinated by the idea of the green flash now, and I want to make a point of trying to see one for myself in real life. If, like me, you're curious as to why it happens, here's a little segment from Live Science explaining it:
"This fleeting spectacle is caused by the refraction of sunlight when the light travels through more of the Earth's atmosphere. The atmosphere bends the sunlight passing through it, separating the light into its different colors, much like a prism bends and splits sunlight into rainbows."
Here's a video of it actually happening in real life, too (though I have a warning for this one, it's got some really cheesy chill-out music blaring over the top):
If you find yourself heading to the Sea Of Thieves to check out these colourful sunsets, watch out for the new ghost ships lurking around. And in case you missed it, Rare recently announced the game will be getting custom servers. What a great time to be a pirate.