In the original version of Dracula, vampires DID NOT, in fact, turn to ash when exposed to sunlight, they just had their powers severely diminished. The whole deadly sunlight thing is a more modern trope.
 
Deadly sunlight or not, it does not matter. I have seen both well-written and bad-written vampire stories with and without it. It’s less of an important factor than most give credit to.
 
I’d say the circumstances for the vampire’s lust for blood are much more important to the characterization, and deserve greater attention to detail.

In Underworld 2, the heroine got a small dose of dawn, but heeled up after staying in a warehouse for a sec. :\

Actualy if I recal correctly the in the first Dracual story the vampires don’t trun ash or worse ….sparkel…. ughhhhh  
they simpely become a lot weaker then they are in the night/dark.

I read a story where rarity was a vampire, and she basically got free immortality, night vision, mind control, didn’t need to eat but still could, same going for sleep and could still do normal functions like pregnancy in exchange for her eyes being more sensitive to sunlight. And she hated it. Wtf is up with that.
 
 
Although, if vampires are anything like vampire bats they basically shit blood so that can’t be too nice.

@phallen1ws  
Yeah, so somewhere between Dracula and Alucard.
 
Wait a minute…

Don’t worry girls. Vampires can be fun. Remember “The Lost Boys”?

So these are “sunlight is cripplingly painful” vampires, not “sunlight will flat fucking destroy you” vampires.