6 Sided skybox
This skyboxA special type of Material used to represent skies. Usually six-sided. More info
See in Glossary ShaderA small script that contains the mathematical calculations and algorithms for calculating the Color of each pixel rendered, based on the lighting input and the Material configuration. More info
See in Glossary generates a skybox from six separate Textures. Each texture represents a view of the sky along a particular world axis. To illustrate this, think of the SceneA Scene contains the environments and menus of your game. Think of each unique Scene file as a unique level. In each Scene, you place your environments, obstacles, and decorations, essentially designing and building your game in pieces. More info
See in Glossary as being inside a cube. Each Texture represents one of the interior faces of the cube and all six combine to create a seamless environment.
For information on how to create a Material that uses this skybox Shader, as well as details on how to render the skybox in your Scene, see Using skyboxes.
Render pipeline compatibility
| Feature | Built-in Render Pipeline | Universal Render Pipeline (URP) | High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Sided skybox | Yes | Yes | No |
Prerequisite Textures
To create a 6 Sided skybox, you need six individual Textures that, when combined, map to a net layout like:
To generate the best ambient lighting, the Textures should use a high dynamic range (HDR).
Properties
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Tint Color | The color to tint the skybox to. Unity adds this color to the Textures to change their appearance without altering the base Texture files. |
| Exposure | Adjusts the skybox’s exposure. This allows you to correct tonal values in the skybox Textures. Larger values produce a more exposed, seemingly brighter, skybox. Smaller values produce a less exposed, seemingly darker, skybox. |
| Rotation | The rotation of the skybox around the positive y-axis. This changes the orientation of your skybox and is useful if you want a specific section of the skybox to be behind a particular part of your Scene. |
| Front [+Z] (HDR) | The Texture that represents the face of the skybox in the direction of the world’s positive z-axis. In a new Unity Scene, this is in front of the default CameraA component which creates an image of a particular viewpoint in your scene. The output is either drawn to the screen or captured as a texture. More info See in Glossary. |
| Back [-Z] (HDR) | The Texture that represents the face of the skybox in the direction of the world’s negative z-axis. In a new Unity Scene, this is behind the default Camera. |
| Left [+X] (HDR) | The Texture that represents the face of the skybox in the direction of the world’s positive x-axis. In a new Unity Scene, this is to the left of the default Camera. |
| Right [-X] (HDR) | The Texture that represents the face of the skybox in the direction of the world’s negative x-axis. In a new Unity Scene, this is to the right of the default Camera. |
| Up [+Y] (HDR) | The Texture that represents the face of the skybox in the direction of the world’s positive y-axis. In a new Unity Scene, this is above the default Camera. |
| Down [-Y] (HDR) | The Texture that represents the face of the skybox in the direction of the world’s negative y-axis. In a new Unity Scene, this is below the default Camera. |
| Render Queue | Determines the order in which Unity draws GameObjectsThe fundamental object in Unity scenes, which can represent characters, props, scenery, cameras, waypoints, and more. A GameObject’s functionality is defined by the Components attached to it. More info See in Glossary. For more information on Render Queue, see SL-SubShaderTags. |
| Double Sided Global IlluminationA group of techniques that model both direct and indirect lighting to provide realistic lighting results. Unity has two global illumination systems that combine direct and indirect lighting.: Baked Global Illumination, and Realtime Global Illumination (deprecated). See in Glossary |
Specifies whether the lightmapperA tool in Unity that bakes lightmaps according to the arrangement of lights and geometry in your scene. More info See in Glossary accounts for both sides of the geometry when it calculates Global Illumination. When true, if you use the Progressive Lightmapper, back faces bounce light using the same emission and albedo as front faces. |