Skybox Studio - An all-in-one editor for static skyboxes

Welcome to Skybox Studio!​

​

Skybox Studio is a full-featured editor extension that allows you to create unique and versatile static skyboxes for all types of environments from scratch with no additional tools required. It is aimed at artists and does not require any coding skills. Skybox Studio is not a weather system!
The output is always a static 6-sided skybox. This gives you not only a great deal of compatibility - since the output is always a set of textures and a Unity material - the skyboxes are also very easy on performance because they are static and do not run any scripts to make them do fancy things.

The simplistic and intuitive editor interface makes it easy to work with, while you can always preview your results in real time. Skybox Studio works based on textures. While textures for all aspects of and effects of the skybox come with the asset, you can use your own textures to achieve the desired look. The extensive manual helps you understand what kind of texture is required for each individual effect. With this there are virtually no limits to the artistic control, except your creativity

<< To the asset store >>​

Clean and easy to use editor with realtime preview

​

The workflow is simple:

• Create a project file
• Edit your skybox via the Skybox Studio Editor
• Export the final resul

With Skybox Studio you can edit every aspect of your skybox to make them suitable for:

• Atmospheric environments
• Space environments
• Sci-Fi environments (colorful skies, background planets, etc.)

Those aspects are:

• Basic sky color settings
• Stars
• Nebulae
• Suns
• Planets
• Horizon
• Volumetric Clouds
• Background terrain

Once you have finished editing, you can simply select the output resolution, export with a mouse click and have Skybox Studio build the skybox material for you.


Examples:

Atmospheric Skybox
​

Sci-Fi/Space Skybox



Sci-Fi/Space Skybox
​

Shareable Project Files
Skybox Studio works with its own project files that you can share with the community. Those project files make it easy to reproduce results or continue editing where others have left off.


Background Terrains
When using ready made skyboxes with terrain in the background we often find ourselves having to adjust our scene to match the skybox. With Skybox studio you can adjust the background terrain to fit your scene instead or choose not to have any background terrain. This gives you additional artistic control and can greatly enhance the look and feel of your scene.

Showcasing the benefits of having background terrain render on the skybox







​

Planets and Nebulae
Apart from atmospheric skyboxes, Skybox Studio allows the creation of skyboxes for space environments, rendering planets with or without rings, nebulae and multiple suns. The final result remains a static skybox, so that your scene remains clear of any additional objects.

Example space Skybox with stars, one sun, 2 nebulae and 2 planets. Everything except the space station is rendered on the skybox.
​

Volumetric Clouds
Skybox Studio features volumetric clouds based on tileable noise textures. While it comes with a collection of such textures, you are free to use your own, to achieve the desired results. Cutout, softness and colors of the clouds are fully controllable and can be masked out to achieve a unique natural look. A total of three possible cloud layers allow you to use multiple types of clouds in the same skybox.

Example atmospheric skybox with background terrain and volumetric clouds at night.
​

Example Projects
The package contains a total of 25 example projects for all types of environments:

• 6 atmospheric skyboxes with background terrain
• 7 atmospheric skyboxes without background terrain
• 2 cartoon style skyboxes
• 5 space skyboxes
• 5 atmospheric sci-fi skyboxes

At a glance

• Simplistic, easy to use interface
• Limitless possibilities and full artistic control
• Compatibility
• Example projects for different types of environments
• Extendable texture collection
• Shareable project files
• Extensive documentation and video tutorials (in the works)

Important information on URP support!
While the Skybox Studio editor works with Unity's standard render pipeline only, the output is always a collection of six textures, one for each side of a 6-sided skybox. You can use these textures to create skyboxes using the universal render pipeline and even in 3D-tools other than Unity.


To the asset store >>

 

Thanks, link is not working, seems can not find yet. Looks great though

 

The link will work, once the submission was reviewed and the asset goes online - I submitted just today, sorry.
I'll give you another heads-up as soon as it goes live.

 

Thanks so much, after thinking bout it .. it should have occurred to me, it has been submitted and waiting for approve.
It looks great!!

 

HDRP support?

 

The Editor works in the Standard RP only, but the output is a set of 6 textures and a six sided skybox material. While the standard RP offers this type of material too, HDRP does not, so it would require a custom material for six-sided Skyboxes. Skybox Studio does not contain such a material.

 

It's live.

 

I guess this is not going to work with Unity2018 xxx? Or 2017.xxx?
Is it only for 2019.4? No lower versions?

 

Nice new product! Any update on Aquas?

 

A very nice and powerful tool at first view - just started studying it after purchase. Probably found a small bug - when exporting a skybox to 4096 or 2048, the asset still exports 1024 images. That is, sizing doesn't work.

 

I'm afraid not. THis is due to the way the editor is built. I am using foldout header groups which are only available with 2019.2 and above. However submission guidelines only allow the latest release of the Unity version to be used, so I had to use 2019.4.

However the output is a set of textures, so strictly speaking, while you have to use Unity 2019.4 or higher to use the editor, you can use the output in any Unity version, even Unity 5 or lower.

 

You are right, I just realized, the exporter sets the output resolution to the default value (1024) before the export is triggered in the editor. I am just now uploading a fix for that.

 

I am currently working on raindrop simulation and procedural wet lens effects for AQUAS 2020 and URP support for AQUAS Lite - will post on the right forum later today.

 

Hi!
Can this render the clouds from above or inside them?
I would like to have clouds both up and down in the skybox to make aerial levels.

Also, can the suns NOT be rendered but still light the scene?

 

Hey there,

clouds can only be rendered above the camera, not below. If you want to render clouds to fly over, a dynamic weather system may be a better idea, SBS outputs only static skyboxes.

As to your other question:
Yes, you can have invisible suns as it were. Simply disable the glow feature and use a black texture as your sun texture. The sun will then effectively render invisible and you can still add a directional light to it.

 

What if you want a planet rising between the background mountains and the more distant stars, etc?

What technique would you use? Eg: Mask for mountains, or extract mountains and put on a cylindrical billboard (say out at 2000 meters occasionally recentering on player/camera?

 

I'm not quite sure I understand the question. SBS should do it automatically.

If your question is about how you would do it generically, well then the saying goes "all paths lead to rome". Personally I would go with multiple cameras rendering on top of each other. The skybox first, the planet second and whatever you use to render your background landscape last, just before your main camera starts rendering on top of that.

You could render the landscape as a texture on the inside of a cylinder, sure, but that would of course require you to have a texture of a landscape ready. SBS maps a height map on a small, but dense plane and renders it with a separate camera on top of everything behind it - the result is then baked into textures for a cubemap.

 

Thank you! It will be interesting to see the performance hit versus the time to prep the assets.