Skyboxes and backgrounds

BeginnerDesignerProgrammer Skyboxes are backgrounds that create the illusion of space and distance. Typical skybox backgrounds include skies, clouds, mountains, and other scenery. As skyboxes are prerendered, they require little GPU and CPU. cubemaps or 360° panoramic textures as skyboxes. You can also use them to light the scene.

Note

Currently, Xenko doesn’t support skydomes or local skyboxes. 2D background, which is often useful for 2D games.

Cubemaps

cubemap is a six-sided texture. When these textures are assembled in a cube around the scene, the cubemap simulates spacious 3D surroundings. .dds files). Use another application to create a cubemap from separate image files, such as:

  • Nvidia conversion tool
  • ATI conversion tool

    Create a cubemap in Game Studio

    You can capture a cubemap from a position in your scene.
  • scene editor, position the camera at the point where you want to capture the cubemap. The direction the camera faces doesn’t matter, only the position. Typically, you should capture cubemaps at the center of your scene to create the best all-round view.
  • Lighting options menu.
  • Cubemap, click Generate.
  • Save.
    Tip
    Resources folder. For more information, see Organize your files in version control. .dds file in the location you specified.

    360° panoramic textures

    360° panoramic texture as a 3D background. Image courtesy of
    Note
    post effects affect the appearance of your skybox. If it doesn’t look how you expect, try changing your post effect settings.

    Add a cubemap or 360° panoramic texture to the project

    You add these like other color textures.
  • Asset View, click , select Textures > Color texture, and browse to the file.
  • Windows Explorer to the Asset View, then select Color texture.

    Create a skybox

    background component. Xenko includes an entity with a background component in the project by default. Only one background can be active in a scene at a time. If there are multiple backgrounds, Xenko only loads the first. You can add background components to as many entities as you need. You might want to include more than one background, for example, if you want to switch skyboxes at runtime.

    Add a background entity

  • Scene view, select the entity you want to add the component to. This can be an empty entity. Its position in the scene doesn’t matter.
  • Property Grid (on the right by default), click Add component and select Background.
  • Texture, select the cubemap or 360° panoramic texture you want to use in the skybox.

    Use a skybox as a light source

    image-based lighting (Wikipedia). For more information, see Skybox lights.

    Change the skybox at runtime

    The following code changes the cubemap in a background:
    1. public Texture cubemapTexture;public void ChangeBackgroundParameters(){    // Get the background component from an entity    var background = directionalLight.Get<BackgroundComponent>();    // Replace the existing background    background.Texture = cubemapTexture;    // Change the background intensity    background.Intensity = 1.5f;}

    Convert cubemaps to panoramas and vice versa

    Various tools exist to convert a panoramas to cubemaps and vice versa, including:
  • Panorama Converter
  • Panorama to Cubemap
  • Convert Cubemap to Equirectangular

    Set a 2D background

    Instead of using a 3D skybox, you can display the texture as a static background. This displays the texture as a flat image that stays static no matter how you move the camera. This is often useful for 2D games. Background component properties, select 2D background. If you enable this with a cubemap, Xenko uses the first face of the cubemap as the background.

    Use a video as a skybox

    Videos - Use a video as a skybox.

    See also

  • Skybox lights
  • Lights and shadows