zaro

Steps to Use a Custom Skybox on a Camera

Published in Unity Skybox 3 mins read

You can use a custom skybox in Unity by adding a Skybox component directly to a specific Camera and assigning a skybox Material to it. This overrides the scene's default skybox for that Camera.

Here’s a simple guide on how to apply a custom skybox to a Camera in your Unity Scene:

Steps to Use a Custom Skybox on a Camera

Applying a skybox directly to a camera is useful when you want a particular camera to render a different background than the rest of the scene, such as for reflection probes or split-screen effects.

Follow these steps based on the provided reference:

  1. Select Your Camera: In your Unity Scene or Hierarchy window, select the Camera you want to apply the custom skybox to. Once selected, view its properties in the Inspector window.
  2. Add the Skybox Component: With the Camera selected in the Inspector, click the Add Component button. In the component menu that appears, navigate to Rendering and select Skybox. This adds the Skybox component to your selected Camera.
  3. Assign Your Skybox Material: On the newly added Skybox component, you will see a property labeled Custom Skybox. Click the small circle icon next to this property or drag and drop your desired skybox Material asset from your Project window onto this field.

Once you have assigned a skybox Material, that specific Camera will now render using this custom skybox instead of the one set in the scene's Lighting settings.

What is a Skybox Material?

A skybox in Unity is typically defined by a Material that uses a Skybox shader. These shaders can render various types of skyboxes, such as:

  • 6 Sided: Uses six textures for the six faces of a cube (front, back, left, right, up, down).
  • Cubemap: Uses a single cubemap texture asset.
  • Panoramic: Uses a single panoramic image (like a 360-degree photo).
  • Procedural: Generates a skybox procedurally based on settings like sun position, atmosphere thickness, etc.

To use a custom skybox, you first need to create or import a suitable skybox Material asset in your Unity project.

Why Apply Skybox to a Camera?

While the standard way to set a skybox for a scene is via the Lighting window (Window > Rendering > Lighting > Environment - Note: This step is not covered by the provided reference but is common practice), adding the Skybox component to a Camera is specifically for scenarios where you need per-camera skybox control. This allows for greater flexibility in rendering, especially in complex scenes or applications.