Procedural Space Skybox

Demo | Documentation

🚨 New Version 3.0.0 - June 2025

The 3.0.0 update of this asset brings a whole new procedural skybox generation technique using VFX Graph - much more performant than previous dynamic skybox implementations and usable at runtime in 4K resolution. A new editor tool for generating nebula textures enables the use of procedural generation in conjunction with baked performance.

• The asset format has been reverted from UPM to the classic Assets folder package style.
• ⚠️ Important Upgrade Notice: Any previous installations of this asset must be deleted before upgrading to avoid conflicts.

⭐ NEW VFX Graph Star and Nebula Skybox - an alternative to procedural shaders, a VFX Graph effect renders stars and nebulas as particles, drawn behind all other scene objects. Comes with custom editor tools for generating nebula textures with procedural fractal patterns, giving control over the appearance of the skybox without sacrificing performance.

🌌 Classic Procedural Space Skybox Shader - built with Shader Graph with the following subgraph modules:

1. ☀️Sun: Procedural sun effect linked to the main directional light in the scene.
2. ✨Background Starfield: Densely packed stars with randomized colors and sizes.
3. 🌟Glowing Stars: Larger stars with spherical glow effects.
4. 🌌Galactic Band: A detailed Milky Way-like structure divided into outer glow, disk, and rift regions.
5. 🌫️Nebulas: Customizable vibrant nebula patterns generated by domain-warped noise.

🧩 Bake Dynamic Skybox into Static Cubemaps - custom editor tools allow for the capture of any skybox in 4K quality, for maximum performance after the perfect procedural skybox has been generated.

🎨 Modular Components

Various visual effects organized in neat subgraphs and HLSL functions for easy customization:

• HLSL modules
• Shader Graph Sub Graphs
• VFX Graph Visual Effects

If you're looking to extend this shader or build entirely new procedural shaders, use these building blocks to kickstart your development.

🛠️ Performance - targeting desktop builds, try it out for yourself with the Windows Demo

The new and improved VFX Graph skybox effect utilizes the full power of the GPU and is highly performant, with no noticeable performance impact on frame rendering time even at 4K resolutions.

The classic skybox shader can be used as a dynamic skybox at runtime, with the following performance when using all modules on an NVIDIA GTX 3060 GPU(performance can be increased by disabling modules or rendering a static skybox):

• 82 FPS average at 1080p
• 25 FPS average at 2160p

⚡ Static Skybox Rendering

For optimal performance, an included editor utility allows you to capture and render procedural skyboxes into static cubemap textures. This process significantly improves runtime performance:

• 500+ FPS average with static cubemaps.
• Maintain the visual fidelity of the dynamic procedural skybox while reducing GPU load.
• Keep the dynamic procedural sun effect with the custom Cubemap Skybox with Procedural Sun shader.

Free Samples

Check out a set of FREE skyboxes generated with this package at: Vibrant 4K Starfield Skybox Pack

Explore more procedural space assets:

Procedural Celestial Body Materials - fully dynamic 3D real-time flowing Stars, Gas Giants and Asteroid Rings.