HDRI & cubemap guides
How to turn a 360-degree HDRI panorama into the cubemap or skybox a given engine or tool actually wants, and how to tell when you need six faces at all.
FOUNDATIONS
- Cubemap or equirectangular?
- Most engines accept an equirectangular HDRI directly. A few need six cubemap faces. A per-engine breakdown of which input each engine wants.
GAME ENGINES
- HDRI to Source engine skybox
- Turn an equirectangular HDRI into a Source engine skybox. The converter builds VTF face textures and VMT materials for materials/skybox/ in LDR and HDR.
- HDRI to Unity skybox
- Make a Unity skybox from an equirectangular HDRI: the Skybox/Panoramic material, the cube texture shape, and the legacy six-sided shader.
- HDRI in Unreal Engine
- Light an Unreal Engine level with an HDRI: the HDRI Backdrop plugin, a Sky Light with a specified cubemap, and the import settings that matter.
- HDRI to Godot skybox
- Use an HDRI in Godot 4: set up the sky with WorldEnvironment and PanoramaSkyMaterial, light the scene from it, and rotate it without nodes.
3D SOFTWARE
- How to use an HDRI in Blender
- Light a Blender scene with an HDRI through the World shader: setup, how to rotate the HDRI, Eevee notes, and exporting an HDR for cubemap engines.