Usefulness of Skybox tweaking when Camera clearing is set to Solid Color

[jelsayeh]

Just a question for confirmation, but am I seeing it correctly that the tweaking of our skybox here actually doesn’t do anything in the final game?

I’m very happy to have seen this in the tutorial though, definitely nice to see! But I was just wondering, as according to the documentation the background color is only used when clear flags are set to Solid Color (link) … And I’m guessing, vice versa, that the skybox is only used if the camera is set to clear with the skybox.

The “use” I can see, is that tweaking the skybox helps with also having an almost black background in the sceneview (the camera clearing only seems to happen in the gameview), so it can be nice, when working in the editor, that you get the same kind of feel.

But, just to confirm, modifying that skybox does not make a difference in the actual game here, right, since Rick is changing the clearFlags to Solid Color?

[Nina]

Hi,

If you set the clear flags to “Solid Color”, the background gets rendered with the colour you defined in the Camera component. The skybox will not be rendered.

Is this what you wanted to know?

[jelsayeh]

Yes, basically that’s what I wanted to get confirmed; so in other words, Rick spends time tweaking that skybox (creating a new skybox material and all), but that’s all “for nothing” because he then goes on and sets the clear flags to “Solid Color”, right?

Of course, in the editor our sceneview still uses that skybox so it still has its uses, but in the actual game (gameview, or if we would build that game), that new skybox material is not used at all, if I understand correctly.

[Nina]

Yes, Rick shows how to set up a skybox and how to use a “solid color” background. The skybox is still there but it is not rendered by our “Main Camera” because we changed the clear flags value. The camera does not affect the scene itself. It is just responsible for rendering things.

If you prefer the skybox over a solid coloured background, please feel free to set the clear flags value back to “Skybox”. It’s a pure matter of personal preference.

[jelsayeh]

Thanks, that confirms how I imagined it