sky_camera is an existing point entity available with all versions of Mapbase.

Outside of Mapbase, sky_camera is static. Once it’s been placed, the skybox can’t move. You can move the sky_camera itself through things like logic_measure_movement, but it doesn’t update the skybox. There is a trick to update the skybox by continuously removing and respawning the sky_camera, but this is a complicated workaround and usually isn’t very smooth. sky_camera is also not capable of rotating the skybox.

Moving skyboxes

In Mapbase, sky_camera has been updated to support parenting and continuous updating. There’s also a new keyvalue to use the sky_camera’s angles for actual skybox rotation rather than fog direction. Together, these changes create the ability for the skybox to move around freely relative to the world.

Multiple skyboxes

Multiple skybox support from HL2: Downfall has been added as well. If you have multiple sky_camera entities, you can assign one of them as the main one with the ‘Master’ keyvalue, and then activate one of them later using the ActivateSkybox input.

Being able to set different skyboxes between different players is not yet supported.


KeyValues

- Parent (parentname) <target_destination>
The name of the entity to move with. NOTE: sky_camera's position is normally only updated on spawn. Fire the ForceUpdate or StartUpdating inputs to update the sky_camera's position! You might also want to enable Use Angles for Sky.
- Sky Color (skycolor) <color255>
Causes the skybox to use a solid color instead of the sky texture specified in worldspawn. Blended alpha is unfortunately not supported, but an alpha of '0' disables the effect and any alpha greater than that (e.g. 255) enables the effect.
- Use Angles for Sky (use_angles_for_sky) <choices>
Uses angles for actual skybox rotation, as if the world were tilted on this entity's axis.
- Fog Max Density [0..1] (fogmaxdensity) <float>
None
- Far Z Clip Plane (farz) <float>
Clips the sky.

Flags

- [1] Master (takes priority if multiple sky_cameras exist) : 1
- [2] Continuously update position (for moving sky_cameras) : 2

Inputs

- ForceUpdate <void>
Forces the 3D skybox to update with this sky_camera's position.
- StartUpdating <void>
Begins per-tick skybox updating, which is needed if you want this sky_camera to move.
- StopUpdating <void>
Ends per-tick skybox updating if it was enabled before.
- ActivateSkybox <void>
Makes this sky_camera the active skybox.
- DeactivateSkybox <void>
Stops making this sky_camera the active skybox if it is currently the active skybox, which causes the sky to clear.
- SetFogStartDist <float>
Sets the fog start distance.
- SetFogEndDist <float>
Sets the fog end distance.
- TurnOnFog <void>
Turns the fog on.
- TurnOffFog <void>
Turns the fog off.
- SetFogColor <color255>
Sets the primary fog color.
- SetFogColorSecondary <color255>
Sets the secondary fog color.
- SetFarZ <integer>
Sets the far clip plane distance.
- SetSkyColor <color255>
Sets the sky color.
- CopyFogController <target_destination>
Copies the target fog controller's exact fog parameters.
- CopyFogControllerWithScale <target_destination>
Copies the target fog controller's exact fog parameters.
- SetScale <integer>
Sets the skybox scale.