Godot Skybox with Space Engine
Licensing: Please see the Space Engine site for information on licensing. I believe that by buying the basic Space Engine you do NOT acquire a license to use exported images.
However, you also can only export very low rez skybox images that look pretty crappy, so for testing and development I am just using them for now.
To obtain a license to use these images in your work and the ability to export high resolution images look for and buy the "SpaceEngine PRO" license.
Export Skybox from Space Engine
- Find a spot in the Universe where you like the view.
- Tick things off/on that you don't want to see like labels or galaxies or whatever.
- Escape to the main menu and select:
- Tools, then
- Export skybox
- Note that you are still "in the engine" now so you can still move the view around and tick features on and off.
- Turn OFF "Identify faces" as you don't want that text in the image.
- Export
Space engine will just put the files in this folder, overwriting the last save:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SpaceEngine\export
Convert the Cubemap to a "Panorama"
As per the Godot documentation it uses a "equirectangular sky map" instead of a cube map and you can use this tool to convert it:
https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/classes/class_panoramaskymaterial.html#class-panoramaskymaterial
Upload each segment form the folder. The names of the files should make it clear which one goes where.
Set the rotation to 0 for ALL segments.
use the "Update" button to update the image.
![](/img/user/attachments/Pasted image 20231227142414.png)
When you are done use "Download(save) result" to get the file for Godot.
Copy this saved file into your Godot project somewhere.
Set up a Skybox in Godot
-
Add a "WorldEnvironment" to your scene
-
Add a "New Environment" to it
![](/img/user/attachments/Pasted image 20231227142617.png) -
Click on the Environment and under Background -> Mode select "Sky"
![](/img/user/attachments/Pasted image 20231227142733.png)- Open up the "Sky" drop down now and click on
<empty>
and add a new Sky
![](/img/user/attachments/Pasted image 20231227142839.png)
- Open up the "Sky" drop down now and click on
-
Click on "Sky" to make it open up and click on
<empty>
underneath next to "Sky Material" and select "New PanoramaSkyMaterial"
![](/img/user/attachments/Pasted image 20231227143141.png) -
Click on "PanoramaSkyMaterial" to make it open up so that you see
<empty>
next to "Panorama" -
Drag the file panorama image file you saved from the web site earlier onto this box.
![](/img/user/attachments/Pasted image 20231227143546.png)
Now it should look something like this and you will see the exported background from Space Engine in your editor.
![](/img/user/attachments/Pasted image 20231227143655.png)