Volumetric Nebula Skyboxes – 11 Fly-Through 3D Space Nebulae (URP & HDRP)

• Unity 2022.3 LTS or newer (Unity 6 with URP: enable Compatibility Mode)

• URP 14+ and HDRP 14+ in one package (each pipeline's code compiles only when that pipeline is installed)

• Windows DX11 / DX12 / Vulkan, Shader Model 5.0

• 11 nebulae, each: five 3D textures (up to 440 x 220 x 96, RGBA half) + 8K HDR star layer

• 22 demo scenes (11 URP + 11 HDRP) with a fly camera

• Nebula Volume component: Quality (Low / Medium / High / Epic), Scale x0.25 - x16, Copies 0 - 8, Animate Gas, Exposure, Draw Stars

• Ray-marched at reduced resolution with temporal accumulation; composited before transparents with correct transmittance

• 4K Medium on an RTX 3090: URP ~115 FPS, HDRP ~98 FPS (built player)

• No package dependencies besides URP or HDRP; documentation in VolumetricNebulae/Documentation/README.md

Full 4K video showcase: https://youtu.be/8nBXUqtJg_E

Truly volumetric space nebulae you can fly through – not a skybox. The gas and dust are rendered in 3D all around the camera, so you can fly into, through and around them, with natural, cinematic colours, slowly evolving gas and a deep-field star and galaxy background behind. URP and HDRP in one package.

WHAT'S INSIDE

• 11 volumetric nebulae: Olive Teal, Teal Orange, Reflection Blue, Magenta Dusk, Golden Hour, Pleiades Blue, Oxygen Teal, Hubble Gold, Violet HII, Hydrogen Red, Teal Orange Core – each a Nebula Profile with five 3D textures and an 8K star layer

• 22 demo scenes: 11 for URP and 11 for HDRP, each opening on the nebula's best view

• Nebula Volume component, URP renderer feature, HDRP custom pass

• Fly camera: WASD + E / Q, mouse look, wheel = speed, 1-4 quality, 5-8 size, B cycle size, R copies, G gas animation, N / P next / previous scene, Esc frees the cursor

• Documentation (README) with setup, settings and performance tables

FEATURES

• Fly inside: the nebula surrounds the camera 360°, with gas and dust at every depth

• Quality presets: Low, Medium, High, Epic

• Scale x0.25 to x16 – the same look and the same cost at every size

• Rotated copies: one much bigger, seamless nebula with sharp close-up detail

• Slow, natural gas animation (on by default)

• Correct compositing: objects inside the nebula are fogged naturally

• Works in the Scene view while you edit; change quality, scale, copies and animation from code (NebulaVolume.Active)

PERFORMANCE (native 4K, RTX 3090, built player, whole frame)

URP: Low ~320 FPS, Medium (default) ~115 FPS, High ~57 FPS, Epic ~32 FPS (cinematics). HDRP Medium ~98 FPS. The cost depends on resolution and quality, not on the nebula size.

SETUP

URP: Tools > Volumetric Nebulae > Setup URP Renderer (one click), then open a scene in VolumetricNebulae/URP/Scenes. HDRP: open a scene in VolumetricNebulae/HDRP/Scenes – nothing to set up. Each pipeline's code only compiles when that pipeline is installed, so the other folder stays inactive.

USE CASES

Space games and flight sims, sci-fi cinematics and trailers, menu and title screens, backdrops for space stations and planets.

Limits: very close to dense dust the clouds become soft (volume resolution); transparent objects are drawn in front of the nebula; single-pass VR / XR is not supported.