Procedural Sun from Space (URP)

rocedural Sun from Space is a drop-in procedural sun system for Unity URP. Add a cinematic star with an animated lava surface, glowing corona halo, ray-marched chromosphere plasma, and a tiled starfield skybox — no animation clips, sprite sheets, or video textures required.

Perfect for space games, sci-fi environments, planetarium / educational projects, cinematic trailers, and any scene that needs a believable sun at the center of a solar system.

What's included

• Lava surface — triplanar FBM shader with flowing, heat-driven detail
• Corona halo — soft rim glow around the sun disk
• Chromosphere plasma — volumetric-style plasma shell with animated spicules
• Starfield skybox — equirectangular tiled space background
• Point light — warm sun light, pre-configured for large-scale scenes
• Editor menus — one-click setup from the GameObject menu
• Runtime API — spawn and control the sun from code

Quick setup

1. Use a URP project (Unity 2021.3 LTS or newer).
2. GameObject → Shadow Space → Procedural Sun
3. GameObject → Shadow Space → Procedural Skybox
4. Add a global Volume with Bloom (recommended: intensity 0.14, scatter 0.42, threshold 0.78).
5. Press Play.

Or use Shadow Space → Setup Demo Scene to create the sun, skybox, camera rig, and controls in one step.

Customization

Everything is fully procedural and tweakable:

• Sun radius, halo falloff, and halo intensity — on the ProceduralSun component
• Lava colors — six gradient stops (dark → hot → white) via LavaColorSettings
• Plasma density, intensity, and variation — material properties or defaults in ProceduralSunResources
• Light intensity and range — adjustable on the component
• Toggle plasma and sun sphere at runtime (demo shortcuts: P and S)

Shaders are included as source — edit SunLava, SunHalo, SunChromosphere, and ProceduralSkybox to match your art direction.

Runtime API

var sun = ProceduralSun.Create();

sun.UpdateSun(Time.time, Camera.main);

sun.Radius = 10.752f;

sun.SetChromosphereVisible(true);

ProceduralSkybox.Create(ProceduralSunResources.SpaceboxTexture);

Requirements

• Unity 2021.3 LTS or newer
• Universal Render Pipeline (URP) 12+
• URP only — not compatible with Built-in RP or HDRP
• Bloom on a global Volume is recommended for the best corona and plasma look

Support

Questions or issues: shadow.space.box@gmail.com