The FPS skybox is underappreciated, so let's appreciate some

The FPS skybox is underappreciated, so let’s appreciate some | PC Gamer Skip to main content Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition UK US Canada Australia Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search PC Gamer Games Hardware News Reviews Guides Video Forum More PC Gaming Show PC Gamer Clips Software Codes Coupons Movies & TV Magazine Newsletter Affiliate links Meet the team Community guidelines About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming magTry a single issue or save on a subscriptionIssues delivered straight to your door or device From$1Subscribe now Don’t miss these FPS Marathon review: 77 hours later FPS There is nothing like Marathon’s Cryo Archive map FPS The best FPS games on PC FPS Peak extraction shooter is waiting 7 minutes and 38 seconds to kill one guy in particular FPS Marathon ignores extraction shooter ‘rules’ and is better for it Games I’m determined to turn my house into a museum with these stunning wildlife identification paintings from Holly Sweet Illustration Graphics Cards Arc Raiders is a shining beacon of hope in the darkest times of the RAMpocalypse, proving 8 GB budget graphics cards don’t have to miss out on glorious graphics Third Person Shooter Arc Raiders could one day get vehicles, but Embark says no promises: ‘We have prototypes from seven years ago’ FPS Marathon day two check-in: Into the Outpost, an overpowered shotgun, and why I love doors FPS The co-creators of Caves of Qud, our favorite roguelike fever dream, worked as narrative consultants on Marathon—which mostly meant they ‘got to sit there in the room and throw completely absurd ideas at the wall’ FPS Marathon’s Outpost is an extraction map masterclass that has me even more excited for Cryo Archive FPS Is Marathon’s time-to-kill too fast, or am I too Arc Raiders-pilled? 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Every other week, I cover topics relevant to first-person shooter enjoyers, spanning everything from multiplayer and singleplayer to the old and the new.Videogames: they’re fake. So they say, but occasionally artists do such a bang-up job that you almost forget (or don’t want to acknowledge) otherwise. When folks champion games for their artistic prowess, they tend to look down—gazing at detailed leaves, worshipping believable reflections or stretchy pores. What they do less often is look up and marvel at the wheels keeping the whole illusion on track: the skybox.The skybox is an underappreciated contributor to oh-so-coveted immersion. The exact confines of a skybox may vary by game, but they’re typically everything in the background that’s too far away to be properly modeled: mountains, hills, highways, trees, and of course, the sky. Sometimes they’re a static texture, other times they’re animated.The skybox is far from a lost art, but I sometimes worry if its best days are behind us in an age when big-budget games choose to chase photorealism. In some cases, a modern skybox is more of a collection of complex weather simulations than a cohesive composition. As the unfavorable comparison of a 2026 Call of Duty map remade from a 2012 Call of Duty map demonstrates, “realer” skyboxes do not equal better.Article continues below You may like The best FPS games on PC ‘I consider it a millennial shooter’: The FPS dev making hit shooters by leaning into ‘2007-core’ The many-boxed roadmap represents everything I hate about shooters right now Sure, that overcast sky is a dead ringer for an April afternoon on Earth, but those bright sunrays blasting through the best two-dimensional clouds an Xbox 360 could render just look way better.So let’s look at some great FPS skyboxes, old and new. This is far from an exhaustive accounting of the genre—it’s largely based on personal favorites and what I have installed—but they’re all great examples of skyboxes that aren’t only beautiful. They tell stories, provide context, establish a vibe, or leave me asking new questions about the spaces they inhabit.HaloThere’s a lot of Halo in this, so let’s get it out of the way first. Not only are the