# Tutorial #6: Adding Skies Adding a sky is easy, though this subject has been the scourge of many a beginning mapper. The problem is having to un-learn what you learned when mapping Quake 1 and Doom levels. Use the screenshot below and follow these directions: 1. Cut a hole for a window in one of the walls of the square room. 2. Re-shape the cutting brush to plug the hole so it looks like the red highlighted brush here. 3. With the brush selected, find the sky texture (it’s in most of the Q2 levels) and click on it to apply. Fig. 2 below shows the brush in the 3D preview window with the sky now applied. Figure 2: Brush now has sky texture The final step is going into the worldspawn and defining the sky. Press the N key. A dialog will appear showing all the entities (remember that entity begins with the "n" sound). Scroll down to the very bottom, where you’ll see worldspawn. Click once on it. Now define "sky" and the choice of sky you want to use. (unit0_ thru unit9_ and space1) are your choices. See figure 3.
Figure 3: The Entity Dialog showing how to set the sky key in worldspawn
Press N once again to close the entity dialog. Now compile and run your map. The screenshot below shows the rendered scene with your new sky. This is by no means the end of how to apply skies. Sky boxes will be looked at in the next tutorial, and the subject of sunlight is covered in a discussion devoted to light.
Copyright 1999, by Terry DeLaney. Permission is granted to distribute this file as long as the author receives credit.