Environment

The Environment system in YAHAHA Studio (Studio) gives creators the power to control the sky (skybox), sunlight, and post-processing of a scene.

Managing environment

To access the environment system:

1. Go to Settings Explorer and click Environment.

2. Find the Environment Properties panel that appears on the right hand.

To enable or disable the environment system, toggle Environment. To make your edits to the environment system take effect, toggle it on.

To restore the environment settings, including presets, to their default values, click the Reset button. If a preset has been officially updated after you apply it, resetting it will restore the preset to its latest version available.

Customizing environment

Environment preset

Environment presets are pre-built environment templates that include specific configurations for all environment components. Some presets also feature fog, which can add a layer of mystery and atmosphere to your scene.

Forest with no preset	Forest with the preset Aurora

Sky

The Sky pane lets you set the skybox, which determines the visual backdrop for your scene. If you disable it, the sky appears blue. Resetting the pane reverts to the default settings and presets.

Here are the properties you can edit about the sky:

Property	Description
Preset	A skybox preset. Clear the preset to remove it, leaving other settings intact. For more presets, search the Sky category in Asset Library.
Rotation	The rotation of the skybox around its y-axis, from from 0 to 360 degrees.
Color	The color of the skybox. Set the color using a color picker, or entering color values.
Exposure	Adjust the brightness of the skybox, from 0 to 1. Higher values produce brighter, more exposed skyboxes.

For example, by switching to the preset horror-4 and adjusting other sky settings, you can create a breathtaking night sky, complete with a tantalizing greenish moon:

Sunlight

Sunlight is the main light of the scene, setting the tone for shadows and mood. Even if you have another directional light in Objects Explorer with a higher intensity, sunlight is the boss and will cast shadows. If you disable the sunlight, the directional light with the highest intensity will take over as the main light, keeping the shadows in check. Resetting the Sunlight pane reverts to the default settings and presets.

Here are the properties you can edit about the sunlight:

Property	Description
Rotation	The rotation of the main light source around its x-, y-, and z-axes.
Color	The color of the main light. Set the color using a color picker, or entering color values.
Brightness	The brightness of the main light from 0 to 10. Higher values provide brighter lights.
Shadow	Toggle whether to allow the main light to cast shadows.
Shadow intensity	Set the intensity value for the shadows cast by the main light, ranging from 0 to 1. Higher values produce darker shadows.

Example sunlight result:

Post-processing

Post-processing enriches and refines the visual experience through techniques like bloom, white balance, color adjustments and atmosphere creation, such as fog and vignette. Resetting the pane reverts to the default settings and presets.

Note: To ensure the visibility of post-processing results, it is recommended to set the Studio quality to Medium or High (Preferences>General>Quality in the main menu of the Studio.

The post-processing preset is aligned with the environment preset, creating a consistent visual tone throughout the scene. For instance, choosing Aurora for the environment and Dusk for the post-processing results in a visual experience like this:

Bloom

Bloom creates a dreamy, glowing effect on bright areas in a scene. Colors seem to spill out beyond their borders, creating a soft haze that adds a vibrant, magical touch to your game environment.

To edit the bloom properties:

Property	Description
Threshold	Controls how bright a color must be before it blooms. It ranges from 0 to 5.
Intensity	Controls the intensity when it blooms. It ranges from 0 to 15.
Color	The base color applied to the post-effect. Set the color using a color picker, or entering color values.

For example, by decreasing the threshold, heightening the intensity, and enhancing the color, we get a glowing Dusk with bloom adjustment:

White balance

White balance adjusts the color temperature of an image to neutralize unrealistic colors and make things that would be white in real life appear white in the final render.

To edit white balance properties:

Property	Description
Temperature	Higher values create warmer color temperatures. Ranges from -100% to 100%.
Tint	A negative tint makes the scene greenish and a positive tint makes it magenta-looking, ranging from -100% to 100%.

Temperature and tint both at -100% and at 100%:

Color adjustments

In this pane, you adjust the overall mood, luminosity, and definition of the final image with just a few tweaks. The image can look brighter, darker, warmer, cooler, or more dramatic.

To edit the properties of color adjustments:

Property	Description
Post exposure	Exposure to apply after all other post-effects. It ranges from 0 to 5.
Contrast	The change in separation between dark and light colors. It ranges from -100% to 100%.
Color Filter	The color to tint the scene. Set the color using a color picker, or entering color values.
Hue Shift	Shift the hue of all colors. It ranges from -180 to 180.
Saturation	Push the intensity of all colors. It ranges from -100 to 100.

By adjusting the contrast value to a negative, the hue value to 180, and the saturation value to 100, we change the atmosphere of the scene drastically:

Vignette

Vignette darkens the edges of the scene, which creates a subtle framing effect and draws the viewer's eye towards the center of the image.

To adjust the vignette properties:

Property	Description
Intensity	Higher values create darker edges on the screen. It ranges from 0 to 1.
Color	Vignette color. Set the color using a color picker, or entering color values.
Smoothness	Smoothness of the vignette borders. It ranges from 0 to 1.

Lift/Gamma/Gain

In this pane, you can do some color grading.

Lift trackball	Gamma trackball	Gain trackball

To edit the properties:

Property	Description
Lift	Control the dark tones. Disabled by default. To edit, switch to On first. Click the pencil icon and use the trackball to adjust the hue of the dark tones; also, use the slider to adjust the offset of the color lightness.
Gamma	Control the mid-range tones. Click the pencil icon and use the trackball to adjust the hue of the mid-range tones; also, use the slider to adjust the offset of the color lightness.
Gain	Control the highlights. Click the pencil icon and use the trackball to adjust the hue of the hightlights; also, use the slider to adjust the offset of the color lightness.

Fog

The fog can be in a certain color, and vary in density with distance and height from the camera in a specified speed.

To edit the fog properties:

Property	Description
Color	The color of fog. Set the color using a color picker, or entering color values.
Fade height	Defines the height (in meters) in the y-axis at which the fog's density gradually decreases, from -20 (heaviest fog near the ground) to 20 (thinnest fog far above). Default: 10.
Start distance	Specify the distance in the z-axis at which the fog first appears from the camera's perspective, ranging from 0 (immediate fog) to 500 (fog visible from a distance). Default: 5.
Global density	The overall intensity and thickness of the fog from 0 (fogless) to 10 (foggy). Default: 5.
Fade speed	Determine how quickly the fog fades away, ranging from 0.01 (slow) to 0.5 (fast). Default: 0.01.

For example, by changing the fog to a blueish color with fade height at 20, start distance at 0, and global density at 1.92, you will get a scene similar to this: