Half-Life 2 - List of Skies
This is a list of skies available in the Steam caches, along with pictures of each skybox. The light_environment settings listed (Ideal Sun Angle, Ideal Brightness, etc) are suggestions based on settings used in official maps; other values may also be appropriate. To test skies in singleplayer without recompiling the map, bring up the console and enter sv_skyname <sky_name>. Quicksave the game, load it again and the old skybox should be temporarily replaced with the new one.
These skyboxes are available to Half-Life 2 and most games and mods using
Source 2013, the
Orange Box branch, and earlier branches.





These skies are HDR capable if mapping for games that support it. HDR skyboxes is only available with Source 2007 (
)/
Source 2009 (
) and later.

The table below explains the prefixes used in map filenames.
Prefix | Location |
---|---|
d1_trainstation |
City 17 before the teleporter accident |
d1_canals |
Route Kanal & Water Hazard |
d1_eli |
Black Mesa East |
d1_town |
Ravenholm |
d2_coast |
Highway 17 |
d2_prison |
Nova Prospekt |
d3_c17 |
City 17 after the Nova Prospekt explosion |
d3_citadel , d3_breen |
The Citadel |
background |
Menu Background Maps |
sdk |
Example maps bundled with Source SDK |
Only outdoor maps that have both skyboxes and light_environments are referenced by this list.
Environment articles: | |
---|---|
Skies and environment maps | ![]() |
Terrain and displacement mapping | Displacements • Creating Holes in Displacements • Digital Elevation Models • Creating custom terrain with Worldmachine |
See Also
- List of Skyboxes
- Download all Half-Life 2 skyboxesWhy?: Any user can download Source SDK Base 2013 Single/Multiplayer and get these themselves; is this link really beneficial?