Free HDRI Skies

An HDRI is the fastest lighting upgrade available to a 3D scene, because it gives you the sky, the ambient light, and the reflections from a single file. Poly Haven's sky collection is CC0 and available from 1K up to 16K, and 1K or 2K is the right choice for anything running in a browser. The higher resolutions only pay off if the sky itself is visible behind your geometry.

Everything here is free to download from the source site. These results come from Poly Haven, AmbientCG. Licences vary by file and are shown on each card. Nothing is hosted by us, and every link goes to the original page so you get the current version and the real licence terms.

Aristea Wreck (Pure Sky)Poly Haven · Greg Zaal, Jarod GuestCC0Autumn Field (Pure Sky)Poly Haven · Jarod Guest, Sergej MajborodaCC0Belfast Sunset (Pure Sky)Poly Haven · Greg Zaal, Dimitrios Savva, Jarod GuestCC0Citrus Orchard (Pure Sky)Poly Haven · Dimitrios Savva, Jarod GuestCC0Citrus Orchard Road (Pure Sky)Poly Haven · Dimitrios Savva, Jarod GuestCC0Drackenstein Quarry (Pure Sky)Poly Haven · Andreas Mischok, Jarod GuestCC0Drakensberg Solitary Mountain (Pure Sky)Poly Haven · Dimitrios Savva, Jarod GuestCC0Evening Road 01 (Pure Sky)Poly Haven · Jarod Guest, Sergej MajborodaCC0Farm Field (Pure Sky)Poly Haven · Dimitrios Savva, Jarod GuestCC0Hausdorf Clear SkyPoly Haven · Grzegorz WronkowskiCC0Hilly Terrain 01 (Pure Sky)Poly Haven · Jarod Guest, Sergej MajborodaCC0Homecoming Center RooftopPoly Haven · Dario BarresiCC0Hotel Rooftop BalconyPoly Haven · Dimitrios Savva, Jarod GuestCC0Industrial Sunset 02 (Pure Sky)Poly Haven · Jarod Guest, Sergej MajborodaCC0Day Sky HDRI 067 BAmbientCGCC0Day Sky HDRI 066 BAmbientCGCC0Day Sky HDRI 065 BAmbientCGCC0Day Sky HDRI 063 BAmbientCGCC0Day Sky HDRI 066 AAmbientCGCC0Night Sky HDRI 003AmbientCGCC0Day Sky HDRI 067 AAmbientCGCC0Day Sky HDRI 065 AAmbientCGCC0Night Sky HDRI 008AmbientCGCC0Day Environment HDRI 111AmbientCGCC0Day Sky HDRI 059 AAmbientCGCC0Day Sky HDRI 015 AAmbientCGCC0Night Sky HDRI 001AmbientCGCC0Day Sky HDRI 064 BAmbientCGCC0

Search all HDRIs in the live asset library →

Using an HDRI in a game

An HDRI is an equirectangular image with brightness values well above white, which is what lets it act as a light source instead of just a backdrop. Every major web engine can load one as an environment map, and doing so gives you ambient lighting and reflections in a single step.

Resolution should be chosen for the job. If the sky is never visible, 1K is plenty, since you're only using it for light and reflection. If the player can look up, 2K or 4K is worth the download. The 8K and 16K versions are for offline rendering.

If you want a sky that doesn't exist in any library, the skybox generator makes a 360° environment from a text description.

Licences, briefly

CC0 means public domain: use it commercially, modify it, ship it, no credit required. That covers everything from Kenney, Quaternius, KayKit, Poly Haven, and AmbientCG.

Freesound and OpenGameArt host a mix. Some files are CC0, others are CC-BY (credit required) or CC-BY-SA (credit required and derivatives must carry the same licence, which is a real constraint on a commercial game). The licence is set per file by whoever uploaded it, so check the source page before you ship.

The complete guide to game asset licences covers what each one actually requires and where teams usually get it wrong.

More free HDRIs

Free Sunset and Golden Hour HDRIs · Free Studio HDRIs · Free Night and Dusk HDRIs

Or search every source at once, and see the complete guide to free game assets for the full picture on where this art comes from and how to use it.