Use case

Custom skybox for Minecraft Bedrock

Replace the default overworld sky with your own 6-face cubemap. Sunset, magma, purple galaxy, starry night — anything that can be drawn on 6 PNG faces. PackAnvil ships 7 presets and an upload slot for fully custom cubemaps.

1. How Bedrock's skybox works

The overworld sky in Bedrock is a cubemap built from 6 PNGs at textures/environment/overworld_cubemap/cubemap_0..5.png. Face mapping: 0 = south (+Z), 1 = east (+X), 2 = north (-Z), 3 = west (-X), 4 = up (zenith), 5 = down (nadir). Each face is typically 128×128 — that's enough for a clean look in-game.

2. Using PackAnvil's presets

If you don't want to draw 6 PNGs yourself, pick a preset from the Sky category: clean_blue (flat PvP-friendly blue), sunset, evening, starry_night, magma, galaxy_purple, galaxy_aqua. One click applies all 6 faces. The live preview shows the cubemap unwrapped as an equirectangular projection so you can sanity-check before exporting.

3. Uploading custom cubemap PNGs

For a fully custom sky: 1. Draw 6 PNGs at 128×128 (or 256 / 512 for HD). 2. In the builder's Sky editor, drag each PNG into the matching slot (0–5). 3. The equirectangular preview will reveal seams between faces — make sure adjacent faces (e.g. east / north) line up at the edges. 4. If your sky looks mirrored (east where west should be), use the Swap E/W button — some draw tools number the faces in the opposite convention.

4. Limitations

Overworld only. The Nether uses a fog-color setting (not a cubemap) and the End uses a separate end_sky.png tile. Replacing those is a different workflow. Seamless edges: corner pixels of adjacent faces have to match exactly — otherwise you'll see hairline cracks in-game. File size: 6 faces × 256×256 PNG is fine, but going to 1024×1024 makes the pack much larger without visible benefit at typical render distances.

FAQ

Why does my sky look black in-game?: One of the 6 faces is missing or wasn't saved correctly. Bedrock falls back to black if any cubemap_*.png is absent. Double-check that all 6 slots in the builder have an image set.
Can I add moving clouds or animation?: The skybox itself doesn't animate — it's a static cubemap. Bedrock's vanilla cloud layer renders on top of your custom sky and moves normally; you can't replace clouds via the cubemap.
Does the custom skybox work in the Nether or End?: No — overworld_cubemap only affects the overworld. The Nether's color is a fog setting; the End has its own end_sky.png. PackAnvil currently supports overworld skybox only; End / Nether support is on the roadmap.

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