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This first tutorial in our series on using the environment editor gives you an overview of the principles upon which it was designed, and the three key parameters which most dramatically affect the appearance of your game world: the sun, the sky, and fog.  

The concepts and benefits of a dynamic versus a static time of day are discussed in the video, and you will be shown how to create and assign environment presets.

You can also access the written version of this tutorial here, which covers the topics discussed in even more depth. 

Topics covered:

• 00:50 Generating terrain in a new level
• 01:53 The default environment preset
• 03:01 Creating a new environment preset and assigning to a level
• 05:09 Overview of the environment editor's design
• 06:06 The Curve Editor and dynamic time of day
• 06:36 Constants: Sun
• 07:11 Time of day and sun position
• 07:26 Constants vs. Variables
• 08:49 Dynamic time of day and cube maps
• 10:12 Time setting in static TOD presets
• 10:34 Creating an environment preset for static time of day
• 10:53 Learning variables by scrolling TOD
• 11:45 First steps to set up any environment preset
• 11:51 Setting the HDR color balance
• 12:50 Setting the HDR eye adaptation mode
• 13:56 Introducing the three key parameters to environmental lighting
• 14:26 Setting the brightness of the sunlight
• 17:06 Setting the sky light intensity and color
• 18:24 Fog as distance cue
• 19:49 Fog color (radial)
• 20:49 Fog density vertical range
• 21:42 Fog color (top and bottom)
• 23:14 Fog color (top) and perception of sky
• 23:59 The fog color multipliers (top and bottom)
• 24:31 How fog color (top) multiplier creates the appearance of the sky color
• 25:50 Night sky settings
• 26:59 Adding a global environment probe