---
title: "Atmospheric environments"
package: "@phaser-ae/backdrop-environments"
tier: Pro
version: 3.0.0-4
released: 2026-10-14
updated: 2026-10-20
description: "Thirteen art-directed 2D backgrounds, each one shader pass, from a starlit night and an aurora to a sandstorm, underwater light and a lightning storm."
url: https://phaser.io/packs/backdrop-environments
site: Phaser - https://phaser.io
---

# Atmospheric environments

Thirteen complete backgrounds, each one shader pass with a coordinated palette and gentle motion: night, aurora,
nebula, sunset, volcanic ash, underwater, fog, sandstorm, moonlit clouds, a lightning storm, high altitude, dawn and a
polar sky. One call gives a level its whole atmosphere.

## What it does

Each scene is a backdrop registered under a name with the `environment-` prefix: `environment-night`,
`environment-lightning`, `environment-glacier` and so on. Add one and it fills the screen with a sky graded from the
upper colour to the horizon colour, the scene's own detail, and, in most scenes, three layers of craggy, opaque
mountain ridges. The detail moves in its own way: cloud fields evolve as they travel, aurora folds brighten and change
colour, light shafts sway underwater, mist banks roll, and rain falls through the storm.

The scenes share one set of controls, so a menu or an editor can drive them all the same way, and
`ENVIRONMENT_BACKDROPS` exports each recipe's name, description and default tables for a picker or a reset button. In
the scenes that have a sun or moon, `bodyX` and `bodyY` place the disc and its halo, and it stays round when the screen
is resized. Ridges and stars take a small camera parallax; the sky itself is pinned to the screen.

Everything happens in the shader. There are no particles, no scene objects and no CPU updates, so the background adds
nothing to the game's object count or update loop.

## Features

- **Thirteen scenes** — night, aurora, nebula, sunset, volcanic, underwater, fog, sandstorm, moonlit, lightning,
  altitude, dawn and glacier.
- **Shared controls** — `scale`, `intensity`, `speed`, `detail`, `horizon` and `silhouettes`, all live.
- **Layered ridges** — three opaque mountain layers with irregular peaks; `silhouettes` lightens them with haze or
  hides them at 0.
- **A sun or moon you place** — `bodyX` and `bodyY` in the night, sunset, sandstorm, moonlit, dawn and glacier scenes.
- **Star quantity** — the night, aurora, nebula and moonlit scenes add stars without moving or enlarging the ones
  already there.
- **Branching lightning** — a continuous main bolt and branches that flash about every 6.7 seconds at default speed,
  over rain veils.
- **Two live colours** — `primary` for the horizon and the light, `secondary` for the upper sky and shadow.
- **Recipe data** — `ENVIRONMENT_BACKDROPS` for menus and preset resets.
- **WebGPU and WebGL2** — through the shared backdrop runtime.

## Good for

- **Platformers and adventures** — a different atmosphere for each world: glacier, volcano, desert, sea floor.
- **Title screens** — a finished scene in one call.
- **Arcade backgrounds** — a stylised sky that does not distract from play.
- **Changes of weather or time** — a dawn swapped for a storm by removing one handle and adding the next.
- **Underwater levels** — light shafts, caustics and drifting flecks.

## Make it yours

Every scene takes the same six controls and two colours, the star scenes take `starQuantity` too, and the sun and moon
scenes take `bodyX` and `bodyY`. A calm night for a stealth level is `environment-night` with the moon moved high to one
side and more stars. A desert boss fight is `environment-sandstorm` with `speed` and `detail` raised, the sun low, and
the palette pushed toward red. To change scene, remove the old handle, add the new one, and start from the recipe's own
colours rather than carrying one palette into the next scene.

## A quick look

A storm with its detail and ridges set, then softened live:

```ts
const sky = game.backdrop.add('environment-lightning',
    { speed: 1, detail: 0.8, silhouettes: 1 },
    { primary: '#8cacc6', secondary: '#25344c' });
sky.set('detail', 0.5);
sky.setColor('primary', '#acb8cf');
```

## Works with

- `backdrops` — the runtime; required.
- `render-auto` — picks WebGPU or WebGL2; both are supported.
- `backdrop-stars`, `backdrop-aurora`, `backdrop-nebula` and `backdrop-sunset` — single-look layers, for building a
  stack by hand.
- `skymax` — for physically lit volumetric clouds instead, on WebGPU.

## Good to know

- These are stylised shader scenes, not weather simulations: the rain and lightning are painted, not particles a game
  can react to.
- Each scene is opaque and fills the screen.
- Underwater, nebula and altitude have no ridges, and `bodyX` and `bodyY` do nothing in scenes without a sun or moon.
- Setting `detail` to 0 also removes the lightning highlights.

---

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