How to create a simple sky sphere

 (by Jean-Sebastien Perron)

Brief overview

-Create a giant sphere around your scene.

-Change the parameters of the sphere so that it doesn't  throw a shadow on the scene.

-Create a material for the giant sphere, a material that does not interact with light.

Creating your scene and the giant sphere

-Create your scene

-Create a giant sphere around your scene

-In the properties of the giant sphere check "Shadow Invisible" and "No Shadow".

-That way, the sphere won't project a shadow on your scene.

Creating the material

-The surface color of the sphere should not interact with light.

-That's why you should put a complete black surface color (black color will never reveal any light).

-Then create a texture as usual and load your 360 sky texture.

-Change the output of the texture to "Illumination".

-Apply the sky material to the giant sphere (with a cylinder mapping here).