Troubleshooting

This section addresses common problems that can arise when using Unity. Each platform is dealt with separately below.

Platform-specific troubleshooting

Geforce 7300GT on OSX 10.6.4

Deferred renderingThe process of drawing graphics to the screen (or to a render texture). By default, the main camera in Unity renders its view to the screen. More info
See in Glossary is disabled because materials are not displayed correctly for Geforce 7300GT on OX 10.6.4; This happens because of buggy video drivers.

On Windows x64, Unity crashes when script throws a NullReferenceException

You need to apply Windows hotfix #976038.

Script editing

Script opens in default system text editor, even when Visual Studio is set as the script editor

This happens when Visual Studio reports that it failed to open your script. The most common cause for this is an external plugin (such as Resharper) displaying a dialog at startup, requesting input from the user. This causes Visual Studio to report that it failed to open.

Graphics

Slow framerate and/or visual artifacts

This may occur if your video card drivers are not up to date. Make sure you have the latest official drivers from your card vendor.

Shadows

• Shadows require certain graphics hardware support. See Light Performance page for details.
• Make sure shadows are enabled in the Quality window.
• Shadows on Android and iOSApple’s mobile operating system. More info
  See in Glossary have limitations: soft shadows are not available, and in forward renderingA rendering path that renders each object in one or more passes, depending on lights that affect the object. Lights themselves are also treated differently by Forward Rendering, depending on their settings and intensity. More info
  See in Glossary path only a single directional light can cast shadows. There is no limit to the number of lights casting shadows in the deferred rendering pathThe technique Unity uses to render graphics. Choosing a different path affects the performance of your game, and how lighting and shading are calculated. Some paths are more suited to different platforms and hardware than others. More info
  See in Glossary.

Some GameObjects do not cast or receive shadows

An object’s Renderer must have Receive Shadows enabled for shadows to be rendered onto it. Also, an object must have Cast Shadows enabled in order to cast shadows on other objects (both are on by default).

Only opaque objects cast and receive shadows. This means that objects using the built-in Transparent or Particle shaders will not cast shadows. In most cases it is possible to use Transparent Cutout shaders for objects like fences, vegetation, etc. If you use custom written ShadersA small script that contains the mathematical calculations and algorithms for calculating the Color of each pixel rendered, based on the lighting input and the Material configuration. More info
See in Glossary, they have to be pixel-lit and use the Geometry render queue. Objects using VertexLit shaders do not receive shadows but are able to cast them.

Only Pixel lights cast shadows. If you want to make sure that a light always casts shadows no matter how many other lights are in the sceneA Scene contains the environments and menus of your game. Think of each unique Scene file as a unique level. In each Scene, you place your environments, obstacles, and decorations, essentially designing and building your game in pieces. More info
See in Glossary, then you can set it to Force Pixel render mode (see the Light reference page).