Shaders and the Ambient-Occlusion folder

Trees you create using Tree Editor must use the Nature/Soft Occlusion Leaves and Nature/Soft Occlusion Bark shadersA program that runs on the GPU. More info
See in Glossary.

To use these shaders, you must place your trees in a folder named Ambient-Occlusion. The trees don’t render correctly if the shaders are in a different folder.

To place trees in the Ambient-Occlusion folder:

1. In the Project window, select the Assets folder.
2. Select Add (+) > Folder.
3. Give the folder the name Ambient-Occlusion.
4. Move the tree prefabAn asset type that allows you to store a GameObject complete with components and properties. The prefab acts as a template from which you can create new object instances in the scene. More info
   See in Glossary (Tree.prefab) and its texture folder (Tree_Textures) into the Ambient-Occlusion folder. These objects were created when you added a Tree GameObjectThe fundamental object in Unity scenes, which can represent characters, props, scenery, cameras, waypoints, and more. A GameObject’s functionality is defined by the Components attached to it. More info
   See in Glossary to your 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.

Note: The dependency on these shaders means you can only use Tree Editor trees with the Built-In Render PipelineA series of operations that take the contents of a Scene, and displays them on a screen. Unity lets you choose from pre-built render pipelines, or write your own. More info
See in Glossary. If you’re using the Universal Render Pipeline (URP) or High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP), you can import trees from SpeedTree.

Additional resources

• Tree level of detail (LOD)
• Tree Hierarchy view UI reference
• Root node reference
• Branch group reference
• Leaf group reference
• Terrain Settings reference