Unity’s 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 supports different rendering paths. A rendering path is a series of operations related to lighting and shading. Different rendering paths have different capabilities and performance characteristics. Deciding on which rendering path is most suitable for your Project depends on the type of Project, and on the target hardware.
You can choose the rendering path that your Project uses in the Graphics window, and you can override that path for each CameraA component which creates an image of a particular viewpoint in your scene. The output is either drawn to the screen or captured as a texture. More info
See in Glossary.
If the GPU on the device running your Project does not support the rendering path that you have selected, Unity automatically uses a lower fidelity rendering path. For example, on a GPU that does not handle Deferred ShadingA rendering path in the Built-in Render Pipeline that places no limit on the number of Lights that can affect a GameObject. All Lights are evaluated per-pixel, which means that they all interact correctly with normal maps and so on. Additionally, all Lights can have cookies and shadows. More info
See in Glossary, Unity uses 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.
| Deferred | Forward | Vertex Lit | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Features | |||
| Per-pixel lighting (normal maps, light cookies) | Yes | Yes | - |
| Real-time shadows | Yes | With caveats | - |
| Reflection ProbesA rendering component that captures a spherical view of its surroundings in all directions, rather like a camera. The captured image is then stored as a Cubemap that can be used by objects with reflective materials. More info See in Glossary |
Yes | Yes | - |
| Depth & Normal Buffers | Yes | Additional render passes | - |
| Soft ParticlesParticles that create semi-transparent effects like smoke, fog or fire. Soft particles fade out as they approach an opaque object, to prevent intersections with the geometry. More info See in Glossary |
Yes | - | - |
| Semi-transparent objects | - | Yes | Yes |
| Anti-Aliasing | - | Yes | Yes |
| Light Culling MasksAllows you to include or omit objects to be rendered by a Camera, by Layer. See in Glossary |
Limited | Yes | Yes |
| Lighting Fidelity | All per-pixel | Some per-pixel | All per-vertex |
| Performance | |||
| Cost of a per-pixel Light | Number of pixelsThe smallest unit in a computer image. Pixel size depends on your screen resolution. Pixel lighting is calculated at every screen pixel. More info See in Glossary it illuminates |
Number of pixels * Number of objects it illuminates | - |
| Number of times objects are normally rendered | 1 | Number of per-pixel lights | 1 |
| Overhead for simple ScenesA 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 |
High | None | None |
| Platform Support | |||
| PC (Windows/Mac) | ShaderA program that runs on the GPU. More info See in Glossary Model 3.0+ & MRT |
All | All |
| Mobile (iOS/Android) | OpenGL ES 3.0 & MRT, Metal | All | All |
| Consoles | XB1, PS4 | All | - |