This page contains information on using a Properties block in your ShaderLabUnity’s language for defining the structure of Shader objects. More info
See in Glossary code to define material properties for a ShaderA program that runs on the GPU. More info
See in Glossary object.
| Feature name | Universal 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 (URP) |
High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) | Custom SRP | Built-in Render Pipeline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ShaderLab: Properties block | Yes In your HLSL code, you must put per-material variables in the same CBUFFER for SRP Batcher compatibility. |
Yes In your HLSL code, you must put per-material variables in the same CBUFFER for SRP Batcher compatibility. |
Yes In your HLSL code, you must put per-material variables in the same CBUFFER for SRP Batcher compatibility. |
Yes |
| Signature | Function |
|---|---|
Properties{<Material property declaration><Material property declaration>}
|
Saves the given properties as part of the material asset, and uses the values stored in the material asset during rendering. A Properties block can contain any number of material property declarations. |
All material property declarations follow this basic format:
[optional: attribute] name("display text in Inspector", type name) = default value
The exact syntax varies by type.
This section contains information on:
The type name and the syntax for the default value depend on the type of the property.
In shader code, it is conventional to begin all property names with an underscore character. The examples on this page follow this convention.
| Type | Example syntax | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Integer | _ExampleName ("Integer display name", Integer) = 1 |
This type is backed by a real integer (unlike the legacy Int type described below, which is backed by a float). Use this instead of Int when you want to use an integer. |
| Int (legacy) | _ExampleName ("Int display name", Int) = 1 |
Note: This legacy type is backed by a float, rather than an integer. It is supported for backwards compatibility reasons only. Use the Integer type instead. |
| Float |
_ExampleName ("Float display name", Float) = 0.5_ExampleName ("Float with range", Range(0.0, 1.0)) = 0.5
|
The maximum and minimum values for the range slider are inclusive. |
| Texture2D |
_ExampleName ("Texture2D display name", 2D) = "" {}_ExampleName ("Texture2D display name", 2D) = "red" {}
|
Put the following values in the default value string to use one of Unity’s built-in textures: “white” (RGBA: 1,1,1,1), “black” (RGBA: 0,0,0,1), “gray” (RGBA: 0.5,0.5,0.5,1), “bump” (RGBA: 0.5,0.5,1,1) or “red” (RGBA: 1,0,0,1). If you leave the string empty or enter an invalid value, it defaults to “gray”. Note: these default textures are not visible in the Inspector. |
| Texture2DArray | _ExampleName ("Texture2DArray display name", 2DArray) = "" {} |
For more information, see Texture arrays. |
| Texture3D | _ExampleName ("Texture3D", 3D) = "" {} |
The default value is a “gray” (RGBA: 0.5,0.5,0.5,1) texture. |
| CubemapA collection of six square textures that can represent the reflections in an environment or the skybox drawn behind your geometry. The six squares form the faces of an imaginary cube that surrounds an object; each face represents the view along the directions of the world axes (up, down, left, right, forward and back). More info See in Glossary |
_ExampleName ("Cubemap", Cube) = "" {} |
The default value is a “gray” (RGBA: 0.5,0.5,0.5,1) texture. |
| CubemapArray | _ExampleName ("CubemapArray", CubeArray) = "" {} |
See Cubemap arrays. |
| Color | _ExampleName("Example color", Color) = (.25, .5, .5, 1) |
This maps to a float4 in your shader code. The Material Inspector displays a color picker. If you would rather edit the values as four individual floats, use the Vector type. |
| Vector | _ExampleName ("Example vector", Vector) = (.25, .5, .5, 1) |
This maps to a float4 in your shader code. The Material Inspector displays four individual float fields. If you would rather edit the values using a color picker, use the Color type. |
Unity has some reserved names for material properties. When you create a material property with one of these names, Unity performs predefined operations. Do not use these names unless you intend to use this functionality.
| Name | Example syntax | Function |
|---|---|---|
| _TransparencyLM | _TransparencyLM ("Transmissive Texture", 2D) = "white" {} |
Enables custom RGB transparency during lightmapping. For more information, see Lightmapping and shaders. |
Material property declarations can have an optional attribute that tells Unity how to handle them.
In addition to the attributes listed here, you can use the same syntax to add a MaterialPropertyDrawer to a material property. These let you control how material properties appear in the InspectorA Unity window that displays information about the currently selected GameObject, asset or project settings, allowing you to inspect and edit the values. More info
See in Glossary window.
| Attribute | Function |
|---|---|
[Gamma] |
Indicates that a float or vector property uses sRGB values, which means that it must be converted along with other sRGB values if the color space in your project requires this. For more information, see Properties in Shader Programs. |
[HDR] |
Indicates that a texture or color property uses high dynamic range (HDR) values. For texture properties, the Unity Editor displays a warning if an LDR texture is assigned. For color properties, the Unity Editor uses the HDR color picker to edit this value. |
[HideInInspector] |
Tells the Unity Editor to hide this property in the Inspector. |
[MainTexture] |
Sets the main texture for a Material, which you can access using Material.mainTexture. By default, Unity considers a texture with the property name name _MainTex as the main texture. Use this attribute if your texture has a different property name, but you want Unity to consider it the main texture.If you use this attribute more than once, Unity uses the first property and ignores subsequent ones. Note: When you set the main texture using this attribute, the texture is not visible in the Game view when you use the texture mipmap streaming debugging view mode, or a custom debug tool. |
[MainColor] |
Sets the main color for a Material, which you can access using Material.color. By default, Unity considers a color with the property name name _Color as the main color. Use this attribute if your color has a different property name, but you want Unity to consider it the main color. If you use this attribute more than once, Unity uses the first property and ignores subsequent ones. |
[NoScaleOffset] |
Tells the Unity Editor to hide tiling and offset fields for this texture property. |
[Normal] |
Indicates that a texture property expects a normal map. The Unity Editor displays a warning if you assign an incompatible texture. |
[PerRendererData] |
Indicates that a texture property will be coming from per-renderer data in the form of a MaterialPropertyBlock. The Material inspector shows these properties as read-only. |