Mesh Renderer component reference

A MeshThe main graphics primitive of Unity. Meshes make up a large part of your 3D worlds. Unity supports triangulated or Quadrangulated polygon meshes. Nurbs, Nurms, Subdiv surfaces must be converted to polygons. More info
See in Glossary Renderer component renders a mesh. It works with a Mesh FilterA mesh component that takes a mesh from your assets and passes it to the Mesh Renderer for rendering on the screen. More info
See in Glossary component on the same 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; the Mesh Renderer renders the mesh that the Mesh Filter references.

To render a deformable mesh, use a Skinned Mesh Renderer instead.

In C# code, the MeshRenderer class represents a Mesh Renderer component. The MeshRenderer class inherits much of its functionality from the Renderer class. As such, this component has a lot in common with other components that inherit from Renderer, such as Line RendererA component that takes an array of two or more points in 3D space and draws a straight line between each one. You can use a single Line Renderer component to draw anything from a simple straight line to a complex spiral. More info
See in Glossary, and Trail RendererA visual effect that lets you to make trails behind GameObjects in the Scene as they move. More info
See in Glossary.

Mesh Renderer Inspector reference

MaterialsAn asset that defines how a surface should be rendered. More info
See in Glossary
Lighting
Lightmapping
Probes
Ray TracingThe process of generating an image by tracing out rays from the Camera through each pixel and recording the color contribution at the hit point. This is an alternative to rasterization. raytracing
See in Glossary
Additional Settings

Materials

The Materials section lists all the materials that this component uses.

Property	Description
Size	The number of elements in the material list. If you decrease the number of elements, Unity deletes the elements at the end of the list. If you increase the number of elements, Unity adds new elements to the end of the list. Unity populates new elements with the same material that the element at the end of the list uses.
Element	The materials in the list. You can assign a material asset to each element. By default, Unity orders the list alphabetically based on the name of the materials. This list is reorderable, and Unity updates the number of the elements automatically as you change their order.

Note: If there are more materials than there are sub-meshes, Unity renders the last sub-mesh with each of the remaining materials, one on top of the next. If the materials are not fully opaque, you can layer different materials and create interesting visual effects. However, fully opaque materials overwrite previous layers, so any additional opaque materials that Unity applies to the last sub-mesh negatively affect performance and produce no benefit.

Lighting

The Lighting section contains properties that relate to lighting.

Property		Description
Cast Shadows		Specify if and how this Renderer casts shadows when a suitable Light shines on it. This property corresponds to the Renderer.shadowCastingMode API.
	On	This Renderer casts a shadow when a shadow-casting Light shines on it.
	Off	This Renderer does not cast shadows.
	Two-sided	This Renderer casts two-sided shadows. This means that single-sided objects like a plane or a quad can cast shadows, even if the light source is behind the mesh. For Baked Global Illumination or Enlighten Realtime Global Illumination to support two-sided shadows, the material must support Double Sided Global Illumination.
	Shadows Only	This Renderer casts shadows, but the Renderer itself isn’t visible.
Receive Shadows		Specify if Unity displays shadows cast onto this Renderer. This property only has an effect if you enable Baked Global Illumination or Enlighten Realtime Global Illumination for this scene. This property corresponds to the Renderer.receiveShadows API.
Contribute Global Illumination		Include this Renderer in global illumination calculations, which take place at bake time. This property only has an effect if you enable Baked Global Illumination or Enlighten Realtime Global Illumination for this scene. Enabling this property enables the Contribute GI flag in the GameObject’s Static Editor Flags. It corresponds to the StaticEditorFlags.ContributeGI API.
Receive Global Illumination		Whether Unity provides global illumination data to this Renderer from baked lightmaps, or from runtime Light Probes. This property is only editable if you enable Contribute Global Illumination. It only has an effect if you enable Baked Global Illumination or Enlighten Realtime Global Illumination for this scene. This property corresponds to the MeshRenderer.receiveGI API.
	Lightmaps	Unity provides global illumination data to this Renderer from lightmaps.
	Light Probes	Unity provides global illumination data to this Renderer from Light ProbesLight probes store information about how light passes through space in your scene. A collection of light probes arranged within a given space can improve lighting on moving objects and static LOD scenery within that space. More info See in Glossary in the scene.
Prioritize Illumination		Enable this property to always include this Renderer in Enlighten Realtime Global Illumination calculations. This ensures that the Renderer is affected by distant emissives, even those which are normally excluded from Global Illumination calculations for performance reasons. This property is visible only if Contribute GI is enabled in the GameObject’s Static Editor Flags, your project uses the Built-in Render Pipeline, and Enlighten Realtime Global Illumination is enabled in your scene.

Lightmapping

The Lightmapping section contains properties relating to baked and real-time lightmapsA pre-rendered texture that contains the effects of light sources on static objects in the scene. Lightmaps are overlaid on top of scene geometry to create the effect of lighting. More info
See in Glossary.

This section is visible only if only if Receive Global IlluminationA group of techniques that model both direct and indirect lighting to provide realistic lighting results.
See in Glossary is set to Lightmaps.

Property:	Function:
Scale in Lightmap	Specify the relative size of the Renderer’s UVs within a lightmap. A value of 0 results in the Renderer not being lightmapped, but it still contributes to lighting other Renderers in the Scene. A value greater than 1.0 increases the number of pixels (the lightmap resolution) used for this Renderer, while a value less than 1.0 decreases it. You can use this property to optimize lightmaps so that important and detailed areas are more accurately lit. For example, an isolated building with flat, dark walls uses a low lightmap scale (less than 1.0) while a collection of colourful motorcycles displayed close together requires a high scale value. This property corresponds to the MeshRenderer.scaleInLightmap API.
Stitch Seams	Enable Lightmap seam stitching for this Renderer. This property corresponds to the MeshRenderer.stitchLightmapSeams API.
Lightmap Parameters	Choose or create a Lightmap Parameters asset for this Renderer.
Optimize Realtime UVs	Determine whether Unity merges the real-time lightmap UVs for this Renderer. This property is visible only if your Project uses the Built-in Render Pipeline, and Enlighten Realtime Global Illumination is enabled in your scene.
Max Distance	Specify the maximum worldspace distance for UV chart simplification in real-time lightmaps. If charts are within this distance, Unity simplifies them. This property is visible only if your Project uses the Built-in Render Pipeline, and Enlighten Realtime Global Illumination is enabled in your scene.
Max Angle	Specify the maximum angle in degrees between faces sharing a UV edge in real-time lightmaps. If the angle between the faces is below this value, Unity simplifies the UV charts. This property is visible only if your Project uses the Built-in Render Pipeline, and Enlighten Realtime Global Illumination is enabled in your scene.
Ignore Normals	Enable this option to prevent Unity from splitting the UV charts in real-time lightmaps. This property is visible only if your Project uses the Built-in Render Pipeline, and Enlighten Realtime Global Illumination is enabled in your scene.
Min Chart Size	Specify the minimum texel size used for a UV chart in real-time lightmaps. If stitching is required, a value of 4 creates a chart of 4x4 texels to store lighting and directionality. If stitching is not required, a value of 2 reduces the texel density and provides better lighting build times and game performance. This property is visible only if your Project uses the Built-in Render Pipeline, and Enlighten Realtime Global Illumination is enabled in your scene.

When you’ve baked your lighting data (menu: Window > Rendering > Lighting > Generate Lighting ), this section also shows the baked lightmaps and real-time lightmaps in the current scene that this Renderer uses.

Example of lightmaps that appear in your Scene after baking.

Probes

The Probes section contains properties relating to Light Probe and 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.

Property		Description
Light Probes		Set how this Renderer receives light from the Light Probes system. This property corresponds to the Renderer.lightProbeUsage API.
	Off	The Renderer doesn’t use any interpolated Light Probes.
	Blend Probes	The Renderer uses one interpolated Light Probe. This is the default value.
	Use Proxy Volume	The Renderer uses a 3D grid of interpolated Light Probes.
	Custom Provided	The Renderer extracts Light Probe shader uniform values from the MaterialPropertyBlock.
Proxy Volume Override		Set a reference to another GameObject that has a Light Probe Proxy Volume component. This property is only visible when Light Probes is set to Use Proxy Volume.
Reflection Probes		Set how the Renderer receives reflections from the Reflection Probe system. This property corresponds to the Renderer.probeAnchor API.
	Off	Disables Reflection Probes. Unity uses a skybox for reflection.
	Blend Probes	Enables Reflection Probes. Blending occurs only between Reflection Probes. This is useful in indoor environments where the character may transition between areas with different lighting settings.
	Blend Probes and Skybox	Enables Reflection Probes. Blending occurs between Reflection Probes, or between Reflection Probes and the default reflection. This is useful for outdoor environments.
	Simple	Enables Reflection Probes, but no blending occurs between Reflection Probes when there are two overlapping volumes.
Anchor Override		Set the Transform that Unity uses to determine the interpolation position when using the Light Probe or Reflection Probe systems. By default, this is the centre of the bounding box of the Renderer’s geometry. This property corresponds to the Renderer.probeAnchor API.

Ray Tracing

The Ray Tracing section contains properties that relate to ray tracing effects.

This section only appears if your graphics card supports ray tracing and you upgrade your project to use DirectX 12 in the Player settings window.

These properties have no effect unless you configure your project in one of the following ways:

You use the High Definition 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 (HDRP) and enable ray tracing.
You write your own C# script to implement ray tracing effects with RayTracingShader and RayTracingAccelerationStructure.

Property:		Function:
Ray Tracing Mode		Specify if and how often Unity updates this Renderer during ray tracing. More frequent updates increase rendering time.
	Off	Unity excludes this Renderer from ray tracing calculations. This option causes the Renderer to not appear in ray-traced reflections, for example.
	Static	Unity doesn’t update the ray tracing acceleration structure if the GameObject’s Transform or mesh geometry changes. This means ray tracing effects don’t change at runtime.
	Dynamic Transform	Unity updates the ray tracing acceleration structure if the GameObject’s Transform changes, but not if the mesh geometry changes. This is the default value for a Mesh Renderer. If your project uses HDRP, this setting is the same as Dynamic Geometry because HDRP rebuilds the acceleration structure every frame.
	Dynamic Geometry	Unity updates the ray tracing acceleration structure every frame with the GameObject’s Transform and mesh geometry. This is the default value for a Skinned Mesh Renderer.
Procedural Geometry		Causes Unity to render this Renderer procedurally with an intersection shaderA program that runs on the GPU. More info See in Glossary rather than with the mesh in the Mesh Filter component.
Acceleration Structure Build Flags		Specifies whether this Renderer overrides the default build flags you specify when you create a ray tracing acceleration structure.

Additional Settings

The Additional Settings section contains additional properties.

Property		Description
Motion Vectors		Set whether to use motion vectors to track this Renderer’s per-pixel, screen-space motion from one frame to the next. You can use this information to apply post-processing effects such as motion blur. Note: not all platforms support motion vectors. See SystemInfo.supportsMotionVectors for more information. This property corresponds to the Renderer.motionVectorGenerationMode API.
	Camera Motion Only	Use only Camera movement to track motion.
	Per Object Motion	Use a specific pass to track motion for this Renderer.
	Force No Motion	Do not track motion.
Dynamic Occlusion		When Dynamic Occlusion is enabled, Unity’s occlusion cullingA process that disables rendering GameObjects that are hidden (occluded) from the view of the camera. More info See in Glossary system culls this Renderer when it is blocked from a Camera’s view by a Static Occluder. Otherwise, the system does not cull this Renderer when it is blocked from a Camera’s view by a Static Occluder. Dynamic Occlusion is enabled by default. Disable it for effects such as drawing the outline of a character behind a wall.

MeshRenderer

Mesh components reference

Skinned Mesh Renderer component reference