Configuring Flare elements

Learn how Unity manages elements on a Flare asset, and compare texture layout options.

A Flare consists of multiple Elements, arranged along a line. The line is calculated by comparing the position of the 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 containing the Lens Flare to the center of the screen. The line extends beyond the containing GameObject and the screen center. All Flare Elements are strung out on this line.

For performance reasons, all Elements of one Flare must share the same Texture. This Texture contains a collection of the different images that are available as Elements in a single Flare. The Texture Layout defines how the Elements are laid out in the Flare Texture. If you use many different Flare assets, using a shared single Flare Texture that contains all the Elements will give you best rendering performance.

Lens Flares are blocked by CollidersAn invisible shape that is used to handle physical collisions for an object. A collider doesn’t need to be exactly the same shape as the object’s mesh - a rough approximation is often more efficient and indistinguishable in gameplay. More info
See in Glossary. A Collider in-between the Flare GameObject and the 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 will hide the Flare, even if the Collider does not have a Mesh RendererA mesh component that takes the geometry from the Mesh Filter and renders it at the position defined by the object’s Transform component. More info
See in Glossary. If the in-between Collider is marked as Trigger it will block the flare if and only if Physics.queriesHitTriggers is true.

To override the shaderA program that runs on the GPU. More info
See in Glossary used for Flares, open the Graphics window and set Lens FlaresA component that simulates the effect of lights refracting inside a camera lens. Use a Lens Flare to represent very bright lights or add atmosphere to your scene. More info
See in Glossary to the shader that you would like to use as the override.

Understand texture layouts

These are the options you have for different Flare Texture Layouts. The numbers in the images correspond to the Image Index property for each Element.

1 Large 4 Small

Designed for large sun-style Flares where you need one of the Elements to have a higher fidelity than the others. This is designed to be used with Textures that are twice as high as they are wide.

1 Large 2 Medium 8 Small

Designed for complex flares that require 1 high-definition, 2 medium and 8 small images. This is used in the standard assets “50mm Zoom Flare” where the two medium Elements are the rainbow-colored circles. This is designed to be used with textures that are twice as high as they are wide.

1 Texture

A single image.

2x2 grid

A simple 2x2 grid.

3x3 grid

A simple 3x3 grid.

4x4 grid

A simple 4x4 grid.

Flare