A 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 takes the objects in a 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 and displays them on-screen.
A render pipeline follows these steps:
A render pipeline repeats these steps each time Unity generates a new frame.
In Unity, you can choose between different render pipelines. Unity provides three prebuilt render pipelines with different capabilities and performance characteristics, or you can create your own.
The Universal Render Pipeline (URP) is a Scriptable Render Pipeline that you can customize. It lets you create scalable graphics across a wide range of platforms.
The High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) is a Scriptable Render Pipeline that lets you create cutting-edge, high-fidelity graphics on high-end platforms.
The Built-In Render Pipeline is a general purpose render pipeline with limited options for customization.
The Scriptable Render Pipelines let you inspect and change how culling, rendering, and post-processing work directly in C#. This level of customization is also possible in the Built-In Render Pipeline when you purchase access to the Unity engine’s source code in C++.
If you’re an experienced graphics developer with advanced customization needs, you can also create your own custom render pipeline using Unity’s Scriptable Render Pipeline API.
Refer to Choose a render pipeline for more information about choosing the right pipeline for your project.