Version: Unity 6.1 Alpha (6000.1)
Language : English
Multiple cameras in URP
Set up a camera stack in URP

Camera stacking in URP

In the 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
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(URP), you use 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
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stacking to layer the output of multiple Cameras and create a single combined output. Camera stacking allows you to create effects such as a 3D model in a 2D UI(User Interface) Allows a user to interact with your application. Unity currently supports three UI systems. More info
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, or the cockpit of a vehicle.

A camera stack consists of a Base Camera and one or more Overlay Cameras. A camera stack overrides the output of the Base Camera with the combined output of all the cameras in the camera stack. As a result, anything you can do with the output of a Base Camera, you can do with the output of a camera stack. For example, you can render a camera stack to a render target, or apply post-processingA process that improves product visuals by applying filters and effects before the image appears on screen. You can use post-processing effects to simulate physical camera and film properties, for example Bloom and Depth of Field. More info post processing, postprocessing, postprocess
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effects.

Refer to Set up a camera stack for more information. To download examples of camera stacking in URP, install the Camera Stacking samples.

Camera stacking and rendering order

URP performs several optimizations within a camera, including rendering order optimizations to reduce overdraw. However, when you use a camera stack, you define the order in which URP renders the cameras. You must be careful not to order the cameras in a way that causes excessive overdraw. For more information on overdraw in URP, refer to Rendering order optimizations.

Camera stacking and post-processing

You should only apply post-processing to the last camera in the stack, so the following applies:

  • URP renders the post-processing effects only once, not repeatedly for each camera.
  • The visual effects are consistent, because all the cameras in the stack receive the same post-processing.

Limitations

You cannot use a mix of different types of renderers (2D and 3D) for cameras in a camera stack.

Additional resources

Multiple cameras in URP
Set up a camera stack in URP