A rendering pathThe technique that a render pipeline uses to render graphics. Choosing a different rendering path affects how lighting and shading are calculated. Some rendering paths are more suited to different platforms and hardware than others. More info
See in Glossary is the series of operations that draws and lights GameObjectsThe 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 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 sees. Different rendering paths have different capabilities and performance characteristics.
Unity supports forward and deferred rendering paths.
The Forward renderingA rendering path that renders each object in one or more passes, depending on lights that affect the object. Lights themselves are also treated differently by Forward Rendering, depending on their settings and intensity. More info
See in Glossary path is the default rendering path in Unity projects. It works in the following way:
The Universal Render Pipeline (URP) also has a Forward+ rendering path, which is similar to the Forward rendering path but has no limit on lights per GameObject.
Note: The Built-In Render Pipeline also has a Legacy Vertex Lit rendering path, which is a subset of the Forward rendering path.
The Deferred rendering path works in the following way:
Deferred rendering paths can’t render transparent objects, so at the end of the rendering path Unity uses a forward render pass to render transparent objects.
Each rendering path has advantages and disadvantages. For more information, refer to the following:
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