The Rendering Layers feature lets you configure certain Lights to affect only specific 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.
For example, in the following illustration, Light A
affects Sphere D
, but not Sphere C
. Light B
affects Sphere C
, but not Sphere D
.
This feature has the following limitations:
This section contains information related to the impact of Rendering Layers on performance.
Keep the Rendering Layer count as small as possible. Avoid creating Rendering Layers that you don’t use in the project.
When using Rendering Layers for decals, increasing the layer count increases the required memory bandwidth and decreases the performance.
When using Rendering Layers only for Lights in the Forward 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, the performance impact is insignificant.
Performance impact grows more significantly when the Rendering Layer count exceeds a multiple of 8. For example: increasing the layer count from 8 to 9 layers has a bigger relative impact than increasing the layer count from 9 to 10 layers. The same consideration applies to increasing the count from 16 to 17, from 24 to 25 and so on.
Did you find this page useful? Please give it a rating:
Thanks for rating this page!
What kind of problem would you like to report?
Thanks for letting us know! This page has been marked for review based on your feedback.
If you have time, you can provide more information to help us fix the problem faster.
Provide more information
You've told us this page needs code samples. If you'd like to help us further, you could provide a code sample, or tell us about what kind of code sample you'd like to see:
You've told us there are code samples on this page which don't work. If you know how to fix it, or have something better we could use instead, please let us know:
You've told us there is information missing from this page. Please tell us more about what's missing:
You've told us there is incorrect information on this page. If you know what we should change to make it correct, please tell us:
You've told us this page has unclear or confusing information. Please tell us more about what you found unclear or confusing, or let us know how we could make it clearer:
You've told us there is a spelling or grammar error on this page. Please tell us what's wrong:
You've told us this page has a problem. Please tell us more about what's wrong:
Thank you for helping to make the Unity documentation better!
Your feedback has been submitted as a ticket for our documentation team to review.
We are not able to reply to every ticket submitted.