Six Way shader graph reference for URP

Explore the properties and settings you can use to customize the default Six Way shaderA program that runs on the GPU. More info
See in Glossary graph 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
See in Glossary (URP).

Use the Six Way shader graph to define materials that respond to light from six directions. This is useful for simulating realistic volumetric effects such as smoke, dust, and clouds in URP.

Contexts

The default Vertex and Fragment Contexts contain the following Blocks. Which Blocks display might change depending on the graph settings.

Vertex Context

Input	Type	Description
Position	Vector3	Sets the vertex position in object space.
Normal	Vector3	Sets the normal of the vertex in object space.
Tangent	Vector3	Sets the tangent of the vertex in object space.

Fragment Context

Input	Type	Description
Base Color	Vector3	Sets the base color of the material. The default is `Color.grey`.
Right Top Back	Vector3	Sets the color applied to surfaces facing the positive x-axis (right), positive y-axis (top), and negative z-axis (back). The default is `Color.grey`.
Left Bottom Front	Vector3	Sets the color applied to surfaces facing the negative x-axis (left), negative y-axis (bottom), and positive z-axis (front). The default is `Color.grey`.
Color Absorption Strength	Float	Controls how much the material absorbs light color as it passes through the object. Higher values increase the influence of the colors of the opposite face on the visible shading. The default is 0.5. This property is available only if you enable Use Color Absorption in the graph settings.
Emission	Float3	Sets the color the material emits as a light source. The default is black. For more information, refer to Add light emission to a material.
Ambient OcclusionA method to approximate how much ambient light (light not coming from a specific direction) can hit a point on a surface. See in Glossary	Float	Sets how much ambient lightLight that doesn’t come from any specific direction, and contributes equal light in all directions to the Scene. More info See in Glossary reaches the surface, rather than being occluded. The range is 0 to 1, where 0 means the fragment is completely occluded and 1 means the fragment isn’t occluded at all so the ambient color doesn’t change. The default is 1.
Alpha	Float	Sets the alpha of the material. The range is 0 to 1. The default is 1. This property is available only if you set Surface Type to Transparent or you enable Alpha Clipping in the graph settings.
Alpha Clip Threshold	Float	Sets the minimum alpha value for a pixelThe smallest unit in a computer image. Pixel size depends on your screen resolution. Pixel lighting is calculated at every screen pixel. More info See in Glossary to be visible. The range is 0 to 1. The default is 0.5. This property is available only if you enable Alpha Clipping in the graph settings.

Graph Settings

Explore the shader graph settings you can use to customize the Vertex and Fragment Contexts.

For more details about graph settings that are common to all shader graph shaders, refer to the Graph Settings tab.

Setting	Description
Allow Material Override	Enables material instances to override properties exposed in the shader graph. When disabled, materials using this shader will always use the values defined in the shader asset.
Surface Type	Determines if the material supports transparency. The options are: Opaque: The material is fully opaque and doesn’t use transparency blending. Transparent: The material uses transparency blending based on the alpha channel. Unity adds the Alpha Block to the Fragment Context.
Blending Mode	Sets how the shader blends the color of a transparent material with the background. This property is available only when you set Surface Type to Transparent. The options are: Alpha: Calculates transparency using the alpha value of the material. Premultiply: Calculates transparency using the alpha value of the material, but multiplies the RGB values by the alpha value first. Additive: Adds the color of the material to the background color. Multiply: Multiplies the color of the material with the background color. For more information about blending modes, refer to Blend modes.
Render Face	Specifies which faces of the mesh the shader renders. The options are: Front: Renders only front‑facing triangles. This is the default. Back: Renders only back‑facing triangles. Both: Renders both front and back faces.
Depth Write	Determines whether the shader writes depth information to the depth buffer. The options are: Auto: Sets opaque objects to write to the depth buffer, and transparent objects to not write to the depth buffer. Force Enabled: Enables all objects writing to the depth buffer. Force Disabled: Disables all objects from writing to the depth buffer.
Depth Test	Specifies the comparison function used to determine whether a pixel passes the depth test. The options are: Never: The pixel never passes the depth test. Less: Passes if the incoming depth value is less than the stored depth. Equal: Passes if the incoming depth value equals the stored depth. L Equal: Passes if the incoming depth value is less than or equal to the stored depth. Greater: Passes if the incoming depth value is greater than the stored depth. Not Equal: Passes if the incoming depth value isn’t equal to the stored depth. G Equal: Passes if the incoming depth value is greater than or equal to the stored depth. Always: The pixel always passes the depth test.
Alpha Clipping	Discards pixels if their alpha value is lower than a threshold value. When you enable this setting, Unity adds the Alpha Clip Threshold Block to the Fragment context.
Cast Shadows	Determines whether the material casts shadows onto other objects.
Supports LODThe Level Of Detail (LOD) technique is an optimization that reduces the number of triangles that Unity has to render for a GameObject when its distance from the Camera increases. More info See in Glossary Cross Fade	Enables support for Level of Detail (LOD) cross‑fading when used with a MeshThe main graphics primitive of Unity. Meshes make up a large part of your 3D worlds. Unity supports triangulated or Quadrangulated polygon meshes. Nurbs, Nurms, Subdiv surfaces must be converted to polygons. More info See in Glossary Renderer that has LOD GroupA component to manage level of detail (LOD) for GameObjects. More info See in Glossary cross‑fade enabled.
Additional Motion Vectors	Controls how Unity generates motion vectors for this material, for motion blur and temporal anti‑aliasing. The options are: None: Generates no motion vectors. Time Based: Computes motion vectors automatically from per‑frame transformations. Custom: Enables you to manually provide motion vector data through the Motion Vector Block in the Vertex Context. For more information, refer to Built-in shader support for motion vectors in URP.
Alembic Motion Vectors	Enables motion vector support for meshes streamed through Alembic files. For more information, refer to Built-in shader support for motion vectors in URP.
Use Color Absorption	Enables simulation of light passing through the object and picking up color from the opposite side. When you enable this setting, Unity adds the Color Absorption Strength Block to the Fragment context.
Custom Editor GUI	Renders a custom editor GUI in the InspectorA Unity window that displays information about the currently selected GameObject, asset or project settings, allowing you to inspect and edit the values. More info See in Glossary window of the material. Enter the name of the GUI class in the field. For more information, refer to Control material properties in the Inspector window.

Additional resources

Realistic smoke lighting with 6-way lighting in VFX Graph blog post
Introducing six-way lighting for smoke, dust, and clouds VFX on Unity Discussions
Get started with Shader Graph on Unity Learn

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