In the Built-in 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, when using a Surface ShaderA program that runs on the GPU. More info
See in Glossary, how lighting is applied and which Passes of the shader are used depends on which 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 used. Each pass in a shader communicates its lighting type via Pass Tags.
Feature name | Universal Render Pipeline (URP) | High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) | Custom SRP | Built-in Render Pipeline |
---|---|---|---|---|
Surface Shaders | No For a streamlined way of creating Shader objects in URP, see Shader Graph. |
No For a streamlined way of creating Shader objects in HDRP, see Shader Graph. |
No | Yes |
ForwardBase
and ForwardAdd
passes are used.Deferred
pass is used.Vertex
, VertexLMRGBM
and VertexLM
passes are used.ShadowCaster
pass is used.
ForwardBase
pass renders ambient, lightmapsA pre-rendered texture that contains the effects of light sources on static objects in the scene. Lightmaps are overlaid on top of scene geometry to create the effect of lighting. More info
See in Glossary, main directional light and not important (vertex/SH) lights at once. ForwardAdd
pass is used for any additive per-pixel lights; one invocation per object illuminated by such light is done. See Forward Rendering for details.
If forward rendering is used, but a shader does not have forward-suitable passes (i.e. neither ForwardBase
nor ForwardAdd
pass types are present), then that object is rendered just like it would in Vertex Lit path, see below.
Deferred
pass renders all information needed for lighting (in built-in shaders: diffuse color, specular color, smoothness,
world space normal, emission). It also adds lightmaps, reflection probes and ambient lighting into the emission channel. See Deferred Shading for details.
Since vertex lighting is most often used on platforms that do not support programmable shaders, Unity can’t create multiple shader variants internally to handle lightmapped vs. non-lightmapped cases. So to handle lightmapped and non-lightmapped objects, multiple passes have to be written explicitly.
Vertex
pass is used for non-lightmapped objects. All lights are rendered at once, using a fixed function OpenGL/Direct3D lighting model (Blinn-Phong)VertexLMRGBM
pass is used for lightmapped objects, when lightmaps are RGBM encoded (PC and consoles). No real-time lighting is applied; pass is expected to combine textures with a lightmap.VertexLM
pass is used for lightmapped objects, when lightmaps are double-LDR encoded (mobile platforms). No real-time lighting is applied; pass is expected to combine textures with a lightmap.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.
When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.
More information
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising. Some 3rd party video providers do not allow video views without targeting cookies. If you are experiencing difficulty viewing a video, you will need to set your cookie preferences for targeting to yes if you wish to view videos from these providers. Unity does not control this.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.