Built-in shader variables reference

Unity’s built-in include files contain global variables for your shadersA program that runs on the GPU. More info
See in Glossary: things like current object’s transformation matrices, light parameters, current time and so on. You use them in shader programs like any other variable, but if you include the relevant include file, you don’t have to declare them.

For more information on include files, see Built-in include files.

Inline sampler suffixes

Add the following suffixes when you declare an inline SamplerState sampler in HLSL code, to manually set texture filtering and wrapping modes. Separate multiple words with an underscore (_). For example, to set a sampler to use linear filtering and repeat wrapping mode, name it sampler_linear_repeat.

Note: These sampler suffixes only work if you target the DX11, DX12, Metal or Vulkan graphics API.

You must include a single filtering mode and a single texture wrapping mode. The other suffixes are optional.

Suffix	Description
`point`	Enables nearest texture filtering.
`linear`	Enables bilinear texture filtering.
`trilinear`	Enables trilinear texture filtering.
`clamp`	Sets the texture wrapping mode to clamp.
`repeat`	Sets the texture wrapping mode to repeat.
`mirror`	Sets the texture wrapping mode to mirror.
`mirroronce`	Sets the texture wrapping mode to mirror once. If you target a mobile platform that doesn’t support `mirroronce`, Unity falls back to `mirror`.
`compare`	Sets the sampler to compare depth values. For more information refer to SampleCmp and SampleCmpLevelZero in the Microsoft HLSL documentation.
`aniso2`, `aniso4`, `aniso8`, `aniso16`	Enables anisotropic filtering with 2x, 4x, 8x, or 16x sampling. Depending on the graphics API and platform you target, Unity might clamp the filtering to a lower value, or disable anisotropic filtering completely.

Add U, V or W to a wrap mode to set the wrapping mode for that axis only. For example, sampler_clampu_point sets the U axis to clamp mode, and leaves the V and W axes at their default wrapping mode.

For more information, refer to:

Transformations

All these matrices are float4x4 type, and are column major.

Note: If you use 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), you can also use variables from the Core.hlsl library file. For more information, refer to Transform positions in a custom URP shader.

Name	Value
UNITY_MATRIX_MVP	Current model * view * projection matrix.
UNITY_MATRIX_MV	Current model * view matrix.
UNITY_MATRIX_V	Current view matrix.
UNITY_MATRIX_P	Current projection matrix.
UNITY_MATRIX_VP	Current view * projection matrix.
UNITY_MATRIX_T_MV	Transpose of model * view matrix.
UNITY_MATRIX_IT_MV	Inverse transpose of model * view matrix.
unity_ObjectToWorld	Current model matrix.
unity_WorldToObject	Inverse of current world matrix.

Camera and screen

These variables will correspond to 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 that is rendering. For example during shadowmap rendering, they will still refer to the Camera component values, and not the “virtual camera” that is used for the shadowmap projection.

Note: If you use the Universal Render Pipeline (URP), you can also use variables from the Core.hlsl library file. For more information, refer to Use the camera in a custom URP shader.

Name	Type	Value
_WorldSpaceCameraPos	float3	World space position of the camera.
_ProjectionParams	float4	`x` is 1.0 (or –1.0 if currently rendering with a flipped projection matrix), `y` is the camera’s near plane, `z` is the camera’s far plane and `w` is 1/FarPlane.
_ScreenParams	float4	`x` is the width of the camera’s target texture in pixelsThe 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, `y` is the height of the camera’s target texture in pixels, `z` is 1.0 + 1.0/width and `w` is 1.0 + 1.0/height.
_ZBufferParams	float4	Used to linearize Z buffer values. `x`: `1 - far/near`, or `–1 + far/near` if `UNITY_REVERSED_Z` is set to 1. For more information about `UNITY_REVERSED_Z`, refer to Branch based on platform features. `y`: `far/near`, or `1` if `UNITY_REVERSED_Z` is set to 1. For more information about `UNITY_REVERSED_Z`, refer to Branch based on platform features. `z`: `x / far` `w`: `y / far`
unity_OrthoParams	float4	The following parameters: `x`: half the width of the camera view in world space `y`: half the height of the camera view in world space `z`: unused `w`: 1.0 if the camera is orthographic, or 0.0 if the camera is perspective
unity_CameraProjection	float4x4	Camera’s projection matrix.
unity_CameraInvProjection	float4x4	Inverse of camera’s projection matrix.
unity_CameraWorldClipPlanes[6]	float4	Camera frustum plane world space equations, in this order: left, right, bottom, top, near, far.

Time

Time is measured in seconds, and is scaled by the Time multiplier in your Project’s Time settings. There is no built-in variable that provides access to unscaled time.

Time matches Time.time, which is the time since the application started. If you use the Built-In Render Pipeline, time matches Time.timeSinceLevelLoad instead.

Name	Type	Value
_Time	float4	`(t/20, t, t\2, t\3)`. Use for animations inside shaders.
_SinTime	float4	Sine of time: (t/8, t/4, t/2, t).
_CosTime	float4	Cosine of time: (t/8, t/4, t/2, t).
unity_DeltaTime	float4	Delta time: (dt, 1/dt, smoothDt, 1/smoothDt).

Lightmaps

Name	Type	Value
unity_Lightmap	Texture2D	Contains lightmapA 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 information.
unity_LightmapST	float4[8]	Scales and translates the UV information to the correct range to sample the lightmap texture.

Fog and Ambient

Name	Type	Value
unity_AmbientSky	fixed4	Sky ambient lighting color in gradient ambient lighting case.
unity_AmbientEquator	fixed4	Equator ambient lighting color in gradient ambient lighting case.
unity_AmbientGround	fixed4	Ground ambient lighting color in gradient ambient lighting case.
unity_IndirectSpecColor	fixed4	If you use a skyboxA special type of Material used to represent skies. Usually six-sided. More info See in Glossary, this is the average color of the skybox, which Unity calculates using the `DC` component of the spherical harmonics data in the ambient probe. Otherwise this is black.
UNITY_LIGHTMODEL_AMBIENT	fixed4	Ambient lighting color (sky color in gradient ambient case). Legacy variable.
unity_FogColor	fixed4	Fog color.
unity_FogParams	float4	Parameters for fog calculation: (density / sqrt(ln(2)), density / ln(2), –1/(end-start), end/(end-start)). x is useful for Exp2 fog mode, y for Exp mode, z and w for Linear mode.

Various

Name	Type	Value
unity_LODFade	float4	Level-of-detail fade when using LODGroup. x is fade (0..1), y is fade quantized to 16 levels, z and w unused.
_TextureSampleAdd	float4	Set automatically by Unity for UI only based on whether the texture being used is in Alpha8 format (the value is set to (1,1,1,0)) or not (the value is set to (0,0,0,0)).

HLSL pragma require command reference

Color and High Dynamic Range (HDR)