Rendering Debugger

The Rendering Debugger is a window you can customize with your own controls and scripts to visualize your project's lighting, rendering, or Material properties.

If your project uses a custom Scriptable Render Pipeline (SRP), you can add controls to the default empty window.

If your project uses the Universal Render Pipeline (URP) or the High-Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP), refer to the following pages:

Open the Rendering Debugger

You can open the Rendering Debugger in the following ways:

As a window in the Editor.
An overlay in the Game view in Play Mode.
An overlay in your built application.

As a window in the Editor

Select Window > Analysis > Rendering Debugger in the Editor.

As an overlay

To enable the Rendering Debugger in your built application, you must enable Development build in your build settings.

To open the overlay in your built application, or the Game view in Play Mode:

On a keyboard, press Left Ctrl + Backspace (macOS: Left Ctrl + Delete).
On a console controller, press L3 + R3.
On a mobile device, use a three-finger double tap.

Add a control

The Rendering Debugger window can contain multiple tabs ('panels'). When you select a panel, the window displays one or more controls ('widgets').

To create a widget and add it to a new panel, do the following:

Create a script that uses using UnityEngine.Rendering; to include the UnityEngine.Rendering namespace.
Create a widget by creating an instance of a child class of DebugUI.Widget, for example DebugUI.Button.
In the widget, implement the onValueChanged callback, which Unity calls when you change the value in the widget.
Create a panel using DebugUI.instance.GetPanel.
Add the widget to an array.
Add the widget array to the list of children in the panel.

If you add 2 or more widgets to the array, the panel displays the widgets in the same order as the array.

The following code sample creates and adds a widget that enables or disables the main directional light:

using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.Rendering;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;

[ExecuteInEditMode]
public class CustomDebugPanel : MonoBehaviour
{

    static bool lightEnabled = true;

    void OnEnable()
    {
        // Create a list of widgets
        var widgetList = new List<DebugUI.Widget>();

        // Add a checkbox widget to the list of widgets
        widgetList.AddRange(new DebugUI.Widget[]
        {
            new DebugUI.BoolField
            {
                displayName = "Enable main directional light",
                tooltip = "Enable or disable the main directional light",
                getter = () => lightEnabled,

                // When the widget value is changed, change the value of lightEnabled
                setter = value => lightEnabled = value,

                // Run a custom function to enable or disable the main directional light based on the widget value
                onValueChanged = DisplaySunChanged
            },
        });

        // Create a new panel (tab) in the Rendering Debugger
        var panel = DebugManager.instance.GetPanel("My Custom Panel", createIfNull: true);

        // Add the widgets to the panel
        panel.children.Add(widgetList.ToArray());
    }

    // Remove the custom panel if the GameObject is disabled
    void OnDisable()
    {
        DebugManager.instance.RemovePanel("My Custom Panel");
    }

    // Enable or disable the main directional light based on the widget value
    void DisplaySunChanged(DebugUI.Field<bool> field, bool displaySun)
    {
        Light sun = FindObjectsOfType<Light>().Where(x => x.type == LightType.Directional).FirstOrDefault();
        if (sun)
            sun.enabled = displaySun;
    }
}

Add the script to a GameObject. You should see a new My Custom Panel panel in the Rendering Debugger window.

Add a control to an existing panel

You can only add properties to existing panels if you're using a custom SRP. You shouldn't add widgets to URP or HDRP's built-in Rendering Debugger panels.

To fetch an existing panel, use DebugManager.instance.GetPanel with the panel name. Set createIfNull to false, so you don't accidentally create a new panel if the name doesn't match an existing panel.

The following code sample fetches the panel from the code sample above:

var panel = DebugManager.instance.GetPanel("My Custom Panel", createIfNull: false);

Add a container

You can use containers to display groups of widgets together.

Create a container using one of the child classes of DebugUI.Container, for example DebugUI.Foldout.
Add a widget array using the container's Add method.

The following example creates a collapsible container that contains 2 checkboxes:

using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.Rendering;
using System.Collections.Generic;

[ExecuteInEditMode]
public class CustomDebugPanelWithContainer : MonoBehaviour
{
    void OnEnable()
    {
        // Create a list of widgets
        var widgetList = new List<DebugUI.Widget>();

        // Add 2 checkbox widgets to the list of widgets
        widgetList.AddRange(new DebugUI.Widget[]
        {
            new DebugUI.BoolField
            {
                displayName = "Visualisation 1",
            },
            new DebugUI.BoolField
            {
                displayName = "Visualisation 2",
            },
        });

        // Create a container
        var container = new DebugUI.Foldout
        {
            displayName = "My Container"
        };

        // Add the widgets to the container
        container.children.Add(widgetList.ToArray());

        // Create a new panel (tab) in the Rendering Debugger
        var panel = DebugManager.instance.GetPanel("My Custom Panel With Container", createIfNull: true);

        // Add the container to the panel
        panel.children.Add(container);
    }
}

Control the Rendering Debugger overlay

To change the value of the currently active widget:

On a keyboard, press the Left and Right arrow keys.
On a touch screen, tap the arrows next to the properties.
On an Xbox controller, use the Directional pad (D-Pad).
On a PlayStation controller, use the Directional buttons.

To change the current panel:

On a Windows keyboard, use the Page up and Page down keys (macOS: fn + Up arrow key, and fn + Down arrow key).
On a touch screen, tap the arrows next to the tab title.
On an Xbox controller, use the Left Bumper and Right Bumper.
On a PlayStation controller, use L1 and R1.

To display the currently active widget independently of the debug window:

On a keyboard, press Right Shift.
On an Xbox controller, press X.
On a PlayStation controller, press Square.

Disable the Rendering Debugger

To disable the Rendering Debugger in your built application, set DebugManager.enableRuntimeUI to false.