Universal Renderer

This page describes the URP Universal Renderer settings.

For more information on rendering in URP, see also Rendering in the Universal Render Pipeline.

Rendering Paths

The URP Universal Renderer implements two Rendering Paths:

The following table shows the differences between the Forward and the Deferred Rendering Paths in URP.

Feature	Forward	Deferred
Maximum number of real-time lights per object.	9 Lights per object.	Unlimited number of real-time lights.
Per-pixel normal encoding	No encoding (accurate normal values).	Two options: Quantization of normals in G-buffer (loss of accuracy, better performance). Octahedron encoding (accurate normals, might have significant performance impact on mobile GPUs). For more information, see the section Encoding of normals in G-buffer.
MSAA	Yes	No
Vertex lighting	Yes	No
Camera stacking	Yes	Supported with a limitation: Unity renders only the base Camera using the Deferred Rendering Path. Unity renders all overlay Cameras using the Forward Rendering Path.

To find the Universal Renderer asset that a URP asset is using:

Select a URP asset.
In the Renderer List section, click a renderer item or the vertical ellipsis icon (⋮) next to a renderer.

This section describes the properties of the Forward Renderer asset.

URP Universal Renderer

This section contains properties that define which layers the renderer draws.

Property	Description
Opaque Layer Mask	Select which opaque layers this Renderer draws
Transparent Layer Mask	Select which transparent layers this Renderer draws

This section contains properties related to lighting.

Property	Description
Rendering Path	Select the Rendering Path. Options: Forward: The Forward Rendering Path. Deferred: The Deferred Rendering Path. For more information, see Deferred Rendering Path.

This section contains properties related to rendering shadows.

Property	Description
Transparent Receive Shadows	When this option is on, Unity draws shadows on transparent objects.

This section contains Render Pipeline properties that this Renderer overrides.

With this check box selected, the Renderer processes the Stencil buffer values.

URP Universal Renderer Stencil override

For more information on how Unity works with the Stencil buffer, see ShaderLab: Stencil.

This section contains settings related to backwards compatibility.

Property	Description
Intermediate Texture	Controls when URP renders via an intermediate texture. Options: Auto: Uses information declared by active Renderer Features to automatically determine whether to render through an intermediate texture or not. Always: Forces rendering via an intermediate texture, enabling compatibility with renderer features that do not declare their needed inputs, but can have a significant performance impact on some platforms.

Property

Description

Intermediate Texture

Controls when URP renders via an intermediate texture. Options:

Auto: Uses information declared by active Renderer Features to automatically determine whether to render through an intermediate texture or not.
Always: Forces rendering via an intermediate texture, enabling compatibility with renderer features that do not declare their needed inputs, but can have a significant performance impact on some platforms.

This section contains the list of Renderer Features assigned to the selected Renderer.

For information on how to add a Renderer Feature, see How to add a Renderer Feature to a Renderer.

URP contains the pre-built Renderer Feature called Render Objects.