Converting your shaders

Shaders written for the Built-in Render Pipeline are not compatible with Universal Render Pipeline (URP) shaders. Unity renders objects with the default magenta error shader if they use Built-In Render Pipeline shaders.

Use the Render Pipeline Converter to convert any of Unity's built-in Built-In Render Pipeline materials and shaders to a URP material and shader. Refer to Shader mappings for more information.

Note: The Render Pipeline Converter makes irreversible changes to the project. Back up your project before the conversion.

Tip: If the preview thumbnails in the Project view are not shown correctly after the conversion, try right-clicking anywhere in the Project view and selecting Reimport All.

For SpeedTree Shaders, Unity does not re-generate Materials when you re-import them, unless you click the Generate Materials or Apply & Generate Materials button.

Custom shaders

You cannot upgrade Custom Unity shaders written for the Built-in Render Pipeline. Instead, custom shaders must be rewritten to work with URP or recreated in ShaderGraph. For an example of how to rewrite and upgrade a Built-In Render Pipeline custom shader to be compatible with URP, refer to Upgrade custom shaders for URP compatibility.

Any Materials in a Scene that use a custom shader when you upgrade a project to use URP turn pink to indicate the Material no longer works. To fix this, upgrade or change the Material's shader to one that is compatible with URP.

Note: URP does not support Surface Shaders.

Shader mappings

The following table shows which URP shaders the Built-in Render Pipeline shaders convert to when you use the Render Pipeline Converter.

Unity built-in shader	Universal Render Pipeline shader
Standard	Universal Render Pipeline/Lit
Standard (Specular Setup)	Universal Render Pipeline/Lit
Standard Terrain	Universal Render Pipeline/Terrain/Lit
Particles/Standard Surface	Universal Render Pipeline/Particles/Lit
Particles/Standard Unlit	Universal Render Pipeline/Particles/Unlit
Mobile/Diffuse	Universal Render Pipeline/Simple Lit
Mobile/Bumped Specular	Universal Render Pipeline/Simple Lit
Mobile/Bumped Specular(1 Directional Light)	Universal Render Pipeline/Simple Lit
Mobile/Unlit (Supports Lightmap)	Universal Render Pipeline/Simple Lit
Mobile/VertexLit	Universal Render Pipeline/Simple Lit
Legacy Shaders/Diffuse	Universal Render Pipeline/Simple Lit
Legacy Shaders/Specular	Universal Render Pipeline/Simple Lit
Legacy Shaders/Bumped Diffuse	Universal Render Pipeline/Simple Lit
Legacy Shaders/Bumped Specular	Universal Render Pipeline/Simple Lit
Legacy Shaders/Self-Illumin/Diffuse	Universal Render Pipeline/Simple Lit
Legacy Shaders/Self-Illumin/Bumped Diffuse	Universal Render Pipeline/Simple Lit
Legacy Shaders/Self-Illumin/Specular	Universal Render Pipeline/Simple Lit
Legacy Shaders/Self-Illumin/Bumped Specular	Universal Render Pipeline/Simple Lit
Legacy Shaders/Transparent/Diffuse	Universal Render Pipeline/Simple Lit
Legacy Shaders/Transparent/Specular	Universal Render Pipeline/Simple Lit
Legacy Shaders/Transparent/Bumped Diffuse	Universal Render Pipeline/Simple Lit
Legacy Shaders/Transparent/Bumped Specular	Universal Render Pipeline/Simple Lit
Legacy Shaders/Transparent/Cutout/Diffuse	Universal Render Pipeline/Simple Lit
Legacy Shaders/Transparent/Cutout/Specular	Universal Render Pipeline/Simple Lit
Legacy Shaders/Transparent/Cutout/Bumped Diffuse	Universal Render Pipeline/Simple Lit
Legacy Shaders/Transparent/Cutout/Bumped Specular	Universal Render Pipeline/Simple Lit