Output Lit

Menu Path : Context > Output [Data Type] Lit [Type]

(Output Particle (Lit) Quad, Output Particle (Lit) Mesh, Output ParticleStrip (Lit), etc.)

Lit Outputs are a variant of outputs which can receive lighting information and support additional texture and material types pertaining to lighting. They are useful in scenarios where the visual effect needs to react to the lighting in the scene.

Render pipeline compatibility

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	Universal Render Pipeline (URP)	High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP)
Lit outputs	No	No	Yes

Below is a list of settings and properties specific to lit outputs. For information about the generic output settings this Context shares with all other Contexts, see Global Output Settings and Properties.

Context settings

Setting	Type	Description
Normal Bending	Bool	(Inspector) Indicates whether this output supports normal bending. If you enable this property, the Normal Bending Factor slider appears which you can use to adjust the curvature of the normals. This property only appears on Lit Planar Primitives (quad, triangle, octagon) and Lit Particle Strips.
Material Type	Enum	(Inspector) Specifies the surface type for the output. This determines how the particles react to light. The options are: • Standard: The standard lit material that supports most lighting features. • Specular Color: Allows you to manually define the specular color. • Translucent: Uses a Diffusion Profile to simulate light passing through particles. • Simple Lit: Allows you to toggle specific lighting calculations to improve performance. Only point, spot, and direction lights affect particles in this mode. This mode. This mode renders particles in forward mode. • Simple Lit Translucent: Similar to Simple Lit, but with a Translucent workflow to simulate light passing through objects.
Only Ambient Lighting	Bool	(Inspector) Indicates whether output particles only receive light from ambient light sources and light probes. Disable this setting to have particles receive lighting from all light sources in the scene.
Use Base Color Map	Enum	(Inspector) Specifies what parts of the base color map to apply to the output. The options are: • None: Does not apply the base color map to the output. • Color: Only applies the color channels of the base color map to the output. • Alpha: Only applies the alpha channel of the base color map to the output. • Color and Alpha: Applies the color channels and alpha channel of the base color map to the output.
Use Mask Map	Bool	(Inspector) indicates whether the output accepts a mask map input to control how the particle receives lighting.
Use Normal Map	Bool	(Inspector) Indicates whether the output accepts a normal map input to simulate additional surface details when illuminated.
Use Emissive Map	Bool	(Inspector) Indicates whether the output accepts an emissive map to control how particles glow, independently of how they are lit.
Color Mode	Enum	(Inspector) Specifies how to apply the per-particle color attribute to the particles. The options are: • None: Disregards the color attribute. • Base Color: Uses the color attribute as the particle's base color. • Emissive: Uses the color attribute as the particle's emissive color. • Base Color and Emissive: Uses the color attribute as both the particle's base color and emissive color.
Use Emissive	Bool	(Inspector) Indicates whether the output supports emissive particles. Enable this setting to expose the Emissive Color property which you can use to make particles glow.
Double-Sided	Bool	(Inspector) Indicates whether one-sided particles, like quads, render from both sides. This flips the normals for particles when they are viewed from behind which means they also receive correct lighting information. Note: If you enable this setting, also set Cull Mode to Off. Otherwise, Unity culls the backside of the particle and thus does not render both sides of the particle.
Preserve Specular Lighting	Bool	(Inspector) Indicates whether to render specular lighting regardless of the particle’s opacity. This setting is useful for creating glass-like effects where transparent particles still reflect light.
Diffusion Profile Asset	Diffusion Profile	(Inspector) The Diffusion Profile that determines how to simulate light which passes through the particle. Note: You also must add the Diffusion Profile to the HDRP asset or to a Volume’s Diffusion Profile Override in the Scene . This setting only appears if you set Material Type to Translucent or Simple Lit Translucent.
Multiply Thickness With Alpha	Bool	(Inspector) Indicates whether to multiply the Thickness of the particle by its alpha value. This setting only appears if you set Material Type to Translucent or Simple Lit Translucent.
Enable Shadows	Bool	(Inspector) Indicates whether the particle receives shadows. This setting only appears if you set Material Type to Simple Lit or Simple Lit Translucent.
Enable Specular	Bool	(Inspector) Indicates whether the particle receives specular highlights. This setting only appears if you set Material Type to Simple Lit or Simple Lit Translucent.
Enable Cookie	Bool	(Inspector) indicates whether light cookies affect the particle or not. This setting only appears if you set Material Type to Simple Lit or Simple Lit Translucent.
Enable Env Light	Bool	(Inspector) Indicates whether the particle receives the environment light set in the global Volume Profile. This setting only appears if you set Material Type to Simple Lit or Simple Lit Translucent.

Context properties

Input	Type	Description
Smoothness	Float (slider)	The smoothness of the particle. Smoother surfaces bounce light off more uniformly, creating clearer reflections.
Metallic	Float (slider)	The metallicity of the particle. Metallic surfaces reflect their environment more, making their albedo color less visible. This property only appears if Material Type is set to Standard or Simple Lit.
Normal Bending Factor	Float (slider)	The amount by which to bend the normals. More bent normals create a rounder look. This property only appears if you enable Normal Bending.
Thickness	Float (slider)	The thickness of the translucent particles. This affects the influence of the Diffusion Profile Asset. This property only appears if Material Type is set to Translucent or Simple Lit Translucent.
Base Color Map	Texture2D	The base color (RGB) and opacity (A) of the particle. This property only appears if you set Use Base Color Map to anything other than ‘None’.
Mask Map	Texture2D	The mask map for the particle - Metallic (R), Ambient Occlusion (G), and Smoothness (A). This property only appears if you enable Use Mask Map.
Normal Map	Texture2D	The normal map the system uses to get normals, in the tangent space, for the particle. This property only appears if you enable Use Normal Map.
Emissive Map	Texture2D	The emissive map (RGB) the system uses to make particles glow. This property only appears if you enable Use Emissive Map.
Base Color	Color	The base color of the particle. This property only appears if Color Mode is set to None.
Emissive Color	Color	The emissive color the system uses to make particles glow. This property only appears if you enable Use Emissive.
Specular Color	Color	The specular color of the particle. This property only appears if Material Type is set to Specular Color.