Cookies (filename: Cookies.md)
A cookie is a mask that you place on a Light to create a shadow with a specific shape or color, which changes the appearance and intensity of the Light. Cookies are an efficient way of simulating complex lighting effects with minimal or no runtime performance impact. Effects you can simulate with cookies include caustics, soft shadows, and light shapes.
To apply a cookie to a Light in Unity, assign a texture to the Cookie field of a a Light component.
Render pipeline compatibility
For more information on the different render pipelines available in Unity, see Render pipelines.
| Render pipeline: | Details: |
|---|---|
| Built-in Render Pipeline | The Built-in Render Pipeline supports cookies for Realtime Lights, and for Baked Lights and Mixed Lights when you use the Progressive Lightmapper. In the Built-in Render Pipeline, cookies only use data from the alpha channel. This means that you can define a shape for a cookie, but not a color. For more information on cookies in the Built-in Render Pipeline, see Creating cookies for the Built-in Render Pipeline and Texture Type: Cookie. |
| Universal Render Pipeline (URP) | URP does not support cookies at this time, but this feature is in research. This means that Unity is researching adding support for this feature in a future release, but cannot confirm that it is on the roadmap. For more information on features in URP, see the URP feature comparison table. |
| High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) | HDRP supports cookies for Realtime Lights, and for Baked Lights and Mixed Lights when you use the Progressive Lightmapper. In HDRP, cookies use the data from the RGB channels. This means that you can define a shape and a color for a cookie. For more information on cookies in HDRP, see Lights in the High Definition Render Pipeline and the HDRP Asset. |
Enabling and disabling baked cookies
For Projects created in Unity 2020.1 or above, baked cookies are enabled for Baked Lights and Mixed Lights in the Progressive Lightmapper by default. For Projects created in versions of Unity prior to 2020.1, baked cookies are disabled for Baked Lights and Mixed Lights in the Progressive Lightmapper by default. This is to provide backwards compatibility.
You can toggle whether cookies are enabled for Baked Lights and Mixed Lights in the Progressive Lightmapper in the Editor settings window.
- Open the Project Settings window (Edit > Project Settings).
- Choose Editor to open the Editor settings.
- Navigate to the Graphics section.
- Toggle Enable baked cookies support.
Additional information
- Unity blog post: Create high-quality light fixtures in Unity
- Unity forum: New Feature - Baked Light Cookies
- Support for baked light cookies added in 2020.1 NewIn20201