Learn how Unity manages elements on a Flare asset, and compare texture layout options.

A Flare consists of multiple Elements, arranged along a line. The line is calculated by comparing the position of the GameObject containing the Lens Flare to the center of the screen. The line extends beyond the containing GameObject and the screen center. All Flare Elements are strung out on this line.

For performance reasons, all Elements of one Flare must share the same Texture. This Texture contains a collection of the different images that are available as Elements in a single Flare. The Texture Layout defines how the Elements are laid out in the Flare Texture. If you use many different Flare assets, using a shared single Flare Texture that contains all the Elements will give you best rendering performance.

Lens Flares are blocked by Colliders. A Collider in-between the Flare GameObject and the Camera will hide the Flare, even if the Collider does not have a . If the in-between Collider is marked as Trigger it will block the flare if and only if Physics.queriesHitTriggers is true.

To override the shader used for Flares, open the Graphics window and set Lens Flares to the shader that you would like to use as the override.

These are the options you have for different Flare Texture Layouts. The numbers in the images correspond to the Image Index property for each Element.

Designed for large sun-style Flares where you need one of the Elements to have a higher fidelity than the others. This is designed to be used with Textures that are twice as high as they are wide.

Designed for complex flares that require 1 high-definition, 2 medium and 8 small images. This is used in the standard assets "50mm Zoom Flare" where the two medium Elements are the rainbow-colored circles. This is designed to be used with textures that are twice as high as they are wide.

A single image.

A simple 2x2 grid.

A simple 3x3 grid.

A simple 4x4 grid.