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Shader code blocks in ShaderLab reference

Reference for the HLSLPROGRAM, HLSLINCLUDE, CGPROGRAM, and CGINCLUDE blocks in ShaderLab.
Read time 1 minuteLast updated a month ago
Important
The Built-In Render Pipeline is deprecated and will be made obsolete in a future release.
It remains supported, including bug fixes and maintenance, through the full Unity 6.7 LTS lifecycle.
For more information on migration, refer to Migrating from the Built-In Render Pipeline to the Universal Render Pipeline and Render pipeline feature comparison.
This page contains information about using shader code blocks. For information about writing HLSL itself, refer to Writing HLSL shader programs.

HLSL

HLSLPROGRAM
and 
HLSLINCLUDE
are compatible with all render pipelines.

Signature

Function

HLSLPROGRAM

    
[source code for shader programs]

ENDHLSL
Creates a shader program block. Unity adds the HLSL shader program to the pass that includes this shader program block.
HLSLINCLUDE

    
[code that you want to share]

ENDHLSL
Creates a shader include block. Unity includes this code in all shader programs that are defined in 
HLSLPROGRAM
blocks, anywhere in this source file.

CG

CGPROGRAM
and 
CGINCLUDE
are compatible only with the Built-In Render Pipeline. For most uses, use 
HLSLPROGRAM
and 
HLSLINCLUDE
instead, unless you write surface shaders.
If you use 
CGPROGRAM
, Unity includes several of Unity's built-in shader include files by default, enabling you to use built-in variables and functions. As a result, shaders that use 
CGPROGRAM
might not work if you change the keyword to 
HLSLPROGRAM
.
Note
Although the shader library files in the Built-In Render Pipeline have a .cginc file extension, they contain HLSL code rather than CG code.

Signature

Function

CGPROGRAM

    
[source code for shader programs]

ENDCG
Creates a shader program block. Unity adds the shader program to the pass that includes this shader program block.
CGINCLUDE

    
[code that you want to share]

ENDCG
Create a shader include block. Unity includes this code in all shader programs that are defined in 
CGPROGRAM
blocks, anywhere in this source file.

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