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Unity Engine

Graphics project settings reference

Apply global settings for graphics.
Read time 14 minutesLast updated 4 days 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.
Use the Graphics settings (main menu: Edit >
Project Settings

?

, then select the Graphics category) to apply global settings for Graphics.
Note
You can access Graphics settings from the Build Profiles window (menu: File > Build Profiles). With build profiles, you can customize the Graphics settings per build profile to set different values for each platform. For more information, refer to Customize settings with build profiles.
When you build your project, the values of these settings become static. You can't change the settings at runtime.
This section provides documentation on the following groups of properties:

Set Default Render Pipeline Asset

Use the Default Render Pipeline field to set the default render pipeline Unity uses to render your project. For example, set Default Render Pipeline to a Universal Render Pipeline (URP) asset to use URP to render your project.
If Default Render Pipeline is set to None, Unity uses the Built-In Render Pipeline.
For more information, refer to the following:

Shader Build Settings

These properties allow you to reduce shader variants in your build.
Important
When you remove built-in shader keywords, Unity might strip shader variants your built project needs. To check how many shader variants your project has, enable strict shader variant matching, otherwise Unity might replace missing shader variants with others. For more information, refer to Check how many shader variants you have.
Open the Keyword Declaration Overrides dropdown to add the keyword sets you want to set to a different keyword type or remove.

Property

Description

Keyword SetThe keyword set you want to set to a different keyword type or remove. Use spaces to separate keywords in the set, for example 
FOG_LINEAR FOG_EXP FOG_EXP2
. Enter all the keywords in the set, including 
_
if it exists.

To change the keyword type, use the Type Override property. To exclude a keyword in the build, select the foldout (triangle) then disable the checkbox for the keyword.

For more information, refer to reduce shader variants.
Type overrideThe keyword type to use for the keyword set. The options are:
  • Default: Uses the keyword type the shader code uses.
  • shader_feature: Compiles shader variants for keyword combinations that materials in your build use, and removes other shader variants. Use this option if the keywords are material properties.
  • multi_compile: Compiles shader variants regardless of whether they're used by materials in your build. Use this option if you need to use a C# script to change the state of the keywords at runtime.
  • dynamic_branch: Uses dynamic branching for conditional code that uses these keywords, and doesn't compile shader variants. Use this option if your shaders run on a fast GPU, and don’t have asymmetric code branches where one branch is longer or more complex than the other.
For more information, refer to How Unity compiles branching shaders.
Selected keywordsThe number of keywords you select from the keyword set to be included in the build, out of the total number of keywords in the set.
RevertCancel your changes.
ApplyApply your changes.

Shader stripping

These properties allow you to configure shader variant stripping in your build.
By default, Unity examines the scenes in the build and automatically strips shader variants that are not used in those scenes. However, this can cause problems if you want to use shaders or variants at runtime that would not otherwise be included in the build. For example, if you use AssetBundles or Addressables that rely on those shaders or variants, or if you use shader keywords to change variants at runtime.

Property

Function

Lightmap ModesDetermine the shader variant stripping behavior for lightmap-related shaders. The options are:
  • Automatic: Unity examines the scenes in the build and automatically strips variants that are not used in those scenes. This is the default setting.
  • Custom: Select this option to manually include or exclude variants for the following lightmap modes:
    • Baked Non-Directional
    • Baked Directional.
    • Realtime Non-Directional
    • Realtime Directional
    • Baked Shadowmask
    • Baked Subtractive
Fog ModesDetermine the shader variant stripping behavior for shaders that relate to Unity's built-in fog effect. The options are:
  • Automatic: Unity examines the scenes in the build and automatically strips variants that are not used in those scenes. This is the default setting.
  • Custom: Select this option to manually include or exclude variants for the following fog modes:
    • Linear
    • Exponential
    • Exponential Squared
Instancing VariantsDetermine the shader variant stripping behavior for shaders that relate to GPU instancing. The options are:
  • Strip Unused: Unity only includes variants for GPU instancing for a given shader if at least one material that uses that shader has Enable instancing enabled. This is the default setting.
  • Strip All: Strip all variants for GPU instancing, even if they are being used.
  • Keep All: Include all variants for GPU instancing, even if they are not being used.

Shader loading

These properties allow you to configure how Unity prewarms graphics state collections or shader variant collections in your application.
For information on prewarming, including important information about graphics API support, refer to Introduction to PSO tracing and warming.

Property

Function

Renderer Light Probe SelectionChoose the type of probe Unity uses when a Renderer receives global illumination from Light Probes but is not within the volume of influence (the tetrahedron) of any group of Light Probes.
Options:
  • Find closest Light Probe: the default option. With this option selected, Unity searches for the nearest Light Probe, which consumes significant system resources.
  • Use Ambient Probe: Select this option to make Unity fall back to the Ambient Probe in situations described above. This option uses less system resources.
Preload Graphics State CollectionSelect the graphics state collection to load before beginning PSO tracing or prewarming on application start, depending on the behavior specified in Collection Startup Behavior.
Collection Startup BehaviorDetermine whether to trace or warmup PSOs at application startup. The options are:
  • None: The default option. With this option selected, the graphics state collection will not be loaded and there is no automated startup behavior.
  • BeginTrace: Select this option to run BeginTrace on application start after loading the collection specified in Preload Graphics State Collection, or creating a new collection if not specified.Note: PSO tracing is only supported on development builds.
  • Warmup: Select this option to prewarm the PSOs and shader variants specified in Preload Graphics State Collection on application start.
Save AsSpecify the name and file path within the application's persistent data directory to save the resulting graphics state collection file to. If you enable Send to Editor, the save location is relative to the project's 
Assets
folder.
Note: This option is only available when the Collection Startup Behavior is BeginTrace.
|Send to Editor| Enable to send the resulting graphics state collection asset to the Editor if connected using the Autoconnect Profiler build setting.
Note: This option is only available when the Collection Startup Behavior is BeginTrace.| |Additional Collections| Add any additional graphics state collections to append to the specified collection in Preload Graphics State Collection before initiating warmup.| |Warmup Asynchronously| Enable to prewarm PSOs in the background without blocking the main thread until completion.| |Warmup After Showing First Scene| This property determines when Unity prewarms the graphics states specified in Preload Graphics State Collection.
If enabled, Unity loads and prewarms the PSOs after the first scene has fully loaded. Otherwise, Unity loads and starts prewarming before showing the first scene.| |Progressive count limit per frame| Determines how Unity prewarms the graphics states specified in Preload Graphics State Collection if Warmup After Showing First Scene is enabled.
If set to 
0
, Unity preloads all PSOs on the next frame after it displays the first scene.
Otherwise, Unity preloads new PSOs over multiple frames after it displays the first scene. In a given frame, Unity is limited to the specified number of graphics states and doesn't begin prewarming new PSOs until the next frame.| |Enable Cache Miss Tracing| If enabled and Warmup is set as the Collection Startup Behavior, any new un-warmed graphics states after prewarming is complete will be traced to a separate graphics state collection. Tracing is only supported on development builds.| |Cache Miss Collection Save Path| Specify the name and file path within the application's persistent data directory to save the resulting graphics state collection file to.
Note: This option is only available when you enable Enable Cache Miss Tracing.| |Preload Shaders| The shader variant collections to prewarm on application start.
Note: For better stutter reduction, Unity recommends you instead prewarm PSOs with graphics state collections.| |Preload Shaders After Showing First Scene| This property determines when Unity prewarms the shader variants specified in Preload Shaders.
If enabled, Unity loads and prewarms the variants after the first scene has fully loaded. Otherwise, Unity loads and prewarms them before showing the first scene.| |Preload Time Limit Per Frame (ms)| Specify the per-frame time limit for Unity to prewarm the shader variants specified in Preload Shaders if Preload Shaders After Showing First Scene is enabled.
If set to 
0
, Unity preloads all shader variants on the next frame after it displays the first scene.
Otherwise, Unity preloads new shader variants over multiple frames after it displays the first scene. In a given frame, Unity prewarms shader variants until it reaches the time limit set in this property, then doesn't begin prewarming new shader variants until the next frame. |

Tracked shader variants

The Unity Editor can track which shader variants your application uses when it runs. You can use this information to build shader variant collections.

Control

Function

Create assetCreates a new shader variant collection asset using the currently tracked shader variants.
ClearClear tracked shader variants.

Culling settings

Camera-Relative Culling determines whether Unity uses the camera position as the reference point for culling.

Property

Function

LightsUse the camera position as the reference point to cull lights instead of the world space origin. Enable Lights to reduce flickering if lights are far away from the camera. Refer to Understanding the View Frustum for more information.
ShadowsUse the camera position as the reference point to cull shadows instead of the world space origin. Enable Shadows to reduce flickering if shadows are far away from the camera. Refer to Understanding the View Frustum for more information.

Pipeline-specific settings

The Graphics settings window always contains the Built-in Render Pipeline settings below.
However if your project uses a Scriptable Render Pipeline (SRP), for example the Universal Render Pipeline (URP) or the High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP), the window contains a tab for each SRP in your project. Refer to the following pages for more information:

Camera Settings

These properties control various rendering settings.

Property

Function

Transparency Sort ModeDefine the order for rendering objects by their distance along a specific axis. Renderers in Unity are sorted by several criteria, such as their layer number or their distance from the camera. This is generally only useful in 2D development: for example, sorting Sprites by height or along the Y-axis. The options are:
  • Default: Sort objects based on the Camera mode.
  • Perspective: Sort objects based on perspective view.
  • Orthographic: Sort objects based on orthographic view.
  • Custom Axis: Sort objects based on the sort mode defined with the Transparency Sort Axis.
Transparency Sort AxisDefine a custom Transparency Sort Mode.

Tier Settings

In the Built-in Render Pipeline, you can use Tier settings to change rendering and shader compilation settings for different types of hardware. For more information, see Graphics tiers.

Property

Function

Standard Shader QualitySet the quality of the Standard Shader to High, Medium, or Low.
Reflection Probes Box ProjectionEnable projection for reflection UV mappings on Reflection Probes.
Reflection Probes BlendingEnable blending on Reflection Probes.
Detail Normal MapEnable Detail Normal Map sampling, if assigned.
Enable Semitransparent ShadowsEnable Semitransparent Shadows. This adds or removes the UNITY_USE_DITHER_MASK_FOR_ALPHABLENDED_SHADOWS shader compiler define.
Enable Light Probe Proxy VolumeEnable rendering a 3D grid of interpolated Light Probes.
Cascaded ShadowsEnable using cascaded shadow maps. This adds or removes the UNITY_NO_SCREENSPACE_SHADOWS shader compiler define.
Prefer 32 bit shadow mapsEnable 32-bit float shadow map when you are targeting platforms that use DX11 or DX12. Most platforms have a fixed shadow map format that you can't adjust. These vary in format, and can be 16-bit, 24-bit, or 32-bit, and can also be either float- or integer-based. 32-bit shadow maps give higher quality shadows than 16-bit, but use increased memory and bandwidth on the GPU. Note: To use 32-bit shadow maps, make sure the depth buffer is also set to 32-bit.
Use HDREnable High Dynamic Range rendering for this tier.
HDR ModeSelect the format to use for the HDR buffer when HDR is enabled for the current Graphics Tier. By default, this is set to FP16. The options are:
  • FP16: Color render texture format, 16-bit floating point per channel.
  • R11G11B10: Color render texture format. R and G channels are 11-bit floating point, B channel is 10-bit floating point.
Rendering PathChoose how Unity should render graphics. Different rendering paths affect the performance of your game, and how lighting and shading are calculated. Some paths are more suited to different platforms and hardware than others. Deferred rendering is not supported when using Orthographic projection. If the camera’s projection mode is set to Orthographic, these values are overridden, and the camera always uses Forward rendering. The options are:
  • Forward
  • Deferred
  • Legacy Vertex Lit
For more information, refer to Rendering paths.
Realtime Global Illumination CPU UsageThe CPU budget you allow Enlighten Realtime Global Illumination to use for lighting calculations at runtime. Increasing this makes the system react faster to changes in lighting at a cost of using more CPU time. Note: Some platforms allow all CPUs to be occupied by worker threads whereas some enforce maximums. For example, some gaming consoles allow a maximum of 4 CPU cores. For Android devices, if it is a bigLittle architecture, only the little CPUs are used; otherwise the maximum is one less than the total number of CPUs. If you use the URP or HDRP render pipelines, you can configure this property in the quality settings. The options are:
  • Low: 25% of the allowed CPU threads are used as worker threads.
  • Medium: 50% of the allowed CPU threads are used as worker threads.
  • High: 75% of the allowed CPU threads are used as worker threads.
  • Unlimited: 100% of the allowed CPU threads are used as worker threads.

Built-in shader settings

Use these settings to specify which shader to use for each of the listed features in the Built-in Render Pipeline.

Rendering path

Shader to use

DeferredUse with Deferred shading.
Deferred ReflectionUse with Reflection Probes in deferred shading.
Screen Space shadowsUse with cascaded shadow maps for directional lights on PC/console platforms.
Motion vectorsUse for object-based motion vector calculations.
Lens FlareUse with Lens Flares.
Light HaloUse with Light Halos.
For each of these features, you can choose which type of Shader to use:
  • No Support disables this calculation. Use this setting if you are not using deferred shading. This will save some space in the built game data files.
  • Built-in Shader uses Unity's built-in Shaders to do the calculation. This is the default.
  • Custom Shader uses your own compatible Shader to do the calculation. This enables you to do deep customization of deferred rendering.
When you choose Custom shader, a
Shader

?

reference property appears below the feature property where you can set a reference to the Shader you want to use.

Always Included Shaders

This is a list of shaders for which Unity includes all possible variants in every build. This can be useful if you want to use shaders or variants at runtime that would not otherwise be included in the build; for example, if you use AssetBundles or Addressables that rely on those shaders or variants, or if you use shader keywords to change variants at runtime.
Warning
This feature is not recommended for shaders that have a large number of variants, such as the Standard Shader; it can lead to significant runtime and build time performance problems. You should instead create graphics state collections that contain only the variants you need, and include those in your build.
Note
This setting overrides shader keyword declaration settings. For each shader in the list, Unity includes all sets of all keywords, even if you use the "shader feature" declaration type.
To add a shader to the list, increase the value in the Size property. To remove the last shader in the list, decrease the Size property. To remove a shader which is not the last one in the list, you can set the value to None.

Additional resources