Introduction to Custom Render Textures
Learn about rendering a Render Texture via a shader, for example to create complex simulations like caustics, rain effects, and liquid splatters.
Read time 1 minuteLast updated 23 days ago
Custom Render Textures are a special type of texture that allow you to update a texture with a shader. They are an extension to Render Textures. You can use Custom Render Textures to create complex simulations like caustics, ripple simulation for rain effects, and liquid splatters.
The Custom Render Textures feature provides a scripting and Shader framework to help with complicated configuration like varying update frequency, partial or multi-pass updates.
To use this framework you need to assign a Material to the Custom Render Texture asset. Custom Render Textures require a compatible Material. For more information, see Writing a shader for a Custom Render Texture.
Render Pipeline Compatibility
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.
The following table describes the compatibility between the Custom Render Textures feature and each render pipeline:
Feature | Universal Render Pipeline (URP) | High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) | Custom Scriptable Render Pipeline (SRP) | Built-in Render Pipeline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Custom Render Textures | Yes (1) | Yes (1) | Yes (1) | Yes (1) |
Note:
- To create Materials that update and initialize Custom Render Textures in Shader Graph, selecting Custom Render Texture as the target of the shader graph.