Vertex-Lit

Note. Unity 5 introduced the Standard Shader which replaces this shaderA program that runs on the GPU. More info
See in Glossary.

Vertex-Lit Properties

Note. Unity 5 introduced the Standard Shader which replaces this shader.

This shader is Vertex-Lit, which is one of the simplest shaders. All lights shining on it are rendered in a single pass and calculated at vertices only.

Because it is vertex-lit, it won’t display any pixel-based renderingThe process of drawing graphics to the screen (or to a render texture). By default, the main camera in Unity renders its view to the screen. More info
See in Glossary effects, such as light cookies, normal mapping, or shadows. This shader is also much more sensitive to tesselation of the models. If you put a point light very close to a cube using this shader, the light will only be calculated at the corners. Pixel-lit shaders are much more effective at creating a nice round highlight, independent of tesselation. If that’s an effect you want, you may consider using a pixel-lit shader or increase tesselation of the objects instead.

Performance

Generally, this shader is very cheap to render. For more details, please view the Shader Peformance page.