DirectX

You can choose to set DirectX11 (DX11) or DirectX12 (DX12) as your default Graphics API in the Editor or Standalone Player. To do that:

1. Go to Edit > Project Settings > Player settings > Other Settings.

2. In the Rendering section, disable the Auto Graphics API for a platform (Windows/Mac/Linux) option.

3. Click + to select DirectX11 or DirectX12 from the list of the supported Graphic APIs. For more information, see Graphics API support.

Surface Shaders

Some parts of the Surface ShaderA streamlined way of writing shaders for the Built-in Render Pipeline. More info
See in Glossary compilation pipeline don’t understand DX11-specific HLSL syntax, so if you’re using HLSL features like StructuredBuffers, RWTextures and other non-DX9 syntax, you need to wrap it into a DX11-only preprocessor macro. See documentation on Platform-specific differences for more information.

Tessellation & Geometry Shaders

Surface ShadersA program that runs on the GPU. More info
See in Glossary have support for simple tessellation and displacement. See documentation on Surface Shader Tessellation for more information.

When manually writing Shader programs, you can use the full set of DX11 Shader model 5.0 features, including Geometry, Hull and Domain Shaders.

Tessellation and geometry shaders are only supported by a subset of graphics APIs, which are controlled by the Shader Compilation Target level.

Compute Shaders

Compute Shaders run on the graphics card and can speed up rendering. See documentation on Compute Shaders for more information.