Choose a prebuilt shader in URP

The Universal Render PipelineA series of operations that take the contents of a Scene, and displays them on a screen. Unity lets you choose from pre-built render pipelines, or write your own. More info
See in Glossary implements Physically Based Rendering (PBR).

The pipeline provides pre-built shadersA program that runs on the GPU. More info
See in Glossary that can simulate real world materials.

PBR materials provide a set of parameters that let artists achieve consistency between different material types and under different lighting conditions.

Complex Lit Shader

The Complex Lit shader is suitable for simulating advanced materials that require more complex lighting evaluation, such as the clear coat effect.

The Complex Lit Shader contains all the functionality of the Lit shader and adds advanced material features. Some features in this shader might be considerably more resource-intensive and require Unity Shader Model 4.5 hardware.

In the Deferred Rendering PathThe technique that a render pipeline uses to render graphics. Choosing a different rendering path affects how lighting and shading are calculated. Some rendering paths are more suited to different platforms and hardware than others. More info
See in Glossary, URP renders objects that have the Complex Lit shader using the Forward RenderingA rendering path that renders each object in one or more passes, depending on lights that affect the object. Lights themselves are also treated differently by Forward Rendering, depending on their settings and intensity. More info
See in Glossary Path. If the hardware of the target platform does not support features in the Complex Lit shader, URP uses the Lit shader instead.

Lit Shader

The URP Lit shader is suitable for modeling most of the real world materials.

The Lit Shader lets you render real-world surfaces like stone, wood, glass, plastic, and metals in photo-realistic quality. Your light levels and reflections look lifelike and react properly across various lighting conditions, for example bright sunlight, or a dark cave. This Shader uses the most computationally heavy shading model in the Universal Render Pipeline (URP).

For examples of how to use the Lit Shader, refer to the Shaders samples in URP Package Samples.

Simple Lit Shader

URP provides the Simple Lit shader as a helper to convert non-PBR projects made with the Built-in Render Pipeline to URP. This shader is non-PBR and is not supported by Shader Graph.

Use this Shader when performance is more important than photorealism. This Shader uses a simple approximation for lighting. Because this Shader does not calculate for physical correctness and energy conservation, it renders quickly.

Baked Lit Shader

If you don’t need real-time lighting, or would rather only use baked lighting and sample global illuminationA group of techniques that model both direct and indirect lighting to provide realistic lighting results.
See in Glossary, choose a Baked Lit Shader.

In the Universal Render Pipeline (URP), use this Shader for stylised games or apps that only require baked lightingvia lightmapsA pre-rendered texture that contains the effects of light sources on static objects in the scene. Lightmaps are overlaid on top of scene geometry to create the effect of lighting. More info
See in Glossary and Light ProbesLight probes store information about how light passes through space in your scene. A collection of light probes arranged within a given space can improve lighting on moving objects and static LOD scenery within that space. More info
See in Glossary. This shader does not use Physically Based ShadingAn advanced lighting model that simulates the interactions between materials and light in a way that mimics reality. More info
See in Glossary and has no real-time lighting, so all real-time relevant shader keywords and variants are stripped from the Shader code, which makes it faster to calculate.

Unlit Shader

If you don’t need lighting on a Material at all, you can choose the Unlit Shader.

Use this Shader for effects or unique objects in your visuals that don’t need lighting. Because there are no time-consuming lighting calculations or lookups, this Shader is optimal for lower-end hardware. The Unlit Shader uses the most simple shading model in URP.

Particle shaders

URP provides the following particle shaders:

• Particles Lit Shader - makes particles appear almost photorealistic, for example for camp fire particles, rain drops or torch smoke. This Shader produces lifelike visuals but uses the most computationally heavy shading model in URP, which can impact performance.
• Particles Simple Lit shader - for particles where performance is more important than photorealism. This Shader uses a simple approximation for lighting. Because this Shader does not calculate for physical correctness and energy conservation, it renders quickly.
• Particles Unlit Shader - for particles that don’t need lighting. Because there are no time-consuming lighting calculations or lookups, this Shader is optimal for lower-end hardware. The Unlit Shader uses the most simple shading model in the Universal Render Pipeline (URP).