Render pipeline feature comparison

This page contains information on feature support in the Built-in 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, the Universal Render Pipeline (URP), and the High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP). It also contains suggested alternatives for certain features.

For ease of reference, features are broken down into the following categories:

• Platform Support
• Lighting
• Color
• Camera
• Shaders
• World building
• Visual effects
• 2D and UI
• XR
• Scripting
• Optimizations
• Debug

Platform Support

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
Windows	Yes	Yes	Yes DirectX 11. DirectX 12, Vulkan
MacOS	Yes	Yes	Yes
Linux	Yes	Yes	Yes Vulkan
XBox One	Yes	Yes	Yes
XBox Series	Yes	Yes	Yes
PlayStation 4	Yes	Yes	Yes
PlayStation 5	Yes	Yes	Yes
Nintendo Switch	Yes	Yes	No
iOS	Yes	Yes	No
Android	Yes	Yes	No
Desktop VRVirtual Reality More info See in Glossary	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mobile VR	Yes	Yes	No
Hololens	Yes	Yes	No
WebGLA JavaScript API that renders 2D and 3D graphics in a web browser. The Unity Web build option allows Unity to publish content as JavaScript programs which use HTML5 technologies and the WebGL rendering API to run Unity content in a web browser. More info See in Glossary	Yes	Yes	No

Lighting

Lights

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
Directional	Yes	Yes	Yes
Spot	Yes Supported shapes: Cone	Yes Supported shapes: Cone	Yes Supported shapes: Cone, Pyramid, Box
Point	Yes	Yes	Yes
Area	Yes Supported shapes: Rectangle (only with Enlighten Realtime Global Illumination), Disc (baked only)	Yes Supported shapes: Rectangle (baked only), Disc (baked only)	Yes Supported shapes: Rectangle (real-time and baked), Tube (real-time only), Disc (baked only)
Inner Spot angle	No	Yes	Yes
Shading technique	Yes Multiple passes	Yes Single pass only	Yes Hybrid tile and cluster
Culling Per Object	Yes	Yes	No
Culling Per Tile	No	No	Yes
Culling Per Layer	Yes Based on GameObject layers	Yes Based on dedicated Rendering layers (32 layers available)	Yes Based on dedicated Rendering layers (only the first 16 are used)
Multiple directional lights	Yes	Yes Supports shadowing for one directional light at a time.	Yes Supports shadowing for one directional light at a time. To simulate more, use Spot light with a Box shape.
Number of real-time lights per object	Unlimited	Forward: 1 Directional light + up to 8 lights per-object depending on the settings in the Render Pipeline asset. Deferred: Unlimited lights for opaque objects. For transparents or objects that shade in forward mode the same limit as above applies. Forward+: Not Applicable. Forward+ shade lights per-tile, see “Number of real-time lights per Camera” below. For more information check: Render Path Comparison	Unlimited (HDRP doesn’t classify lights per object, see bellow the “Number of real-time lights per Camera” section).
Number of real-time lights per Camera	Unlimited	On mobile platforms: 32. On other platforms: 256 (configurable to improve build time and performance adding the package Packages/com.unity.render-pipelines.universal-config, and changing the value of MAX_VISIBLE_LIGHT_COUNT_DESKTOP in Runtime/ShaderConfig.cs.hlsl and k_MaxVisibleLightCountDesktop in Runtime/ShaderConfig.cs).	In Deferred: 63 per 8x8 pixel tile. In Forward: 63 per 16x16 pixel cluster. You can disable the cap for the deferred rendering path in Frame Settings > Light Loop Debug > Deferred Tile. This will affect performance.
Light attenuation type	Yes Legacy	Yes InverseSquared	Yes InverseSquared
Vertex Lights	Yes	Yes	No
SH Lights	Yes	No	No
Light Cookies	Yes Only shape, no color (Alpha channel).	Yes Colored cookie (RGB)	Yes Colored cookie (RGB)
IES Lights	No	No	Yes
Light Distance Fade	No	No	Yes
Physical light units	No	No	Yes
Light anchor tool	Yes	Yes	Yes

Shadows

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
Directional Light Shadows	Yes	Yes	Yes
Multiple Directional Light Shadows	Yes	No	No
Directional Light Cascade Shadows	Yes 1, 2, or 4 cascades, control by percentage only.	Yes 1 to 4 cascades. Control by percentage, or switch to meters. Settings are in URP asset.	Yes 1 to 4 cascades. Control by percentage or distance. Settings are in Volumes.
Shadow Cascade Blending	No	No	Yes
Spot Light Shadows	Yes	Yes	Yes
Point Light Shadows	Yes	Yes	Yes
Area Light Shadows	No	No	Yes Only for rectangle shape
Stable Fit Shadow Projection	Yes	Yes	Yes
Close Fit Shadow Projection	Yes	No	No No support for orthographic projection. Use wide field of view to emulate.
Shadow Screen Space Pass	Yes	Yes	Yes Mostly used for Raytracing.
Shadow bias	Yes Supported types: Constant clip space offset. Normal bias	Yes Supported types: Offsets shadowmap texels in the light direction, Normal bias	Yes Supported types: Slope bias, Normal bias
PCF filtering (Percentage Closer Filtering)	No	Yes PCF Tent 5x5	Yes For Point and Spot lights in “Low” (PCF 3x3 4 taps) and “Medium” (PCF 5x5 9 taps) quality settings, and for Directional lights in “Low” (PCF 5x5 9 taps) and “Medium” (PCF Tent 5x5 9 taps) quality settings.
PCSS filtering (Percentage Closer Soft Shadows)	No	No	Yes For Point and Spot lights, Directional lights and Area lights when in “High” quality in the HDRP settings for each kind of light.
EVSM filtering (Exponential Variance Shadow Mapping)	No	No	Yes For area lights only in all quality settings except “High”.
Shadow update modes	No	No	Yes Every frame, On Enable, On Demand. Each cascade can be updated independently using the API (RequestSubShadowMapRendering)
Resolution settings	Yes Configured in Quality Settings.	Yes Configured in URP Lighting Settings.	Yes Configure shadowmap resolution or budget per Light, and configure shadow atlas size in HDRP Asset.
Dynamic rescale	No	No	Yes
Directional light shadow caching	No	No	Yes
Punctual and Area lights shadow caching	No	No	Yes
Dynamic Shadow Casters	No	No	Yes
Static Shadow Casters	No	No	Yes
Contact Shadows	No	No	Yes
Micro Shadows	No	No	Yes
Shadow Cascade Volume Controller	No	No	Yes
Shadow Distance Fade	Yes	Yes	Yes Configure in Shadows Volume.
Shadow Mask	Yes Configure per scene.	Yes Configure per scene.	Yes Configure per Light.
Distance Shadow Mask	Yes Configure per scene.	Yes Forward Rendering Path only.	Yes Configure per Light.
Transparent objects casting shadows	Yes Use the Transparent Cutout shaders for objects with “gaps” such as fences, vegetation, etc. or custom pixel-lit shaders using the Geometry render queue. Opacity can affect shadow intensity using dithering.	No Alpha clipping only.	Yes Raytracing only (incl support of colored shadows). For raster, alpha clipping only (use Alpha clipping > Shadow threshold option).
Transparent objects receiving shadows	No	Yes	Yes
Shadow tint	No	No	Yes Shadow tint or penumbra tint options
Shadow matte	No	No	Yes Use Unlit master node and “Enable Shadow Matte”
Shadow Layers	No	No	Yes

Global Illumination

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
Baked Global IlluminationA group of techniques that model both direct and indirect lighting to provide realistic lighting results. See in Glossary: Progressive CPU LightmapperA tool in Unity that bakes lightmaps according to the arrangement of lights and geometry in your scene. More info See in Glossary	Yes	Yes	Yes
Baked Global Illumination: Progressive GPU Lightmapper	Yes	Yes	Yes
Baked Global Illumination: Enlighten Lightmapper	No Deprecated	No Deprecated	No Deprecated
Baked Global Illumination: Mixed Lighting modes	Yes Subtractive, Baked indirect, Shadow Mask, Distance Shadow mask	Yes Subtractive, Baked indirect, Shadow Mask, Distance Shadow mask	Yes Baked indirect, Shadow Mask (per light setting), Distance Shadow mask (per light setting)
Baked Global Illumination: Double Sided GI	Yes	Yes	Yes
Realtime Global Illumination: Pre-computed (Enlighten)	Yes Support ends after Unity 2024 LTS	Yes Support ends after Unity 2024 LTS	Yes Support ends after Unity 2024 LTS
Realtime Global Illumination: Screen space GI	No	No	Yes
Screen Space Reflections	Yes	No	Yes
Planar Reflections	No	No	Yes
Raytraced Reflections	No	No	Yes
Screen Space Refractions	No	No	Yes
Non directional lightmapA 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	Yes	Yes	Yes
Directional lightmap	Yes	Yes	Yes

Light Probes

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
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: Blending	Yes	Yes	Yes
Light Probes: Custom provided	Yes	Yes	Yes
Light Probes: Occlusion Probes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Light Probes: Proxy volumes (LPPV)	Yes	No Deprecated	Yes

Adaptive Probe Volumes

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
Probe Volumes: Per pixelThe smallest unit in a computer image. Pixel size depends on your screen resolution. Pixel lighting is calculated at every screen pixel. More info See in Glossary lighting	No	Yes	Yes
Probe Volumes: Per vertex lighting	No	Yes	No
Probe Volumes: Blending	No	Yes	Yes
Probe Volumes: Touchup volumes	No	Yes	Yes
Probe Volumes: Stream from disk	No	Yes Incl. non compute pass for lower end devices.	Yes
Probe Volumes: Sky occlusion	No	Yes	Yes
Probe Volumes: Reflection ProbesA rendering component that captures a spherical view of its surroundings in all directions, rather like a camera. The captured image is then stored as a Cubemap that can be used by objects with reflective materials. More info See in Glossary Normalization	No	No	Yes

Reflection Probes

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
Reflection Probes: Baked	Yes	Yes	Yes
Reflection Probes: Real-time	Yes	Yes	Yes
Reflection Probes: Real-time time sliced all faces at once	Yes	Yes	No
Reflection Probes: Real-time time sliced individual faces	Yes	Yes	Yes
Reflection Probes: On-demand API	Yes	Yes	Yes
Reflection Probes: Proxy volumes	No	No	Yes
Reflection Probes: Simple sampling	Yes Choose per-object how to sample reflection probes.	Yes Choose in the URP asset whether URP always performs simple sampling from reflection probes, or if it blends.	No See Reflection Hierarchy.
Reflection Probes: Blend probes sampling	Yes Choose per-object how to sample reflection probes. Blend up to 2 reflection probes.	Yes Choose in the URP asset whether URP always performs simple sampling from reflection probes, or if it blends. If blending is enabled, URP always blends sky + 1 local probe, or 2 probes if there is no sky.	Yes No blending limit. All reflections including planar blend between each other.
Reflection Probes: Blend probes and skybox sampling	Yes	Yes	Yes See Reflection Hierarchy.
Reflection Probes: Distanced based roughness	No	No	Yes
Reflection Probes: Box Projection	Yes	Yes	Yes
Reflection Probes: Oriented Box Projection	No	No	Yes
Reflection Probes: Sphere Projection	Yes	No	Yes
Reflection Probes: Per probe resolution	Yes	No	Yes

Raytracing

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
Ray-traced Ambient OcclusionA method to approximate how much ambient light (light not coming from a specific direction) can hit a point on a surface. See in Glossary	No	No	Yes
Ray-traced Contact Shadows	No	No	Yes
Ray-traced Global Illumination	No	No	Yes
Ray-traced Reflections	No	No	Yes Incl. decals
Ray-traced Shadows	No	No	Yes
Ray-traced Recursive Rendering	No	No	Yes
AxF (automotive material)	No	No	Yes
Terrain	No	No	Yes Heightmap only. No support for terrain details and terrain trees. For vegetation on terrain, we recommend using mixed rendering modes for ray traced GI and reflections which allow to support foliage/vegetation & deformation, and for shadows using raster shadows.
VFX Graph particles	No	No	Yes
Windows	No	No	Yes Requires DX12, and platforms with hardware supporting RTX.
Linux	No	No	No
PS5	No	No	Yes
XBox Series	No	No	Yes

Pathtracing

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
Lit (Pathtracing support)	No	No	Yes
Hair (Pathtracing support)	No	No	Yes
Eye (Pathtracing support)	No	No	No
Fabric (Pathtracing support)	No	No	Yes
AxF (Pathtracing support)	No	No	Yes
Decals (Pathtracing support)	No	No	Yes Except emissive decals.
Punctual lights (point, spot, directional)	No	No	Yes Incl. box spot light
Area Lights	No	No	Yes Incl. volumetric fog control
Tube and Disc Lights	No	No	Yes
Depth of fieldA post-processing effect that simulates the focus properties of a camera lens. More info See in Glossary (Pathtracing support)	No	No	Yes
Exponential FogA fog model that emulates realistic fog behaviour by simulating light absorption over distance by a certain attenuation factor. See in Glossary (Pathtracing support)	No	No	Yes
Anisotropic fog (Pathtracing support)	No	No	Yes
Local Volumetric fog (Pathtracing support)	No	No	No
HDRIhigh dynamic range image See in Glossary sampling	No	No	Yes
Denoiser	No	No	Yes NVidia Optix™ AI accelerated denoiser or Intel® Open Image Denoise.
Recorder integration	No	No	Yes
VFX Graph particles	No	No	No

Environment lighting

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
Skybox	Yes Per project. Set in the Lighting window.	Yes Per project. Set in the Lighting window.	Yes Configure in Visual Environment Volume. Choose from HDRI sky, physical sky or custom sky.
Gradient	Yes Per project. Set in the Lighting window.	Yes Per project. Set in the Lighting window.	Yes Configure in Visual Environment Volume.
Color	Yes Per project. Set in the Lighting window.	Yes Per project. Set in the Lighting window.	No Alternative: use Gradient sky.
Real-time Ambient Mode	Yes By script.	Yes By script.	Yes Configure in Visual Environment Volume.
Baked Ambient Mode	Yes By default	Yes By default	Yes Configure in Visual Environment Volume. Uses the environment stored in Lighting > Environment settings.
Indirect Lighting Controller	No	No	Yes

Color

HDR

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
HDRhigh dynamic range See in Glossary rendering	Yes	Yes	Yes
HDR output	No	Yes Only certain devices are supported, see URP Documentation for more information.	Yes Use the HDROutputSettings API to configure HDR output options and HDRP’s tonemapping HDR options. See HDRP HDR documentation for more information.

Color space

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
Linear	Yes Requires OpenGLES3.0	Yes	Yes
Gamma	Yes	Yes	No

Camera

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
Multi display	Yes	Yes	Yes
Hardware Dynamic resolution	Yes	Yes Limited platform support.	Yes Limited platform support.
Software Dynamic resolutionA Camera setting that allows you to dynamically scale individual render targets, to reduce workload on the GPU. More info See in Glossary	No	No	Yes
Nvidia Deep learning super sampling (DLSS)	No	No	Yes
AMD FidelityFX™ Super Resolution 1.0	No	Yes	Yes
AMD FidelityFX™ Super Resolution 2.0	No	No	Yes
TAA upsampler	No	No	Yes
Unity Spatial Temporal Post Process (STP)	No	Yes	Yes
Mip bias	No	Yes	Yes
Compositing multiple cameras	Yes Use multiple cameras	Yes Use Camera stacking	Yes Use HDRP Compositor
Physical camera	Yes Affects field of view only	Yes Affects field of view only	Yes Affects field of view, exposure, bloom, and depth of field
Multi-sample anti-aliasing (MSAA)	Yes Forward rendering path only	Yes Forward rendering path only	Yes Forward rendering path only
Fast approximate anti-aliasing (FXAA)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Subpixel morphological anti-aliasing (SMAA)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Temporal anti-aliasing (TAA)	Yes Additional pass to render all object’s motion vectors. No override support for transparents.	Yes Additional pass to render all object’s motion vectors. No override support for transparents. No custom motion vectors in ShaderGraph. Not compatible with Dynamic Resolution, MSAA nor Camera Stacking. 16-bits.	Yes Uses per-shader motion vectors and the stencil buffer to only render motion vectors where needed. Allows custom motion vectors in shaders, for example using the ShaderGraph or Alembic packages. 32-bits (float).
Depth Texture	Yes	Yes	Yes
Depth + Normal Texture	Yes	Yes	Yes
Depth + Normal Texture (affected by decals)	No	No	Yes Except if MSAA is enabled.
Color Texture	No	Yes	Yes
Motion Vectors	Yes	Yes	Yes
Thickness Pass	No	No	Yes Optional

Shaders

Authoring workflows

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
Material Variants	Yes	Yes	Yes
ShaderA program that runs on the GPU. More info See in Glossary Graph	Yes	Yes	Yes
ShaderLab	Yes	Yes Hand-coded shaders are supported, but not recommended. Shader Graph is recommended (more easily upgradable).	Yes Hand-coded shaders are supported, but not recommended. Shader Graph is recommended (more easily upgradable).
ShaderLabUnity’s language for defining the structure of Shader objects. More info See in Glossary Command: UsePass	Yes	Yes	Yes
ShaderLab Command: GrabPass	Yes	No Alternative: Scene color node in ShaderGraph / create a Renderer Feature	No Alternative: Scene color node in ShaderGraph / create a Custom Pass
Surface ShadersA streamlined way of writing shaders for the Built-in Render Pipeline. More info See in Glossary	Yes	No	No
Diffusion Profiles	No	No	Yes

Prebuilt shaders

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
Camera-relative rendering	No	No	Yes
Material type: Metallic / Standard	Yes	Yes	Yes
Material type: Specular	Yes	Yes	Yes
Surface Type and Blend Mode: Opaque	Yes	Yes	Yes
Surface Type and Blend Mode: Faded (Alpha Blend)	Yes	Yes	Yes Also supports premultiplied alpha.
Surface Type and Blend Mode: Transparent	Yes	Yes	Yes
Surface Type and Blend Mode: Cutout	Yes	Yes	Yes
Surface Type and Blend Mode: Additive	No	Yes	Yes
Surface Type and Blend Mode: Multiply	No	Yes	No Not compatible with half res transparent optimization and offscreen UI blending.
Surface Type and Blend Mode: Translucence	No	No	Yes Translucent Material Type in the Lit shaders
Surface Inputs: Albedo (Base Map)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Surface Inputs: Specular	Yes	Yes	Yes Base map when using Material Type Specular
Surface Inputs: Metallic	Yes	Yes	Yes Stored in the R channel of the Mask Map.
Surface Inputs: Ambient Occlusion	Yes	Yes	Yes Stored in the G channel of the Mask Map.
Surface Inputs: Smoothness	Yes	Yes	Yes Stored in the A channel of the Mask Map.
Surface Inputs: Normal MapA type of Bump Map texture that allows you to add surface detail such as bumps, grooves, and scratches to a model which catch the light as if they are represented by real geometry. See in Glossary	Yes	Yes	Yes
Surface Inputs: Bent Normal Map	No	No	Yes
Surface Inputs: Detail Map	Yes	Yes	Yes Albedo stored in the R channel of the Detail Map. Smoothness stored in the B channel.
Surface Inputs: Detail Normal Map	Yes	Yes	Yes Y axis stored in the G channel of the Detail Map. X axis stored in the A channel.
Surface Inputs: Heightmap	Yes Pixel displacement only.	Yes Pixel displacement only.	Yes Pixel or vertex displacement.
Surface Inputs: Detail Mask	Yes	Yes	Yes Stored in the B channel of the Mask Map.
Surface Inputs: Emissive Map	Yes	Yes	Yes
Surface Inputs: Transmission Mask	No	No	Yes Also available in Shader Graph.
Surface Inputs: Specular Occlusion	No	No	Yes
Surface Inputs: Planar & Triplanar mapping	No Alternative: Use ShaderGraph Triplanar node	No Alternative: Use ShaderGraph Triplanar node	Yes
Included Lighting models: ClearCoat	No	Yes	Yes
Included Lighting models: SubSurface Scattering	No	No	Yes Includes Dual Lobe multipliers and diffuse shading power for skin.
Included Lighting models: Colored Translucent	No	No	Yes
Included Lighting models: Anisotropy	No	No	Yes
Included Lighting models: Irridescence	No	No	Yes
Included Lighting models: Fabric	No	No	Yes
Included Lighting models: Eye	No	No	Yes Eye caustics available in High quality mode.
Included Lighting models: Hair (Approximate)	No	No	Yes Based on Kajiya Kay parametrization
Included Lighting models: Hair (Physical)	No	No	Yes Based on Marshner-Disney parametrization. Cinematic option available to trade performance vs quality.
Add custom Lighting model as a plugin	Yes	No	Yes Pluggable Master Node (undocumented)
Features: Light Cookies	Yes Supports grayscale textures	Yes Supports RGB textures	Yes Supports RGB textures
Features: Parallax Mapping	Yes	Yes	Yes
Features: Light Distance Fade	No	No	Yes
Features: Shadow Distance Fade	Yes	Yes	Yes Configure in Shadows Volume.
Features: Shadow Cascade Blending	No	No	Yes
Features: GPU Instancing	Yes	Yes	Yes
Features: Double Sided GI	Yes	No	Yes
Features: Two Sided	No	Yes Configure with the RenderFace property.	Yes Configure with the Double Side toggle.
Features: Material sorting priority	No	Yes	Yes
Features: Renderer sorting priority	No	No Not exposed (use debug mode of the inspector).	Yes
Features: GPU Tesselation	No	No	Yes Use the LitTesselation Shader.
Features: Specular Occlusion	No	No	Yes Use only the ambient occlusion map, or both bent and ambient occlusion maps.
Features: Geometric Specular Anti-Aliasing	No	No	Yes
Features: Add precomputed velocity	No	Yes	Yes Requires per vertex velocity information (eg: Alembic, or using ShaderGraph custom velocity option)

Shader Graph

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
UI(User Interface) Allows a user to interact with your application. Unity currently supports three UI systems. More info See in Glossary	Yes	Yes	Yes
Full screen master node	No	Yes	Yes
Custom post-processingA process that improves product visuals by applying filters and effects before the image appears on screen. You can use post-processing effects to simulate physical camera and film properties, for example Bloom and Depth of Field. More info post processing, postprocessing, postprocess See in Glossary	No	Yes	Yes
Custom render textureA special type of Texture that is created and updated at runtime. To use them, first create a new Render Texture and designate one of your Cameras to render into it. Then you can use the Render Texture in a Material just like a regular Texture. More info See in Glossary	Yes	Yes	Yes
Text MeshThe main graphics primitive of Unity. Meshes make up a large part of your 3D worlds. Unity supports triangulated or Quadrangulated polygon meshes. Nurbs, Nurms, Subdiv surfaces must be converted to polygons. More info See in Glossary Pro	No	Yes	No
Decals	No	Yes Affect opaque objects only.	Yes Affect opaque and transparent objects.
Fog Volume	No	No	Yes
TerrainThe landscape in your scene. A Terrain GameObject adds a large flat plane to your scene and you can use the Terrain’s Inspector window to create a detailed landscape. More info See in Glossary	No	No	No
Physically Based Sky	No	No	Yes

World building

Environment

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
Terrain system: Physically Based Shader	No	Yes	Yes
Terrain system: Simple Lit (Blinn-Phong) Shader	Yes	No	No
Terrain system: SpeedTree Shader	Yes	Yes	Yes
Terrain system: Paint Trees	Yes	Yes	Yes
Terrain system: Vegetation	Yes	Yes	Yes
Terrain system: Terrain Details	Yes	Yes	Yes
Terrain system: number of Terrain Layers	Yes Unlimited	Yes With height-based blending: 4 With alpha blending: unlimited	Yes 8
Terrain system: GPU Instanced Rendering	Yes	Yes	Yes
Terrain system: Terrain Holes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Water system: Physically Based Shader	No	No	Yes
Water system: Compute based wave simulation	No	No	Yes
Water system: CPU wave simulation for gameplay integration	No	No	Yes Simulation on CPU (no latency) or on GPU with GPU readback (low latency but high performance).
Water system: Local currents	No	No	Yes
Water system: Local foam	No	No	Yes
Water system: Surface deformer	No	No	Yes
Water system: Water excluder	No	No	Yes
Water system: Support for decals (eg: Foam)	No	No	Yes
Water system: Underwater Caustics	No	No	Yes
Water system: Under water rendering	No	No	Yes Includes Water line rendering.
Water system: Under water volumetrics	No	No	Yes
SpeedTree 8	Yes	Yes Both Shader Graph and ShaderLab shaders available.	Yes Shader Graph shader only. Support for subsurface map and motion vectors.
SpeedTree 9	Yes	Yes Shader Graph shaders only.	Yes Shader Graph shaders only.
Wind ZoneA GameObject that adds the effect of wind to your terrain. For instance, Trees within a wind zone will bend in a realistic animated fashion and the wind itself will move in pulses to create natural patterns of movement among the tree. More info See in Glossary	Yes	Yes	Yes

Sky

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
Procedural Skybox	Yes	Yes	No This sky type is deprecated, but you can still use if if you install the Procedural Sky Sample.
6 sided Skybox	Yes	Yes	Yes HDRI Sky supports cubemaps. Unity can build cubemaps from this type on import.
Cubemap	Yes	Yes	Yes HDRI Sky supports cubemaps.
Panoramic	Yes	Yes	Yes HDRI Sky supports cubemaps. Unity can build cubemaps from this type on import.
Physical Sky	No	No	Yes
Gradient Sky	No	No	Yes
Sky distortion	No	No	Yes Procedural or Flowmap
Cloud layers	No	No	Yes
Atmospheric Scattering	No	No	Yes

Volumetrics

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
Volumetric Clouds	No	No	Yes
Linear Fog	Yes Configure in Graphics Settings.	Yes Configure in Graphics Settings.	No
Exponential Fog	Yes Configure in Graphics Settings.	Yes Configure in Graphics Settings.	Yes Configure with the Fog Override.
Exponential Squared	Yes Configure in Graphics Settings.	Yes Configure in Graphics Settings.	No
Local Volumetrics	No	No	Yes
3D Render texture for local volumetric fog	No	No	Yes
Volumetric Material (use ShaderGraph for local volumetric fog)	No	No	Yes
Fog Scattering & Atmospheric scattering	No	No	Yes

Visual effects

Post-processing

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
Feature support	Yes Uses separate package: Post-Processing V2	Yes Uses integrated post-processing solution	Yes Uses integrated post-processing solution
Per-project default effects	No	Yes A default volume can be applied to the project using HDRP default settings.	Yes A default volume can be applied to the project using HDRP default settings.
Ambient Occlusion	Yes Supported types: Multi-scale ambient occlusion	Yes Supported types: Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (Depth or normal)	Yes Supported types: Screen Space Ground Truth Ambient Occlusion (Normal + temporal, tinted multi bounced, specular occlusion), Ray-traced ambient occlusion
Exposure	Yes Supported types: Fixed, Automatic	Yes Supported types: Fixed	Yes Supported types: Fixed, Automatic (Eye adaptation), Curve Mapping, Physical Camera settings and Histogram.
Bloom	Yes	Yes	Yes
Chromatic Aberration	Yes	Yes	Yes
TonemappingThe process of remapping HDR values of an image into a range suitable to be displayed on screen. More info See in Glossary (Neutral, ACES, Custom)	Yes	Yes	Yes
White balance	No	Yes	Yes
Color Channel Mixer	No	Yes	Yes
Color Adjustments	Yes	Yes	Yes
Color Curves	Yes	Yes	Yes
Lift, Gamma, Gain	Yes	Yes	Yes
Shadows, Midtones, Highlights	Yes	Yes	Yes
Split Toning	No	No	Yes
Depth of Field	Yes Supported types: Bokeh	Yes Supported types: Bokeh and Gaussian	Yes Supported types: Bokeh
Physical Depth of Field	No	No	Yes
Film Grain	Yes	Yes	Yes
Lens Distortion	Yes	Yes	Yes
CameraA component which creates an image of a particular viewpoint in your scene. The output is either drawn to the screen or captured as a texture. More info See in Glossary Motion Blur	Yes	Yes	Yes
Object Motion Blur	Yes	Yes	Yes
Screen Space Reflections	Yes	No	Yes
Screen Space Refractions	No	No	Yes
Vignette	Yes	Yes	Yes
Panini Projection	No	Yes	Yes
Screen Space Lens FlaresA component that simulates the effect of lights refracting inside a camera lens. Use a Lens Flare to represent very bright lights or add atmosphere to your scene. More info See in Glossary	No	Yes	Yes
Custom post-processing	Yes	Yes Available with Full Screen Pass Renderer Feature.	Yes Either with script or ShaderGraph.

CPU Particles (Shuriken)

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
Feature support	Yes	Yes	Yes GPU instancing is not supported. Distortion and flipbook blending can be done with Shader Graph. No standard particle shader available, but example particles ShaderGraph shaders can be found in the HDRP package samples.
Lit Particles	Yes	Yes	Yes
Simple lit particles	Yes Uses Blinn Phong.	Yes	Yes
Unlit particles	Yes	Yes	Yes
Soft Particles	Yes	Yes	Yes Available via Shader Graph. Examples available in the particles system shader samples in the HDRP package sample.
Distortion	Yes	Yes	Yes Available via Shader Graph. Examples available in the particles system shader samples in the HDRP package sample.
Flipbook blending	Yes	Yes	Yes Available via Shader Graph. Examples available in the particles system shader samples in the HDRP package sample.
Trail	Yes	Yes	Yes
GPU Instancing	Yes	Yes	No

GPU Particles (VFX Graph)

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
Feature support	No	Yes Compute capable hardware only. OpenGL ES not supported.	Yes Compute capable hardware only.
Supported Shader graph shaders	No	Yes VFX Shader Graph, Lit, Unlit, 2D Sprite Lit, 2D Custom Lit	Yes VFX Shader Graph, Lit, Unlit, Hair, Fabric (no support for tessellation, nor decal)
Renders with 2D	No	Yes 3D particles and support for sorting layers and sprites. No support for 2D Physics, 2D sprites emitters, nor 2D Lights	No
Lit Particles	No	Yes	Yes
Simple lit particles	No	No	Yes
Unlit particles	No	Yes	Yes
Soft ParticlesParticles that create semi-transparent effects like smoke, fog or fire. Soft particles fade out as they approach an opaque object, to prevent intersections with the geometry. More info See in Glossary	No	Yes	Yes
Distortion	No	No	Yes
Flipbook blending	No	Yes Linear interpolation or flipbook motion vectors	Yes Linear interpolation or flipbook motion vectors
Trail	No	Yes Experimental	Yes Experimental
Half-resolution	No	No	Yes
Decals	No	Yes VFX Graph Forward decals (limited), URP decals	Yes VFX Forward decals (limited), HDRP Decals
Motion Vectors	No	Yes	Yes
Camera Buffer	No	Yes Depth collision, Color buffer	Yes Depth collision, Color buffer
Instancing	No	Yes	Yes
Skinned Mesh Sampling	No	Yes	Yes
6-way lighting	No	Yes	Yes
Volumetric Fog Output	No	No	Yes
Custom HLSL Blocks	No	Yes	Yes

Decals

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
Decals	No Suggested alternative: Projector component.	Yes Projector decals (Forward + DBuffer) or Screen Space Decals (Deferred), decal layers, no emissive decals	Yes Projector decals (Forward & Deferred + DBuffer) or Mesh decals, support on transparents (Cluster decals), support decal layers, surface gradients, emissive decals
Decal layers	No	No	Yes

Other visual effects

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
Projector component	Yes	No Use the Decal Renderer Feature instead.	No Use the Decal Projector instead.
Line RendererA component that takes an array of two or more points in 3D space and draws a straight line between each one. You can use a single Line Renderer component to draw anything from a simple straight line to a complex spiral. More info See in Glossary component	Yes	Yes	Yes
Trail Renderer component	Yes	Yes You can also use VFX Graph to create a custom trail effect.	Yes You can also use VFX Graph to create a custom trail effect.
Billboard Renderer component	Yes	Yes	No Suggested alternative: Use VFX Graph.
Halo component	Yes	No Suggested alternative: Use a Lens Flare (SRP) Data asset and a Lens Flare (SRP) component.	No Suggested alternative: Use a Lens Flare (SRP) Data asset and a Lens Flare (SRP) component, or use a celestial body in a directional light.
Lens flares	Yes Use a Flare asset and either a Light component or a Lens Flare component.	Yes Use a Lens Flare (SRP) Data asset and a Lens Flare (SRP) component. Also check Screen Space Lens Flares (Post processing) that offer an alternative or complementary solution for lens flares.	Yes Use a Lens Flare (SRP) Data asset and a Lens Flare (SRP) component. Also check Screen Space Lens Flares (Post processing) that offer an alternative or complementary solution for lens flares.

2D and UI

2D

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
SpriteA 2D graphic objects. If you are used to working in 3D, Sprites are essentially just standard textures but there are special techniques for combining and managing sprite textures for efficiency and convenience during development. More info See in Glossary	Yes	Yes	No
TilemapA GameObject that allows you to quickly create 2D levels using tiles and a grid overlay. More info See in Glossary	Yes	Yes	No
Sprite Shape	Yes	Yes	No
Pixel-Perfect	Yes Using the “2D Pixel Perfect” package.	Yes Using the “2D Pixel Perfect” package.	No
2D Lights	No	Yes Available when Using 2D Renderer	No
2D Shadows	No	Yes Available when Using 2D Renderer	No
VFX Graph	No	Yes Supports 3D particles, sorting layers, ShaderGraph Sprite Lit and Custom Lit targets, Alpha Clipping with Shadergraph Sprite Lit, Unlit and Custom Lit targets. Does not support 2D Physics, 2D sprites emitters, or 2D Lights.	No

UI

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
Screen Space - Overlay	Yes	Yes	Yes
Screen Space - Camera	Yes	Yes	Yes
World Space	Yes	Yes	Yes
Text MeshA Mesh component that displays a Text string More info See in Glossary Pro	Yes	Yes	Yes

XR

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
Multipass	Yes	Yes	Yes
Single Pass (double-wide)	Yes	No Deprecated	No Deprecated
Single Pass Instanced	Yes	Yes	Yes Windows and PSVR only
Multiview	Yes	Yes	No
ARAugmented Reality More info See in Glossary Foundation	Yes	Yes	No
Foveated Rendering	No	Yes Compatible with Forward, Deferred and Forward+, on Oculus Quest (Fixed foveated rendering), PSVR2 and VisionPro (eye tracking).	Yes PSVR2 only.
HDR	Yes	Yes	Yes

Scripting

Render Pipeline Hooks

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
Camera.RenderWithShader	Yes	No Suggested alternative: ScriptableRenderPass	No Suggested alternative: CustomPass with material override
Camera.AddCommandBuffer (Camera.Remove[All]CommandBuffer)	Yes	No	No Alternative: Custom Passes
Camera.Render	Yes	Yes	Yes
Light.AddCommandBuffer (LightRemove[All]CommandBuffer)	Yes	No	No
OnPreCull	Yes	No Suggested alternative: RenderPipelineManager.beginCameraRendering or ScriptableRenderPass	No
OnPreRender	Yes	No Suggested alternative: RenderPipelineManager.beginCameraRendering or ScriptableRenderPass	No
OnPostRender	Yes	No	No
OnRenderImage	Yes	No Suggested alternative: ScriptableRenderPass	No Suggested alternative: Fullscreen CustomPass
OnRenderObject	Yes	Yes RenderPipelineManager.endCameraRendering or ScriptableRenderPass API	No RenderPipelineManager.endCameraRendering or Custom Pass
OnWillRenderObject	Yes	Yes	Yes
OnBecameVisible	Yes	Yes	Yes
OnBecameInvisible	Yes	Yes	Yes
Camera Replacement Material	No	No Suggested alternative: use Render Feature to replace materials per-Pass.	No Suggested alternative: Custom Pass with Shader override
RenderPipeline.BeginFrameRendering	No	Yes	Yes
RenderPipeline.EndFrameRendering	No	Yes	Yes
RenderPipeline.BeginCameraRendering	No	Yes	Yes
RenderPIpeline.EndCameraRendering	No	Yes	Yes
UniversalRenderPipeline.RenderSingleCamera	No	Yes	No
ScriptableRenderPass	No	Yes This is similar to the CustomPass feature in HDRP.	No
Custom Renderers	No	Yes	No
CustomPass	No	No	Yes This is similar to the ScriptableRenderPass feature in URP.
Custom Post Process Pass	No	No	Yes
Arbitrary Output Variables (AOV) API	No	No	Yes
Recording API	No	No	Yes

Optimizations

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
Batching By Shader	No	Yes	Yes
Batching By Material	Yes	Yes	Yes
Batching by Material Property Blocks	Yes	Yes Batched separately from the SRP Batcher	Yes Batched separately from the SRP Batcher
Dynamic batchingAn automatic Unity process which attempts to render multiple meshes as if they were a single mesh for optimized graphics performance. The technique transforms all of the GameObject vertices on the CPU and groups many similar vertices together. More info See in Glossary (without SRP Batcher)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Real-time batching with SRP Batcher	No	Yes Requires OpenGLES 3.1. On unsupported graphics APIs, falls back to Dynamic Batching.	Yes
Dynamic Shadows Batching	Yes	No Deprecated.	Yes
GPU Resident Drawer	No	Yes Disabled by default. Only available for Forward+. Requires compute support.	Yes Enabled by default.
GPU Occlusion CullingA process that disables rendering GameObjects that are hidden (occluded) from the view of the camera. More info See in Glossary	No	Yes	Yes
GPU Instancing	Yes	Yes Disabled by default when SRP Batcher is enabled.	Yes Disabled by default when SRP Batcher is enabled.
Render Graph	No	Yes	Yes
Dynamic Render Pass Culling	No	Yes	Yes Disabled by default.

Debug

Feature	Built-in Render Pipeline	URP	HDRP
SceneA Scene contains the environments and menus of your game. Think of each unique Scene file as a unique level. In each Scene, you place your environments, obstacles, and decorations, essentially designing and building your game in pieces. More info See in Glossary View Modes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Volume Explorer	No	Yes	Yes
Rendering debugger	No	Yes	Yes
Runtime GPU profilerA window that helps you to optimize your game. It shows how much time is spent in the various areas of your game. For example, it can report the percentage of time spent rendering, animating, or in your game logic. More info See in Glossary	No	Yes	Yes
Render Graph viewer	No	Yes	Yes
Probe volume debugger	No	Yes	Yes
Color Monitors	No Use post processing stack v2	No	Yes Waveform, Parade, Vectorscope
Shader Graph Heatmap	Yes	Yes	Yes
VFX Graph profiler	No	Yes	Yes