Universal Render Pipeline: Quick Reference

Purpose of URP

“Why should my project use URP?*

The Universal Render Pipeline helps developers quickly and easily create optimized graphics across a range of platforms from mobile to high-end consoles and PCs.

  • In unity a Render Pipeline performs a series of operations that take the contents of a scene and displays them on a screen.

  • Unity has 3 prebuilt render pipelines:

    • The Built-in Render Pipeline is Unity’s default render pipeline. It is a general-purpose render pipeline that has limited options for customization.

    • The Universal Render Pipeline (URP) is a Scriptable Render Pipeline that is quick and easy to customize, and lets you create optimized graphics across a wide range of platforms.

    • The High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) is a Scriptable Render Pipeline that lets you create cutting-edge, high-fidelity graphics on high-end platforms.

Documentation

For more comprehensive documentation on the URP, visit: https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.render-pipelines.universal@14.0/manual/index.html

Installing URP

For installation instructions visit: https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.render-pipelines.universal@14.0/manual/index.html

URP Settings

  • The URP uses a Scriptable Object asset called Universal Render Pipeline Asset to adjust the project’s render settings. The advantage of this system is that you can quicly swap in and out settings assets to experiment with different render settings (e.g. swap shadows on / off).

    Note

    When you create a project from the URP template, unity provides you with some default settings assets in the Project window under Assets > Settings.

  • You can find the URP settings page in the Project Settings window under Graphics. You can then assign a Universal Render Pipeline Asset to the Scriptable Render Pipeline Settings field.

    Important

    The Scriptable Render Pipeline Settings field IS NOT USED if there is Render Pipeline Asset override specified inside the Quality Settings. To see if there is an override, inside the Project Settings window, go to Quality and check Rendering > Render Pipeline Asset.

  • URP Global Settings: In the Project Settings window under Graphics > URP Global Settings, you can assign a Universal Render Pipeline Global Settings Scriptable object asset. This asset lets you define settings including the names of rendering layers (for 3d renderers) as well as Shader Stripping that define which shader variants unity strips when you build the player.

    Note

    • Unity compiles shader source files into shader programs. Each compiled shader program has one or more variants: different versions of the shader program for different conditions. At runtime, Unity uses the variant that matches the current requirements. You configure variants using shader keywords (e.g. “COLOR_RED”, “COLOR_GREEN”).

    • Stripping shaders can give you smaller build sizes and shorter build times (e.g. a project that never uses shadows for directional lights, you can uncheck Cast Shadows in the URP asset and shader stripping will strip these shader variants from the build.