Render Pipelines

Render Pipelines

A Render Pipeline controls how objects are gathered, lit, and drawn on the screen. Unity offers three main pipelines:

1. Built-in Render Pipeline

• Unity's legacy pipeline.
• Flexible but difficult to customize, and lacks modern performance features.

2. Universal Render Pipeline (URP)

• Designed for high-performance and scalability across all platforms (mobile, PC, console, VR).
• Offers advanced graphics tools like Shader Graph and Visual Effect Graph.
• Highly recommended for most new projects.

3. High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP)

• Built specifically for high-end platforms (PC, PlayStation, Xbox) focusing on photorealism.
• Uses advanced lighting techniques (physical lights, raytracing, volume fog).
• Heavy resource requirements; not suitable for mobile devices.

Scriptable Render Pipelines (SRP)

Both URP and HDRP are built on Unity's Scriptable Render Pipeline (SRP) framework. This framework allows developers to write custom C# scripts to customize how Unity renders frames, giving fine-grained control over the graphics pipeline.

To switch render pipelines, you assign a Pipeline Asset in Edit -> Project Settings -> Graphics.

TL;DR

• Unity has three pipelines: Built-in (legacy), URP (cross-platform), and HDRP (high-end/photorealistic).
• URP is recommended for most games due to its performance and modern features.
• Switch pipelines by assigning a Pipeline Asset in Graphics Settings.
• URP and HDRP are built on the customizable Scriptable Render Pipeline framework.