Unity’s rendering basics and its key role with Lights
By: Samarth Dhroov
Tags: Lighting, Rendering, Graphics, Unity Game Development, Unity

Starting with this article, I’ll be exploring lighting in Unity.

The section of graphics in Unity documentation begins with render pipelines. So before getting into the lighting which is one part of the process, it would be of a great help to get a brief context of what is a render pipeline and what role it plays in lighting.

Unity provides 3 prebuilt render pipelines with different capabilities and performance characteristics.

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

that has 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 .

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

. You can create your own custom render pipeline using Unity’s Scriptable Render Pipeline API.

At the highest level, there are three operations that a rendering pipeline handles.

Culling

Rendering objects

Post-processing

It is of utmost importance to understand that you must decide which pipeline is suitable for your project before you begin the work because shifting to some other pipeline halfway would not be a wise choice given that the support is subject to changes.

Please keep this fact handy before your first stage analysis begins for a project. “ There is no one size fits all pipeline” available. Depending on the scope of a game or an application, one must choose a pipeline or venture into writing a custom pipeline.

Please go through the link here before going any further.

The decision to come to the point of making a custom pipeline must consider the following areas of implementation.

Unity

Each of them is a subject on its own.

You see lighting and shadow in there? That is the reason why I wanted to take you through a little background coverage so that when time comes, your lighting setup should behave exactly as you wanted or probably you would smartly choose a pipeline based on the future setup of lighting in your game or application.

Ultimately, the aim is to create an immersive experience and to do that, you need to have a suitable table for your sharp tools.

For now, let us put the custom pipeline to rest and focus on what we are getting out of the box.

1. Built in pipeline

It is Unity’s older render pipeline.

It is not based on the Scriptable Render Pipeline.

You can configure it by choosing between different rendering paths, and extend its functionality with command buffers and callbacks. [The command buffer and callback requires a separate explanation and this article does not cover it.]

This pipeline supports different rendering paths.

What is render path? A series of operations related to lighting & shading.

Different paths have varying capabilities and performance characteristics. The decision to choose the most suitable render path for a project relies on the type of the project and the target hardware.