Declaring and using shader keywords in HLSL

You can declare shaderA program that runs on the GPU. More info
See in Glossary keywords so shaders behave differently when you enable or disable the keywords.

You can declare shader keywords in regular graphics shaders including surface shadersA streamlined way of writing shaders for the Built-in Render Pipeline. More info
See in Glossary, and compute shaders.

Declare shader keywords using pragma

To declare shader keywords, use a #pragma directive in the HLSL code. For example:

#pragma shader_feature REFLECTION_TYPE1 REFLECTION_TYPE2 REFLECTION_TYPE3

You can use one of the following shader directives:

Shader directive	Branching type	Shader variants Unity creates
shader_feature	Static branching	Variants for keyword combinations you enable at build time
multi_compile	Static branching	Variants for every possible combination of keywords
dynamic_branch	Dynamic branching	No variants

Read more about when to use which shader directive.

See shader keyword limits.

How sets of keywords work

The keywords in a single #pragma statement are together called a ‘set’. You can enable or disable multiple keywords in a set at the same time.

For example, to declare a set of three keywords:

#pragma shader_feature REFLECTION_TYPE1 REFLECTION_TYPE2 REFLECTION_TYPE3

You can declare multiple sets of keywords in a single shader. For example, to create 2 sets:

#pragma shader_feature REFLECTION_TYPE1 REFLECTION_TYPE2 REFLECTION_TYPE3
#pragma shader_feature RED GREEN BLUE WHITE

You can’t do the following:

• Include two keywords with the same name in one set.
• Include duplicate keyword sets in one shader.
• Declare a keyword as both dynamic_branch and shader_feature or multi_compile - Unity uses dynamic_branch if you do this.

Make shader behavior conditional

To mark parts of your shader code conditional based on whether you enable or disable a shader keyword, use an HLSL if statement.

For example:

#pragma multi_compile QUALITY_LOW QUALITY_MED QUALITY_HIGH

if (QUALITY_LOW)
{
    // code for low quality setting
}

You can enable and disable keywords using the Inspector or C# scripting.

What Unity does with your shader code depends on which shader directive you use.

If you use dynamic_branch, Unity creates a uniform Boolean variable for each keyword. When you enable a keyword, Unity sets the Boolean for that variable to true, and your GPU switches to using the code in the if statement for that keyword. This is dynamic branching.

If you use shader_feature or multi_compile, Unity creates separate shader variantsA verion of a shader program that Unity generates according to a specific combination of shader keywords and their status. A Shader object can contain multiple shader variants. More info
See in Glossary for each keyword state. Each variant contains the code from an if branch for that keyword. When you enable a keyword, Unity sends the matching variant to your GPU. This is static branching.

Read more about when to use which shader directive.

Use other statements to make shader behavior conditional

You can also use the following HLSL statements to create conditional code:

• #if, #elif, #else and #endif.
• #ifdef and #ifndef.

Using these instead of if makes it more difficult to change the #pragma keyword directive later. For example, if you need to reduce the number of shader variants, it’s more difficult to change multi_compile to shader_feature.

Make keywords local

Keywords are global by default.

Add _local to the shader directive to make the keywords local. If you enable or disable a global keyword, you don’t affect the state of local keywords with the same name.

For example:

#pragma shader_feature_local QUALITY_LOW QUALITY_MED QUALITY_HIGH

Restrict keywords to shader stages

When you declare a keyword, Unity assumes all stages of the shader contain conditional code for that keyword.

You can add the following suffixes to indicate that only certain stages contain conditional code for a keyword. This helps Unity strip unneeded shader variants.

• _vertex
• _fragment
• _hull
• _domain
• _geometry
• _raytracing

For example, use #pragma shader_feature_fragment RED GREEN BLUE to indicate that you use the 3 keywords to create conditional code in the fragment stage only.

You can’t add these suffixes to #pragma dynamic_branch because dynamic_branch doesn’t create variants.

These suffixes may behave differently or have no effect depending on the graphics API:

• The suffixes have no effect on OpenGL, OpenGL ES or Vulkan.
• The _geometry and _raytracing suffixes have no effect on Metal, and Metal treats _vertex, _hull and _domain as a single stage.

Restrict keywords to shader models and GPU features

You can add keywords to #pragma require and #pragma target directives, so conditional code only runs if the current hardware uses a particular shader model or GPU feature.

To compile code that is used only when a given shader keyword is enabled, you use an #if directive, like this: For more information, see Targeting shader models and GPU features in HLSL.

Create a shader variant for disabled keywords

If you use shader_feature to create a single keyword, Unity automatically creates a second variant for when the feature is disabled. This helps reduce the number of keywords you need to enable and disable. For example, the following code creates 2 variants:

#pragma shader_feature EXAMPLE_ON

If you use multi_compile, or you use shader_feature to create a set of two or more keywords, you can use _ when you declare a keyword set. Unity creates a shader variant for situations when all keywords in that set are disabled.

#pragma multi_compile _ EXAMPLE_ON
#pragma shader_feature _ RED GREEN BLUE WHITE

Use shortcuts to create keyword sets

You can use Unity shader directive shortcuts to create sets of shader variants. The following example explains how to add SHADOWS_DEPTH and SHADOWS_CUBE variants:

#pragma multi_compile_shadowcaster

You can remove keywords you don’t need using skip_variants. For example, use the following to remove POINT and POINT_COOKIES variants when Unity generates variants from multi_compile_fwdadd.

#pragma multi_compile_fwdadd
#pragma skip_variants POINT POINT_COOKIE

The following shortcuts relate to light, shadow and lightmapping in the Built-in Render Pipeline:

• multi_compile_fwdbase adds this set of keywords: DIRECTIONAL LIGHTMAP_ON DIRLIGHTMAP_COMBINED DYNAMICLIGHTMAP_ON SHADOWS_SCREEN SHADOWS_SHADOWMASK LIGHTMAP_SHADOW_MIXING LIGHTPROBE_SH. These variants are needed by PassType.ForwardBase.
• multi_compile_fwdbasealpha adds this set of keywords: DIRECTIONAL LIGHTMAP_ON DIRLIGHTMAP_COMBINED DYNAMICLIGHTMAP_ON LIGHTMAP_SHADOW_MIXING VERTEXLIGHT_ON LIGHTPROBE_SH. These variants are needed by PassType.ForwardBase.
• multi_compile_fwdadd adds this set of keywords: POINT DIRECTIONAL SPOT POINT_COOKIE DIRECTIONAL_COOKIE. These variants are needed by PassType.ForwardAdd.
• multi_compile_fwdadd_fullshadows adds this set of keywords: POINT DIRECTIONAL SPOT POINT_COOKIE DIRECTIONAL_COOKIE SHADOWS_DEPTH SHADOWS_SCREEN SHADOWS_CUBE SHADOWS_SOFT SHADOWS_SHADOWMASK LIGHTMAP_SHADOW_MIXING. This is the same as multi_compile_fwdadd, but this adds the ability for the lights to have real-time shadows.
• multi_compile_lightpass adds this set of keywords: POINT DIRECTIONAL SPOT POINT_COOKIE DIRECTIONAL_COOKIE SHADOWS_DEPTH SHADOWS_SCREEN SHADOWS_CUBE SHADOWS_SOFT SHADOWS_SHADOWMASK LIGHTMAP_SHADOW_MIXING. This is effectively a catch-all shortcut for all functionality related to real-time light and shadows, other than 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.
• multi_compile_shadowcaster adds this set of keywords: SHADOWS_DEPTH SHADOWS_CUBE. These variants are needed by PassType.ShadowCaster.
• multi_compile_shadowcollector adds this set of keywords: SHADOWS_SPLIT_SPHERES SHADOWS_SINGLE_CASCADE. It also compiles variants without any of these keywords. These variants are needed for screen-space shadows.
• multi_compile_prepassfinal adds this set of keywords: LIGHTMAP_ON DIRLIGHTMAP_COMBINED DYNAMICLIGHTMAP_ON UNITY_HDR_ON SHADOWS_SHADOWMASK LIGHTPROBE_SH. It also compiles variants without any of these keywords. These variants are needed by PassType.LightPrePassFinal and PassType.Deferred.

The following shortcuts relate to other settings:

• multi_compile_particles adds this keyword relating to the Built-in particle systemA component that simulates fluid entities such as liquids, clouds and flames by generating and animating large numbers of small 2D images in the scene. More info
  See in Glossary: SOFTPARTICLES_ON. It also compiles variants without this keyword. For more information, see Built-in Particle System.
• multi_compile_fog adds this set of keywords relating to fog: FOG_LINEAR, FOG_EXP, FOG_EXP2. It also compiles variants without any of these keywords. You can control this behavior in the Graphics settings window.
• multi_compile_instancing adds keywords relating to instancing. If the shader uses procedural instancing, it adds this set of keywords: INSTANCING_ON PROCEDURAL_ON. Otherwise, it adds this keyword: INSTANCING_ON. It also compiles variants without any of these keywords. You can control this behavior in the Graphics settings window.