This page contains information on Light components in the Universal 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 (URP). For a general introduction to lighting in Unity and examples of common lighting workflows, refer to Lighting.
When using a preset of a Light component, only a subset of properties are supported. Unsupported properties are hidden.
The Light InspectorA Unity window that displays information about the currently selected GameObject, asset or project settings, allowing you to inspect and edit the values. More info
See in Glossary window includes the following groups of properties:
| Property: | Function: |
|---|---|
| Type | The current type of light. Possible values are Directional, Point, Spot and Area. |
| Mode | Specify the Light Mode used to determine if and how a light is “baked”. Options:
Note: If Type is set to Area, this property is automatically set to Baked. |
| Rendering Layers | Set which rendering layers the light applies to. Note: This property is only available if Mode is set to Realtime or Mixed. |
| Property: | Function: |
|---|---|
| Inner/Outer Spot Angle | The inner and outer angles (in degrees) at the base of a spot light’s cone (spot light only). Avoid setting the Outer Spot Angle property to excessively high values (for example, higher than 160 degrees). Very high outer spot angle values cause Unity to spread the shadow map over a large area, which reduces shadow quality. |
| Shape | The shape of the area light. Available options:
|
| Width | The width of the area light. Note: This property is only available if Shape is set to Rectangle. |
| Height | The height of the area light. Note: This property is only available if Shape is set to Rectangle. |
| Radius | The radius of the area light Note: This property is only available if Shape is set to Disc. |
| Property: | Function: |
|---|---|
| Light Appearance | Select the method used to create the color of the light. Available options:
|
| Color | The color of the emitted light. Set this property with the color slider. Note: This property is only available if Light Apperance is set to Color. |
| Filter | The color of the tint for the light source. Set this property with the color slider. Note: This property is only available if Light Apperance is set to Filter and Temperature. |
| Temperature | The temperature (in Kelvin) of the light. Set this property with the slider or enter a specific value. Note: This property is only available if Light Apperance is set to Filter and Temperature. |
| Intensity | Set the brightness of the light. The default value for a Directional light is 0.5. The default value for a Point, Spot or Area light is 1. |
| Indirect Multiplier | Use this value to vary the intensity of indirect light. Indirect light is light that has bounced from one object to another. The Indirect Multiplier defines the brightness of bounced light calculated by the global illuminationA group of techniques that model both direct and indirect lighting to provide realistic lighting results. See in Glossary (GI) system. If you set Indirect Multiplier to a value lower than 1, the bounced light becomes dimmer with every bounce. A value higher than 1 makes light brighter with each bounce. This is useful, for example, when a dark surface in shadow (such as the interior of a cave) needs to be brighter in order to make detail visible. |
| Range | Define how far the light emitted from the center of the object travels (Point and Spot lights only). |
| Cookie | The RGB texture this Light projects into the scene. Use cookies to create silhouettes or patterned illumination. The texture format to use depends on the type of Light: • Directional: 2D texture • Spot: 2D texture • Point: cubemap texture Note: URP doesn’t support light cookies for Area lights. For more information about light cookies, refer to Cookies. |
| Cookie Size | The per-axis scale Unity applies to the cookie texture. Use this property to set the size of the cookie. Note: This property is available only if you set Type to Directional and assign a texture to Cookie. |
| Cookie Offset | The per-axis offset Unity applies to the cookie texture. Use this property to move the cookie without moving the light itself. You can also animate this property to scroll the cookie. Note: This property is available only if you set Type to Directional and assign a texture to Cookie. |
| Property: | Function: |
|---|---|
| Culling MaskAllows you to include or omit objects to be rendered by a Camera, by Layer. See in Glossary |
Use this to selectively exclude groups of objects from being affected by the light. For more information, refer to LayersLayers in Unity can be used to selectively opt groups of GameObjects in or out of certain processes or calculations. This includes camera rendering, lighting, physics collisions, or custom calculations in your own code. More info See in Glossary. |
| Property: | Function: |
|---|---|
| Shadow Type | Determine whether this light casts Hard Shadows, Soft Shadows, or no shadows at all. For information on hard and soft shadows, refer to documentation on lights. |
| Baked Shadow Angle | If Type is set to Directional and Shadow Type is set to Soft Shadows, this property adds some artificial softening to the edges of shadows and gives them a more natural look. Note: This property is only available if Mode is set to Mixed or Baked. |
| Baked Shadow Radius | If Type is set to Point or Spot and Shadow Type is set to Soft Shadows, this property adds some artificial softening to the edges of shadows and gives them a more natural look. Note: This property is only available if Mode is set to Mixed or Baked. |
| Realtime Shadows | These properties are available when Shadow Type is set to Hard Shadows or Soft Shadows. Use these properties to control real-time shadow rendering settings. |
| Strength | Use the slider to control how dark the shadows cast by this light are. The range is between 0 and 1. Default value: 1. |
| Bias | Controls whether to use shadow bias settings from the URP Asset, or whether to define custom shadow bias settings for this light. Possible values are Use Pipeline Settings or Custom. |
| Depth | Controls the distance at which the shadows will be pushed away from the light. Useful for avoiding false self-shadowing artifacts. This property is visible only when Bias is set to Custom. |
| Normal | Controls the distance at which the shadow casting surfaces will be shrunk along the surface normal. Useful for avoiding false self-shadowing artifacts. This property is visible only when Bias is set to Custom. |
| Near Plane | Use the slider to control the value for the near clip plane when rendering shadows, defined as a value between 0.1 and 10. This value is clamped to 0.1 units or 1% of the light’s Range property, whichever is lower. This is set to 0.2 by default. |
| Soft Shadows Quality | Select the soft shadows quality. With the Use Pipeline Settings option selected Unity uses the value from the URP Asset. Options Low, Medium, and High let you specify the soft shadow quality value for this light. For more information on the values, refer to the Soft ShadowsA shadow property that produces shadows with a soft edge. Soft shadows are more realistic compared to Hard Shadows and tend to reduce the “blocky” aliasing effect from the shadow map, but they require more processing. See in Glossary section. |
| Custom Shadow Layers | Enable to specify the layer for shadows from the light separately to the layer for the light itself. Note: This property is only available if Mode is set to Mixed or Baked, and Shadow Type is set to Hard Shadows or Soft Shadows. |
| Layer | The layer for shadows from the light. |