Check how many shader variants you have

You can use logging and profiling tools to check how many shaderA program that runs on the GPU. More info
See in Glossary variants Unity compiles, and identify ways you can remove (strip) variants to improve build times and reduce memory usage. You can do the following:

• Get a list of shader variants the Editor uses
• Get a list of shader variants Unity creates at build time
• Get a list of shader variants Unity compiles at runtime
• Check how much memory shaders use at runtime
• Highlight missing shaders at runtime

Get a list of shader variants the Editor uses

You can generate a list of shader variants that the Editor uses in the SceneA Scene contains the environments and menus of your game. Think of each unique Scene file as a unique level. In each Scene, you place your environments, obstacles, and decorations, essentially designing and building your game in pieces. More info
See in Glossary view and the Game view. To do this:

1. Go to Edit > Project Settings > Graphics.
2. Under Shader Loading, you can see how many shaders and shader variants you have next to Currently tracked:.
3. Select Save to asset… to create a shader variant collection asset.

Get a list of shader variants Unity creates at build time

After you build your project, open the Editor.log log file and search for Compiling shader to see which variants Unity compiles and strips. For example:

Compiling shader "Sprites/Default" pass "" (vp)
    Full variant space:         8
    After settings filtering:   8
    After built-in stripping:   4
    After scriptable stripping: 4
    Processed in 0.00 seconds
    starting compilation...
    finished in 0.03 seconds. Local cache hits 0 (0.00s CPU time), remote cache hits 0 (0.00s CPU time), compiled 4 variants (0.09s CPU time), skipped 0 variants
    Prepared data for serialisation in 0.00s

If you use 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) or the High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP), refer to the following:

• Shader Stripping in URP
• Reduce shader variants in HDRP

Get a list of shader variants Unity compiles at runtime

1. Go to Edit > Project Settings > Graphics.
2. Under Shader Loading, enable Log Shader Compilation.
3. When you build your project, enable Development BuildA development build includes debug symbols and enables the Profiler. More info
   See in Glossary in the build settings.
4. In the Console WindowA Unity Editor window that shows errors, warnings and other messages generated by Unity, or your own scripts. More info
   See in Glossary, select Editor and enable Full Log [Developer Mode Only].
5. Start the application you built.

Unity prints a Compiled shader message in the Console Window when it compiles a shader for the GPU.

Check how much memory shaders use at runtime

Use the Memory Profiler module or the Memory Profiler package to check how much memory shaders are using at runtime. If a shader uses a lot of memory, you can experiment with stripping its variants.

Highlight missing shaders at runtime

In Unity 2022.2 and above, you can force Unity to show a pink error shader during runtime, when a Material tries to use a missing shader variant.

1. Go to Edit > Project Settings > Player.
2. Under Other Settings, in the Shader Settings section, select Strict shader variant matching.

You can also enable this in C# scriptsA piece of code that allows you to create your own Components, trigger game events, modify Component properties over time and respond to user input in any way you like. More info
See in Glossary using strictShaderVariantMatching.

When you do this, Unity shows a warning in the console with the missing variant and its keywords. You can use this during stripping to check you don’t remove shader variants your project needs.