High Definition Rendering Pipeline in Unity
The High Definition Render Pipeline(HDRP) is your go-to for powerful high-fidelity graphics in Unity. The diverse and refined tools provided by the HDRP far outweigh the at times underwhelming options of the Universal Render Pipeline, as such, it is the preferred method for more complex projects.
Objective: Learn how to install the HDRP, its requirements, and how to import scenes and upgrade them to HDRP.
Requirements
Projects made in the Universal Render Pipeline(URP) are incompatible with the HDRP. For this reason, saving an unaltered version of your project before using either pipeline is crucial.
Unity Versions
The following table demonstrates the compatibility between different versions of Unity and the HDRP Packages.
Compatible Systems
Raytracing
The requirements to use Raytracing are linked to your Graphics Card. In the following link, you can see a full list of hardware requirements.
Does NOT Support
- HDRP only works on devices that support Compute Shaders.
- OpenGL
- OpenGL ES
- Linux, IF Vulkan is not installed by default. In this case, you can install it manually.
How to Install
The installation process is extremely simple, all you have to do is open up a new project using the HDRP Template. If it’s not installed already, you will be prompted to do so.
Importing Scenes and Upgrading Materials Materials
Note: Remember that when importing scenes your scene must be from a regular Unity template. You cannot import URP to HDRP.
- Export the regular Scene that you wish to open in the HDRP project.
2. Import the scene as a Custom Package.
Pink Textures
When you import your scene, you will likely encounter these neon aberrations instead of your regular objects. Fixing it is very simple, in fact, it’s more simple than the fix used for the URP.
Go to Edit → Rendering → Materials → Upgrade All Built in Materials to HDRP
Now, your scene should be back to normal!
Note: If you had objects with Emission and now your emissions are suddenly gone, this is because the emission parameters work differently in HDRP.
To fix this, you will likely need to select the object → Emission Inputs → tweak the Emission Weight until it’s visible.
With this, you should be all set to get started with the HDRP!
To learn more, visit the official documentation down below:
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