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Fynn9563 edited this page Jan 30, 2026 · 6 revisions

Visuals Tab

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The Visuals tab provides a streamlined lighting workflow, GPU instancing tools, and material management utilities.

Lighting Workflow

The Lighting Workflow section provides a streamlined 3-step process for setting up world lighting. A PC/Quest mode indicator shows your current build target.

Step 1: Setup & Configuration

One-click buttons apply optimized lighting settings based on your target platform.

PC Mode (Windows/Standalone Build Target)

Apply Recommended PC Settings:

  • Lightmapper: Progressive GPU
  • Mixed Lighting: Shadowmask
  • Directional Mode: Directional
  • Lightmap Resolution: 20 texels/unit
  • Direct Samples: 64, Indirect Samples: 512
  • Bounces: 4

Apply Bakery PC Settings (if Bakery installed):

  • Render Mode: Shadowmask
  • Directional Mode: Dominant
  • Bounces: 5
  • Samples: 16
  • Texels Per Unit: 15

Quest Mode (Android Build Target)

Apply Recommended Quest Settings:

  • Lightmapper: Progressive GPU
  • Mixed Lighting: Subtractive
  • Directional Mode: Non-Directional (saves VRAM)
  • Lightmap Resolution: 12 texels/unit
  • Direct Samples: 32, Indirect Samples: 256
  • Bounces: 2
  • Lightmap Compression: High Quality

Apply Bakery Quest Settings (if Bakery installed):

  • Render Mode: Subtractive
  • Directional Mode: None
  • Bounces: 2
  • Samples: 8
  • Texels Per Unit: 10

Lighting Presets

Save and load complete lighting configurations:

  1. Save Current: Captures all current Unity and Bakery lighting settings to a preset asset
  2. Load: Applies a saved preset to your scene

Presets store:

  • Unity lightmapper settings (lightmapper type, mixed mode, directional mode, resolution, samples, bounces)
  • Bakery settings (if installed): render mode, directional mode, bounces, samples, texels per unit

Step 2: Scene Volumes (Probes & LPPV)

Auto-generate light probe volumes for your scene:

  1. Set Max Size for volume dimensions (default: 250)
  2. Click Auto-Generate to create volumes based on scene bounds

Step 3: Baking

  • Open Bakery (if installed) - Opens the Bakery window for GPU lightmapping
  • Open Lighting (if Bakery not installed) - Opens Unity's Lighting window

GPU Instancing Tools

The GPU Instancing section helps optimize draw calls through material instancing and consolidation.

Ready for Instancing

Objects grouped by mesh and material that are ready for GPU instancing:

  • Shows mesh name, material name, and object count
  • Indicates which objects are static batched (greyed out)
  • Per-object selection with checkboxes
  • Sel button to select objects in hierarchy
  • Switch to Static / Switch to Instancing buttons for quick conversion

Material Consolidation Candidates

Meshes using multiple materials that could benefit from consolidation:

  • Groups objects by mesh, then by material
  • Material thumbnail previews
  • Per-object selection within material groups
  • Master Material dropdown to select target material
  • Consolidate Selected to merge materials

Static Batching Integration

GPU Instancing and Static Batching are mutually exclusive. The UI helps manage this:

  • Objects marked for instancing are greyed out in static batching
  • Objects with static batching enabled are greyed out in instancing
  • Quick toggle buttons to switch between modes

Minimum Instance Count

Configure the threshold for displaying instance groups (default: 5+ objects).

Material Manager

The Material Manager helps you batch-modify materials across your scene.

Material List Display

Each material in the list shows:

  • Thumbnail - Preview of the material
  • Material name - The asset name
  • Sel button - Select the material in the Project window
  • X button - Remove from the list

Whitelist vs Blacklist Mode

Toggle between two modes:

Whitelist Mode:

  • Only affects materials/objects in the list
  • Everything else is protected
  • Use when you want to target specific items

Blacklist Mode:

  • Affects everything EXCEPT items in the list
  • Listed items are protected
  • Use when you want to protect specific items

Building Your List

Drag and Drop:

  • Drag GameObjects or Materials directly into the list area

Add Selected:

  • Select objects in the Hierarchy
  • Click Add Selected to add them to the list

Clear List:

  • Click Clear to empty the list

Universal Shader Swapper

Batch-swap shaders across multiple materials at once.

Shader Organization

Shaders are sorted by priority:

  1. Popular shaders - Poiyomi, lilToon, Standard (top of list)
  2. Specialty shaders - VRChat mobile, specific use-cases
  3. Other shaders - Everything else alphabetically
  4. Hidden shaders - Internal shaders (bottom of list)

How to Swap Shaders

  1. Set up your whitelist or blacklist
  2. Select a shader from the dropdown
  3. Click Apply to [Whitelisted/Blacklisted] Materials
  4. All matching materials will be updated

What's Preserved

When swapping shaders:

  • Main texture (_MainTex) is preserved and remapped
  • Other properties may need manual adjustment

Undo Support

All shader swaps support Unity's Undo system:

  • Press Ctrl+Z to revert changes
  • Or use Edit > Undo

Best Practices

Light Probes

  • Place probes where players will stand
  • Add extra probes near walls and corners
  • Don't place probes inside geometry

Material Management

  • Test shader swaps on a few materials first
  • Keep backups of complex material setups
  • Use whitelist mode for precision work

Quest Optimization

  • Swap to mobile-friendly shaders for Quest builds
  • Use the Auditor tab's shader scanner to find non-mobile shaders

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