Settings Reference

intermediate concepts

This page covers every inspector option on the Umbra Soft Shadows component. Options are grouped by section as they appear in the Inspector.

Preset & Profile

Property	Description
Sample Preset	Choose from built-in softness presets (Fast, Hard, Soft, Smooth, Extra Smooth, Blurred) to quickly preview different shadow styles.
Profile	Assign a saved `UmbraProfile` ScriptableObject. Use Save As New Profile at the bottom of the inspector to create one.

Property	Description
Shadow Source	Which shadow system to use: `Unity Shadows`, `Umbra Shadows`, or `Only Contact Shadows`.
Sample Count	Number of shadow-map samples (1–64). Higher values produce smoother penumbras at increased cost.
Light Size	Simulated directional-light size (0–32). Larger values widen the penumbra.
Contact Hardening	Enable PCSS-style contact hardening — shadows sharpen near occluders.
Contact Strength	How crisp the shadow is near the occluder (0–1).
Knee	Controls the falloff curve of contact strength with distance.
Distant Spread	Makes shadows smoother when far from occluder (1–16).
Occluders Count	Shadow-map samples used to find occluders for penumbra radius calculation.
Search Radius	Multiplier for occluder search radius. Higher = more diffused penumbra. Too low may clip soft edges.
Normals Source	How world-space normals are obtained. In Deferred this is automatic (from G-buffers). In Forward: Reconstruct From Depth (faster, less accurate) or Depth + Normals Pass (accurate, slower if not already generated).

Screen-space contact shadows add detail under small objects or at long distances where shadow-map resolution is insufficient.

Property	Description
Intensity	Contact shadow strength multiplier.
Distance Fade	Attenuates shadow intensity with distance to the occluder.
Sample Count	Number of raymarch samples.
Stepping	Distance between each raymarch sample.
Thickness Near	Maximum depth difference between ray and pixel to detect a collision with an opaque object.
Thickness Distance Multiplier	Multiplier applied to thickness over distance (depth differences grow between distant neighbor pixels).
Jitter	Randomizes ray start position to reduce banding artifacts.
Start Distance	Minimum camera distance before contact shadows take effect.
Normal Bias	Offsets ray origin along the surface normal to prevent self-occlusion.
Vignette Size	Fades contact shadows near screen borders.
Injection Point	Texture Mode: rendered into the resolved shadow texture (limited by URP shadow max distance). After Opaque: separate pass blended over camera color (no distance limitation).

Property	Description
Style	Apply a stylized look to shadows.
Blur Iterations	Number of blur passes (0–3). More passes = softer but slower.
Blur Type	`Gaussian15`, `Gaussian5`, or `Box`. Gaussian uses two render passes per iteration.
Spread	Blur kernel radius multiplier. Increases softness but may introduce artifacts.
Edge Tolerance	Strength of edge weighting during blur.
Edge Sharpness	Sharpens shadow edges.
Downscale	Downscale blur targets for softer shadows and better performance.
Edge Preserve	Prevents blur from bleeding across geometry edges.
Blur Distance Attenuation	Distance at which blur starts reducing. Attenuation Length controls the fade range.
Grazing Angle Attenuation	Reduces blur when viewing shadows at a grazing angle.
Overlay Shadows	Post-opaque, full-screen pass that re-applies the screen-space shadowmap as a colored overlay for tinting or stylizing shadowed pixels.

Property	Description
Downsample	Resolve shadows at half screen resolution for better performance.
Loop Optimization	Halves the actual number of texture samples without reducing coverage area.
Frame Skip Optimization	Resolves shadow texture every other frame, reusing previous results. May cause shadow lag during fast camera movement.
Blend Cascades	Blends shadow cascades at split boundaries to remove hard transition lines.
Cascade Scales	Per-cascade scale modifiers to fine-tune the lighting calculation at each cascade level.
Transparent Receiver Plane	Enables soft shadow casting onto a transparent floor plane at a specified height. Requires the included `Transparent Floor` material or `ShadowReceiverTransparent` shader.

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