Inspector Parameters
This page documents all the parameters available on the VolumetricFog component when attached to your camera. Parameters are organized by Inspector section.
Profiles: All parameters can be saved to and loaded from Fog Profiles. Click "Create" to save current settings. Profiles are stored as ScriptableObject assets in your project.
Fog Geometry
| Parameter | Description |
|---|
| Density | Overall fog opacity/thickness. |
| Albedo | Base fog color. |
| Base Height | Vertical starting position of the fog. Set above camera Y for elevated/cloud fog. |
| Height | Total height of the fog layer. |
| Max Distance | Maximum render distance. Reduce to improve performance. Can exceed the camera far clip plane for clouds. |
| Distance (Starting) | Offset from the camera before fog begins. Useful for first-person games to keep nearby areas clear. |
| Distance Falloff | Controls how quickly fog fades at the starting distance boundary. |
Optimization & Quality
| Parameter | Description |
|---|
| Stepping | Ray-march step count. Lower = faster, Higher = better quality. |
| Stepping Near | Additional step factor for close distances. Increase when Stepping is reduced to preserve nearby quality. |
| Downsampling | Reduces fog resolution. x2 is a good balance; x4+ works well with elevated/cloud fog. Use "Edge Improvement" to reduce pixelation around geometry. |
| Dithering | Reduces banding artifacts. Enable with HDR cameras for best results. |
| Jittering | Randomizes ray-march steps to reduce banding. Useful with Sun Shadows. |
| Blue Noise | Shader option that improves dithering quality using blue noise patterns. |
| Force Composition | Enables blur and other post-composition options. |
| Blur | Post-blur applied to the fog pass (visible when Force Composition is enabled). |
Fog Colors
| Parameter | Description |
|---|
| Color Mode | Colorization formula: Legacy (lerp ambient to light color), Natural (ambient + light * intensity), Single Light (light color only, no ambient). |
| Fog Specular Color | Specular highlight color in the fog. |
| Light Color | Fog light tint color. Auto-driven when a Sun is assigned. |
| Light Intensity | Fog light brightness. Adds to the Sun light intensity when a Sun is assigned. |
Sky Haze
| Parameter | Description |
|---|
| Sky Haze | Intensity of atmospheric haze at the horizon. Set to 0 to disable and improve performance. |
| Sky Haze Color | Color of the horizon haze effect. |
| Sky Depth | Depth threshold for haze rendering. Reduce when using sky dome assets. |
Sun Settings
| Parameter | Description |
|---|
| Sun | Assign a directional light. Fog automatically reacts to its direction, intensity and color. Click "Unassign" to manually control fog lighting. |
Point Lights
| Parameter | Description |
|---|
| Point Light Slots | Assign scene lights or set virtual light positions, colors and ranges. Maximum count is configurable in Shader Options. |
| Track Point Lights | Automatically selects the nearest point lights. |
| Range | Per-slot light range. Set to 0 to disable an unused slot (improves performance). |
Light Scattering
| Parameter | Description |
|---|
| Enable | Master toggle for light scattering (god rays). Requires a Sun to be assigned. Only works when the sun is in front of the camera. |
| Light Diffusion | Lightweight coloring effect around the sun position. |
| Sun Shafts | Simulates occlusion-based light shafts. GPU-intensive; consider making this a user-facing quality option. |
Sun Shadows
| Parameter | Description |
|---|
| Enable | Cast directional light shadows over the fog. Requires a Sun assigned. |
| Shadow Cancellation | Controls fog alpha under shadows. At 1.0, only sun-lit fog is visible (volumetric light effect). |
| Jitter | Reduces shadow banding artifacts. |
| Force Update Interval | Custom shadow pass only. Interval in seconds between shadow recalculations. 0 = only on Sun rotation change. |
| Max Distance | Custom shadow pass only. Maximum shadow casting distance from camera. Affects quality: smaller = sharper shadows. |
| Resolution | Custom shadow pass only. Shadow texture size (1 = 512, 2 = 1024, 3 = 4096, 4 = 8192). |
| Bias | Custom shadow pass only. Offset to prevent self-shadowing (default 0.1). |
Fog Void
| Parameter | Description |
|---|
| Shape | Sphere (radius only) or Box (width, depth, height). |
| Radius / Width / Depth | Dimensions of the clear area. |
| Falloff | Softness of the void boundary. |
| Follow GameObject | Assign a transform (e.g., player character) for the void to follow automatically. |
Fog Area
| Parameter | Description |
|---|
| Topology | Box or Sphere container shape. |
| Position | Center of the fog area in world space. |
| Radius / Height / Depth | Dimensions of the container. |
| Falloff | Edge softness of the container boundary. |
| Follow GameObject | Makes the fog area follow a target transform. |
| Sorting Method | Distance to Camera (default), Altitude, or Fixed render order. |
| Terrain Fit | Adjusts fog to follow ground elevation. Options: Layer Mask, Resolution, Height Over Surface, Min/Max Altitude. |
Fog of War
| Parameter | Description |
|---|
| Enable | Activates fog of war functionality. |
| Center | World-space center of the fog of war area. |
| Size | World-space dimensions of the fog of war area. |
| Texture Width / Height | Resolution of the fog of war mask (32 to 2048). |
| Restore Delay | Seconds before cleared fog begins restoring. Set to 0 for permanent cuts. |
| Restore Duration | Duration of the fog restore animation. |
Tip: Fog of War relies on Z-buffer data. It requires geometry under the fog (terrain, ground meshes). Transparent shaders do not write to Z-buffer and will not work.
Transparency
| Parameter | Description |
|---|
| Compute Depth | Calculates depth for billboard trees and transparent objects. Adds an extra render pass. Disable if not needed. |
| Render Before Transparency | Renders fog before transparent objects. Best performance but transparent objects appear on top of fog. |
| Transparency Mode | None (best performance), Blend (blends transparent objects with fog using configurable power). |
| Blend Power | Controls blend intensity when Transparency Mode is set to Blend. |
Geometry Mask
| Parameter | Description |
|---|
| Mode | Enable in Shader Options. Normal (fog inside mesh volumes only) or Inverted (fog outside mesh volumes only). |
| Layer Mask | Layers containing the mask objects. |
| Refresh | Re-scans the scene for mask objects. |
| Downsampling | Performance optimization for the mask render pass. |
Important: Mesh Renderers on mask objects must be disabled. The mask objects only provide geometry data, they should not be visible themselves.
Shader Options
Click the Shader Options button at the top of the Inspector to access advanced shader configuration. These options control which shader keywords are compiled, affecting build time, VRAM usage and feature availability.
| Option | Description |
|---|
| Max Point Lights | Maximum number of point light slots compiled into the shader. |
| Native Directional Shadows | Reuse Unity's shadow map (default). Disable to use a custom shadow pass with more control. |
| Cookie Support | Enable directional light cookie support in fog shadows. |
| Blue Noise | Improved dithering pattern. |
| Fog Mask | Normal or Inverted geometry mask mode. |