Troubleshooting

intermediate troubleshooting

Volumetric Fog & Mist 2 (URP) · Troubleshooting & FAQ

Solutions to the most common issues when using Volumetric Fog & Mist 2 with the Universal Render Pipeline.

Common Issues

Symptom	Cause	Solution
No fog visible	Depth Texture not enabled in URP Asset	Enable Depth Texture in the URP Asset. Check both Project Settings > Graphics and Project Settings > Quality - each quality level may use a different URP Asset.
Fog visible in Editor but not in build	Build platform uses a different URP Asset without Depth Texture, or shader variants are stripped	Enable Depth Texture in the URP Asset assigned to the target platform. See Shader Stripping below.
Shadows not visible on fog	Shadow Distance too short or Transparent Receive Shadows disabled	In the URP Asset, increase Shadow Distance and enable Transparent Receive Shadows in the Renderer Data.
Visible noise / banding	High jittering/dithering or low sample count	Reduce Jittering and Dithering values, or enable Blur in the Volumetric Fog Manager. When the camera uses TAA or STP, also enable Animated Noise in the fog profile (31.4.5 or later).
Fog renders on top of UI canvas	Canvas using non-Overlay render mode	Increase the Order In Layer value on the Canvas component (e.g., set to 1).
Fog on top of ocean / transparent objects	Transparent objects do not write to depth buffer	Configure the Depth Pre-Pass in Volumetric Fog Manager. Set transparent layers in the Transparent Objects section. See Transparency Support.
Terrain Fit ignores water	Water shader does not write to depth buffer	Use Terrain Fit Min Altitude to match water level, or add an invisible opaque plane on a separate layer included in Terrain Fit Layer Mask.
Inverted / flipped depth	URP bug when HDR is OFF, MSAA is x1, and Render Scale is 1	Enable HDR, MSAA, or change Render Scale. Alternatively, enable Flip Depth Texture in Volumetric Fog Manager.
Fog incorrect in VR	Inverted matrices bug in some URP versions	Enable Alternate WS Reconstruction in Volumetric Fog Manager > Shader Options.
Shadows missing in WebGL	WebGL shader loop limitations	Enable Force WebGL Compatibility in Volumetric Fog Manager.
Shader errors in build (works in Editor)	Strict Shader Variant Matching enabled	Disable Strict Shader Variant Matching in Player Settings > Configuration.
Shadows broken with Umbra Soft Shadows	Render Pass Event conflict	Change the Volumetric Fog 2 render feature event from Before Rendering Transparents to Before Rendering Post Processing.
Fog incorrect over tessellated ocean	Depth pre-pass uses optimized depth-only shader that skips tessellation	Disable Use Optimized Depth-Only Shader in the Depth PrePass Render Feature.

Shader Variant Stripping

Some fog features use shader_feature pragmas, which means Unity only includes their shader code if the feature is active in a scene at build time. If you enable features at runtime (e.g., fog of war via script), the variants may be stripped.

Affected Features

Pragma	Feature
`VF2_DISTANCE`	Starting Distance
`VF2_VOIDS`	Fog Voids
`VF2_FOW`	Fog of War
`VF2_SURFACE`	Terrain Fit
`VF2_DEPTH_GRADIENT`	Depth Gradient
`VF2_HEIGHT_GRADIENT`	Height Gradient
`VF2_LIGHT_COOKIE`	Light Cookie

Solutions

Replace shader_feature with a constant define - e.g., change #pragma shader_feature_local_fragment VF2_FOW to #define VF2_FOW 1.
Add a dummy fog volume in the scene with the required feature enabled so Unity detects and preserves the variant.
Replace with multi_compile - e.g., #pragma multi_compile_local_fragment _ VF2_FOW (note the required underscore before the keyword).

Slow Shader Compilation

The first compilation can be slow due to the number of shader features. To speed it up:

Remove unused multi_compile pragma lines from the shader file.
Use Shader Control (available on the Asset Store) to disable unused keywords.

Still Stuck?

Post your question on the Kronnect Support - the team typically responds within 24 hours.

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