General Asset Comparison
- Dynamic Fog & Mist is a lightweight, full‑screen effect optimized for performance and broad platform reach (including mobile/VR). It’s also the simplest option when you want a fast distant‑fog style solution.
- Volumetric Fog & Mist is a true 3D fog volume system with higher fidelity, deeper lighting control, and advanced volume features.
- Volumetric Lights adds light scattering and volumetric shafts to local lights (point/spot/area), including shadows and dust particles.
Key differences & ideal targets
Dynamic Fog & Mist focuses on speed and simplicity. It provides essential fog shaping (height/distance), tint/gradient color, animated noise/wind, and a basic directional‑light diffusion model. It also includes fog‑of‑war and sub‑volume support. It’s the best fit for mobile/VR or large scenes where performance is critical, and works well as a distant‑fog solution.
Volumetric Fog & Mist is the high‑end solution for immersive fog volumes. It offers raymarching quality controls, true volumetric depth, rich lighting (albedo/specular/gradients), directional light diffusion and shadows, and advanced shaping like terrain‑fit, custom volume shapes, and distant fog. It supports both directional and local lights, making it ideal for desktop/console or high‑end mobile when tuned.
Volumetric Lights is not a fog system; it’s a per‑light volumetric scattering effect. It works with local lights only (point/spot/area) and includes raymarching presets, shadows (including translucent shadow maps), noise, dust particles, and attenuation models. Use it to add realistic light shafts and volumetric beams, and combine it with either fog solution when desired. It can scale down using faster raymarch presets, so it can also target high‑end mobile when carefully optimized.
Comparison Table
| Category | Dynamic Fog & Mist | Volumetric Fog & Mist | Volumetric Lights |
| Primary goal | Fast full‑screen fog / distant fog | High‑fidelity volumetric fog volumes | Volumetric light scattering |
| Target platforms | Mobile / VR / performance‑first | Desktop / console / high‑end mobile Quality/performace options |
Desktop / console / high-end mobile Quality/performace options |
| Light support | Directional diffusion only | Directional + local lights | Local lights only (point/spot/area) |
| Directional light features | Diffusion + brightness | Sun direction/color, diffusion model, shadows | Not supported |
| Local lights | Not supported | Native URP lights support with shadows Optional Fast Point Lights emulation |
Core feature (per‑light, with realtime and cached shadows) |
| Volume realism | Full‑screen effect | True 3D fog volume | Per‑light volumetric beams |
| Raymarch controls | No | Yes (quality/steps/jitter/dither) | Yes (quality/steps/jitter/dither/blue‑noise) |
| Fog shaping | Height/distance, gradients | Shapes, height, borders, custom mesh | Light‑cone/area shapes |
| Noise & wind | Yes (noise + wind) | Yes (main + detail noise + wind) | Yes (noise + wind) |
| Shadows | No volumetric shadows | Directional shadows | Per‑light shadows + translucent shadows |
| Terrain fit | No | Yes | No |
| Distant fog | Primary use | Yes, included as option | No |
| Fog of war | Yes | Yes | No |
| Sub‑volumes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Dust particles | No | No | Yes |
