Umbra Soft Shadows: Achieve Professional-Grade Shadows in URP

In the realm of game development, the quality of shadows can significantly enhance the realism and immersion of your scenes. Umbra Soft Shadows, our latest asset available on the Unity Asset Store, introduces advanced shadow rendering techniques specifically for the Universal Render Pipeline (URP). With Umbra, you can achieve beautiful, lifelike shadows that adapt to the environment, creating a more dynamic and engaging visual experience.

What is Umbra Soft Shadows?

Umbra Soft Shadows is an asset designed for URP in Unity 2022 and Unity 6 that significantly improves the quality of directional light shadows. It introduces advanced shadow rendering techniques that result in sharper shadows near obstacles and softer, more diffuse shadows at a distance. This is achieved through its innovative contact hardening feature, providing a realistic and visually appealing shadow effect.

Not only this but Umbra can improve performance of your entire game by applying advanced optimizations. Shadows are resolved in screen space from the directional shadowmap with downsample option and later upscaled using a bilateral filter. Umbra can also cache the results from previous frame in a smart way reducing the overall workload of shadow generation.

Key Features

1. Configurable Shadow Appearance: Umbra Soft Shadows allows you to adjust the look and smoothness of shadows to fit the visual style of your project. Whether you need crisp, defined shadows or soft, blended edges, Umbra provides the tools to customize the shadow appearance to your liking.
2. Contact Hardening: This feature mimics the way shadows behave in real life, becoming sharper near the object casting the shadow and softer as the shadow stretches away. This attention to detail enhances the realism of your scenes, making the lighting feel more natural and immersive.
3. Cascade Blending: With cascade blending, Umbra Soft Shadows ensures smooth transitions between shadow cascades. This reduces the noticeable edges that can detract from the visual coherence of your scene, providing a seamless shadow experience across different distances.
4. Profiles: Umbra makes it easy to manage different shadow settings with profile assets. These profiles can be easily swapped or set at runtime, offering flexibility and convenience in adjusting shadow parameters based on different scenes or lighting conditions.
5. Optimization Options: Performance is a key consideration in game development, and Umbra Soft Shadows includes optimization options such as loop and frame skip optimization. These features allow the reuse of shadow map textures from previous frames, improving performance without compromising visual quality.

Compatibility and Requirements

Umbra Soft Shadows is designed to work seamlessly with the Universal Render Pipeline (URP) in Unity. It supports Unity versions 2022.3 and Unity 6 in compatibility mode and with full support for Render Graph. This ensures that Umbra integrates smoothly into your existing projects, leveraging the latest advancements in Unity’s rendering technology.

Easy Installation Process

Installing and using Umbra Soft Shadows is straightforward. Simply import the package, add the Umbra Render Feature to the URP, and attach the Umbra Soft Shadows script to the directional light you wish to enhance. The asset comes with comprehensive documentation and a demo scene to showcase its capabilities, allowing you to see the effects in action right from the start.

User Feedback and Reviews

Umbra Soft Shadows has already garnered very positive reviews, with users praising its ability to significantly enhance the quality of shadows in their projects. The asset currently holds a strong 5-star rating on the Unity Asset Store, reflecting its effectiveness and ease of use. Here are some of the things our users are saying:

Success Stories

Umbra Soft Shadows is already making waves in the Unity community, enhancing a variety of projects with its advanced shadow rendering capabilities. Below, we showcase several case studies and projects that have benefited from Umbra Soft Shadows. These examples highlight the asset’s versatility and the significant improvements in visual quality that developers have achieved. Explore the images and videos to see Umbra Soft Shadows in action and get inspired for your own projects.

1. Vranygrai

Story driven action-adventure game about Slavic priest, the Volkhv, looking for redemption. As two principalities clash behind the scenes in historically inspired events that formed Great Moravia, you will go on personal quest and step into the world of pagan beliefs, mythology and fairy tales.

Conclusion

Umbra Soft Shadows is a powerful asset that brings advanced shadow rendering capabilities to your Unity projects. By improving the quality and realism of shadows, it enhances the overall visual experience, making your scenes more immersive and dynamic. With easy installation, extensive customization options, and robust optimization features, Umbra Soft Shadows is a must-have tool for any developer using the URP.

Try Umbra Soft Shadows today and see the difference it can make. Don’t forget to leave a review on the Unity Asset Store and join our community for support and updates. Boost your shadow quality with Umbra Soft Shadows and bring your projects to life!