Playables
1. Playable Director: It is a tool for controlling and managing plots, animations and audio. As a central controller, it can manage the playback of animation plots, video plots and audio plots, as well as the timing, sequence and interaction between them.
The Playable Director component has the following functions:
Plot control: Playable Director can be used to control and manage the playback of plots. By specifying the Timeline (time axis) or Animation (animation) resources of the plot, Playable Director can trigger and manipulate the actions and property changes of objects according to the predefined schedule. It realizes the display and control of the plot in the game according to the demand within a given time frame.
Animation Control: Playable Director can be used to control and play animations. It supports Unity's Animation system and Timeline system, which can control the animation clips, keyframes and transitions of objects. You can use the Playable Director to specify the animation playback speed, loop settings, and transitions between animations to achieve complex animation sequences and interactions.
Audio Control: Playable Director can also be used to control and manage audio playback. By adding and configuring Audio Clips (audio clips), Playable Director can trigger and control in-game sound effects and background music. You can set the trigger time and length of audio clips on the timeline for dynamic audio playback and interaction.
Interaction design: Playable Director also supports interaction design, allowing you to dynamically switch the playback of plots, animations, and audio based on player input or specific conditions while the game is running. By writing scripts, you can listen for events on the Playable Director, switch to a different timeline, animation or audio based on certain conditions or triggers.
Playable (playable): defines the Playable object to be played on the Playable Director. This could be an Animation Clip, Timeline, Playable Asset, etc.
Update Method (update method): defines the update method of Playable Director. The following options can be selected:
(1) DSP Clock: It will be updated at a fixed rate in the audio engine, independent of game time and frame rate. This means that updates to the Playable Director will be synchronized with updates to the audio engine, allowing audio and animation to play in sync.
(2) Game Time: Game time is a relative time based on the game time axis, which will be affected by Time Scale. This means that when the game is paused or time scaled, updates to the Playable Director will be affected accordingly.
(3) Unscaled Game Time: Unlike Game Time, Unscaled Game Time is not affected by Time Scale and is always updated at the speed of actual time. This means that Playable Director's update rate will not change even when the game is paused or time zoomed.
(4) Manual: When the Manual update method is selected, the Playable Director will not be automatically updated, and it is necessary to manually call the Play() method or the Evaluate() method through the script code to control its update. This can be used to implement custom timing and specific update logic.
Play On Awake: Defines whether the Playable Director will play automatically when enabled. You can choose yes or no. If set to Yes, Playable Director will automatically start playback when the scene starts.
Wrap Mode (loop mode): defines the loop mode of Playable Director. The following options can be selected:
(1) Hold: When the Hold cycle mode is selected, the playable resource will keep the state of the last key frame at the end of playback. In other words, the playable asset stays on the last frame and continues to display the contents of that frame until it switches to another frame or stops playing.
(2) Loop: When Loop mode is selected, the playable resource will loop back to the beginning at the end of the playback, and play in an infinite loop. This means that the asset will repeat itself on a looping basis until stopped or switched to a different frame.
(3) None: When selecting the None loop mode, the playable resource will stop immediately after the playback ends, and will not loop or maintain any specific state. The asset will stop after playing to the last frame and stay there.
Initial Time (initial time): defines the initial playback time of Playable Director. You can manually set the time point to determine the starting position of the playback.
Bindings (binding): Allows binding between the Playable Director and the Playable object. By binding data and parameters to the Playable object, the properties of the object can be dynamically modified and controlled during playback.
Rendering
1. Camera: Control the visual effect and behavior of the camera
Clear Flags: Defines whether the camera should clear the canvas before each frame is rendered. Options include:
(1) Skybox (use the skybox to clear the canvas)
(2) Solid Color (use the specified color to clear the canvas)
(3) Depth Only (only clear the depth buffer)
(4) Don't Clear (do not clear the canvas)
Background: Defines the background color of the camera. You can choose to use color to fill the background (effect when Clear Flags is Solid Color)
Culling Mask: Defines the level of camera rendering. You can control which objects the camera renders by checking or unchecking specific layers.
Projection: defines the projection method of the camera. You can choose Perspective or Orthographic.
FOV Axis / Field of View: The FOV Axis property and Field of View property are used to define the field of view of the perspective projection camera. Field of View represents the angle of the field of view, which is used to determine the size of the camera's visible area. FOV Axis specifies the screen axis for angular measurement
Physical Camera: Allows to set the Unity camera with the parameters of a real world camera. By enabling the Physical Camera property, you can simulate real camera parameters such as aperture, ISO, and shutter speed.
Clipping Planes: Defines the distance between the near and far clipping planes of the camera. Objects outside this distance will be clipped during rendering.
Viewport Rect (viewport rectangle): defines the rectangular position and size of the camera on the screen. You can use this property to control the area of the screen that the camera renders to.
Depth (rendering order): defines the rendering order of the camera. The rendering is sorted according to the depth value, and the smaller depth value is rendered first.
Rendering Path: Defines the camera's rendering path. The optional rendering paths include Forward (forward rendering) and Deferred (delayed rendering).
Target Texture (Target Texture): Defines that the rendering result is output to the specified texture instead of directly outputting to the screen. This can be used to create on-screen post-processing effects or to pass rendering results to other rendering pipelines.
Occlusion Culling: Allows culling based on the occlusion relationship between objects within the camera's frustum to improve rendering performance.
HDR (High Dynamic Range): Allows the use of high dynamic range colors during rendering for better lighting effects and color range.
MSAA (Multi-Sample Anti-Aliasing): Allows the use of Multi-Sample Anti-Aliasing during rendering to reduce aliasing and smooth edges.
Allow Dynamic Resolution: Allows dynamic adjustment of camera resolution at runtime based on performance needs to balance picture quality and performance.
Target Display: Defines the index of the camera output to the target display in a multi-monitor setup.
2. Canvas Renderer component: It is the core component of UI element rendering, responsible for converting UI elements into rendering instructions, and controlling rendering-related settings such as materials, shaders, sorting, and masks. It provides the necessary functionality and control for the display of UI elements.
Cull Transparent Mesh: Used to control the clipping behavior during transparent mesh drawing. It affects the visibility and performance of UI elements drawn transparently.
Note: When the Cull Transparent Mesh property is set to true, the Canvas Renderer will clip when drawing the transparent mesh. This means that transparent meshes will not be rendered if their visibility is completely occluded or out of the screen view. This reduces rendering overhead for non-visible areas and improves performance. Conversely, when the Cull Transparent Mesh property is set to false, the Canvas Renderer ignores the visibility of the transparent mesh and always draws. This can cause unnecessary rendering in areas that are not visible or off-screen, reducing performance. Typically, for mostly transparent UI elements, you can set the Cull Transparent Mesh property to true for better performance. But you can set it to false if you want to keep the transparent grid drawing even when it is offscreen. However, the Cull Transparent Mesh property only affects the rendering behavior of transparent meshes. For completely opaque meshes (such as pictures or text, etc.), this property has no effect
3. Flare Layer: It is used to add a halo effect when rendering the camera view to enhance the visual effect of the light source in the scene. The halo effect is a visual effect produced by the refraction and diffusion of the light source through the lens. Use the Flare Layer component to simulate this effect and add the flare in the final step of rendering the camera .
The Flare Layer component can be applied after rendering all fullscreen effects of the camera, but in front of the UI. It superimposes a glow effect on the final image to enhance the appearance of light sources, making them more realistic and attractive.
4. Light: A component used to simulate lighting effects in the scene
Type (type): defines the type of light source, the following options can be selected:
(1) Spot (spotlight): Spot light source simulates a spotlight that can emit beams in a specific direction. By setting properties such as the position, direction, angle, and range of the light, you can control the irradiation area and light intensity of the spotlight. Spot lights are often used to simulate the effect of spotlights, flashlights, or distant lighting in landscapes.
(2) Directional (parallel light): The Directional light source simulates the effect of parallel light irradiation similar to sunlight. It has no specific position, but illuminates all objects in the scene uniformly in a specified direction. The illumination of Directional light sources is parallel and infinite, such as simulating sunlight in outdoor scenes. It does not have a clearly positioned position and angle, but rather a direction vector to define its illumination angle and intensity.
(3) Point (point light source): Point light source simulates a light source emitted from a specific position to all directions around it. By setting the position and range of the light, the irradiation position and intensity of the point light source can be determined. Point lights can be used to simulate light bulbs, flames, or other localized lighting effects in interior scenes.
(4) Area (area light source, only used for baking): Area light source is a special type of light source used for baking light maps. It simulates the lighting effect of area light sources, such as rectangular or circular panels. Area light sources are generally used to bake lightmapping (lightmapping) scenes, and are not valid for real-time rendering.
Range: Defines the range of influence of the light source and determines the irradiation distance of the light source.
Color: defines the color of the light source.
Mode: It is used to specify the working mode of the light, that is, the calculation and rendering method of the light. The following options can be selected:
(1) Realtime (real-time mode): When the Realtime mode is selected, the light will be calculated and rendered in real time at runtime . This means that lights will dynamically affect real-time rendered objects in the scene, and lighting effects will be updated in real time as time and object positions change. Realtime mode is suitable for situations that require real-time calculation and dynamic lighting, but the performance overhead is high.
(2) Mixed (mixed mode): When the Mixed mode is selected, the light will be pre-calculated using the baked light map (Lightmap), and combined with real-time calculation and rendering. This means that lights are precomputed at scene startup, a Lightmap is generated, and then realtime lighting calculations are applied at runtime. Mixed mode is suitable for better performance and lighting quality while maintaining some real-time flexibility.
(3) Baked (baking mode): When Baked mode is selected, the light will be fully rendered using the baked light map. The baking mode calculates the lighting in advance, saves the result in a static light map, and does not perform real-time calculation. This means that the lighting effect will not change based on the movement of the object or the change of time. Baked mode is suitable for static scenes or situations that do not require real-time lighting calculations, and can achieve high performance and lighting quality.
Intensity: Defines the intensity of the light source and is used to adjust the brightness of the light source.
Indirect Multiplier (indirect illumination multiple): defines the intensity multiple of indirect illumination (global illumination).
Shadow Type (Shadow Type): defines the type of shadow cast by the light source, and the following options can be selected:
(1) No Shadows (no shadow): The light source will not cast shadows.
(2) Hard Shadows (hard shadows): Cast hard-edged shadows.
(3) Soft Shadows (soft shadows): cast a soft shadow.
Cookie (texture): A texture that defines the shadow cast by the light source.
Draw Halo: Determines whether the light source draws a halo effect.
Flare: Defines the halo effect of the light source.
Render Mode (rendering mode): defines the way to render the light source, and the following options can be selected:
(1) Auto (automatic): automatically select the best rendering mode according to the settings.
(2) Important: Use higher quality and consume more performance.
(3) Not Important: Use lower quality for better performance.
Culling Mask: Defines the level of light influence. Only the checked layers will be affected by the light source.
5. Light Probe Group: Components for placing and managing light probes in the scene
Edit Light Probes button: Click to edit the following properties
Show Wireframe: Used to control the wireframe display of Light Probes. If checked, a wireframe of the Light Probe will be displayed in the scene to better visualize its position and coverage.
Remove Ringing: Used to control the ringing effect of the Light Probe. Checking this option will apply a deringing filter, used to reduce ringing artifacts produced by light probes.
Selected Probe Position: Shows the position of the selected light probe.
Add Probe button (add light probe): used to add a new light probe in the Light Probe Group component. When this button is clicked, a new Light Probe is created in the current Light Probe Group and its position is set to that of the mouse pointer in the scene.
Select All button (select all): Used to select all light probes in the Light Probe Group component. After clicking this button, all light probes will be selected and can be batch operated on.
Delete Selected button (delete selected): Used to delete the selected light probe in the Light Probe Group component. When clicked, the selected Light Probes are deleted, removing them from the Light Probe set.
Duplicate Selected button (duplicate selection): Used to duplicate the selected light probe in the Light Probe Group component. When this button is clicked, the selected Light Probes are duplicated, creating copies of them and shifting their positions slightly to differentiate them.
Six, Light Probe Proxy Volume: used to define the properties of the light probe proxy volume in the scene
Refresh Mode (refresh mode): defines the refresh mode of the light probe proxy volume, and the following options can be selected:
(1) Automatic (automatic): Automatically refresh the light probe proxy volume when the scene changes.
(2) Every Frame (every frame): Refresh the light probe proxy volume every frame.
(3) ViaScripting (via script): Manually control when to refresh the light probe proxy volume through the script.
Quality (Quality): Defines the quality level of the light probe proxy volume, which affects the number and resolution of light probes.
Data Format (data format): defines the data format of the light probe proxy volume, and the following options can be selected:
(1) Half-Float (RG8): use RG8 format to store light probe data.
(2) Float (RG16): Use the RG16 format to store the light probe data.
Bounding Box Mode (bounding box mode): defines the bounding box calculation method of the light probe proxy volume, and the following options can be selected:
(1) Auto (automatic): The bounding box is automatically calculated according to the position of the light probe in the scene.
(2) Custom (custom): Manually set the size of the bounding box.
Proxy Volume Resolution: Defines the resolution of the light probe proxy volume. Higher resolution values allow the proxy volume to contain more light probes, but at the cost of increased computation.
Resolution Mode (resolution mode): defines the resolution mode of the light probe, and the following options can be selected:
(1) Automatic (automatic): automatically set the resolution of the light probe according to the volume resolution of the light probe agent.
(2) Custom: Manually set the resolution of the light probe.
Density: Defines the density of light probes in the proxy volume (number of light probes per unit volume). The higher the density value, the denser the distribution of light probes.
Probe Position Mode: defines the position mode of the light probe
7. LOD Group: Used to manage the level of detail (LOD) settings of objects to present models with different levels of detail at different distances. Using the LOD Group component, you can set the LOD level at different distances, and automatically switch and display models with different levels of detail according to the distance. This allows a simplified model to be used when moving away from the camera to improve performance, and a more detailed model to be used closer to the camera to maintain visual quality.
Fade Mode: It defines the fade-out effect mode when switching LOD levels, and the following options can be selected:
(1) None (none): There is no fade-out effect when LOD is switched.
(2) Cross Fade: Smooth transitions between LOD levels using a fade-out effect.
(3) SpeedTree (SpeedTree): Use SpeedTree's fade-out effect to smoothly transition between LOD levels.
LOD 0, LOD 1, LOD 2, etc.: These properties are used to specify the model at different LOD levels. Each LOD attribute can set a model and specify that the model is used at a certain distance.
Culled: The Culled property defines whether objects are fully culled when all LODs are culled (hidden). If Culled is selected, objects will no longer be rendered or consume any performance when all LODs of the LOD Group are culled.
8. Occlusion Area: Used to define the occlusion area for occlusion culling optimization during rendering. Using the Occlusion Area component, you can mark and define occlusion areas, reduce the rendering of occluded objects during rendering, and improve performance. The size and center of the occlusion area and whether it is used as a view volume to participate in the calculation depends on the requirements of the scene and the optimization goal.
Size: Defines the size (volume) of the masked area. The width, height and depth of the masked area can be set by adjusting the value of the 3D vector.
Center: defines the center position of the masked area. The center position of the occluded area can be set by adjusting the value of the 3D vector.
Is View Volume (whether it is a view volume): defines whether the occluded area is used as a view volume. If Is View Volume is checked, it means that the occlusion area will be used for occlusion culling and determination of visible objects, calculated according to its position and the camera's field of view. If Is View Volume is not checked, it means that the occlusion area is only used for occlusion culling, but does not participate in determining visible objects.
Nine, Occlusion Portal: Used to define occlusion doors to optimize visibility during rendering. With the Occlusion Portal component, you can mark and define occlusion doors to optimize visibility during rendering. Occlusion doors can be placed between walls, doors, and other visible objects in the scene, and the visibility can be controlled by opening or closing the occlusion doors. The center position and size of the occlusion door can be adjusted according to the scene requirements to ensure the correct occlusion effect.
Open (open state): defines the open state of the shelter door. If Open is checked, it means that the shelter door is open, allowing one side of the shelter door to see the other side. If Open is unchecked, it means the blocking door is closed and will prevent seeing from one side to the other.
Center: defines the center position of the blocking door. You can set the center position of the blocking door by adjusting the value of the 3D vector.
Size: Defines the size (volume) of the blocking door. The width, height and depth of the blocking door can be set by adjusting the values of the 3D vector.
10. Reflection Probe
Type (type): defines the type of reflection probe, and the following options can be selected:
(1) Baked (baked): bake the reflection information of the static scene in editing mode, and does not support real-time update.
(2) Custom (custom): Manually set the parameters and update methods of the reflection probe.
(3) Runtime (real-time): defines the parameters and methods of updating reflection probes in real time.
Runtime Settings
Importance: Defines the importance of reflection probes in the scene, affecting update frequency and performance overhead. A higher importance means that the probe is updated more frequently.
Intensity: Defines the brightness of the reflection probe. This value can be adjusted to increase or decrease the strength of the reflection.
Box Projection: Defines whether reflection probes use box projection to capture reflection information.
Blend Distance: Defines the distance at which reflection probes blend with each other. When the areas of influence of multiple reflection probes intersect, a blend distance can be used to achieve a smooth transition.
Box Size: Defines the size of the reflection probe's affected area. Set in the form of a box volume whose width, height and depth can be set by adjusting the value of the 3D vector.
Box Offset: Defines the offset of the reflection probe box relative to its position. By adjusting the value of the 3D vector, the box can be displaced relative to the probe position.
Cubemap Capture Settings
Resolution: Defines the resolution of the captured cubemap. Higher resolutions result in higher quality reflections, but also increase memory and computational overhead.
HDR (High Dynamic Range): Defines whether to use the High Dynamic Range (HDR) format to capture reflection information. Enabling HDR provides a more accurate representation of scenes with a wide range of brightness.
Shadow Distance: Defines the maximum distance that reflection probes use to render shadows. Shadows beyond this distance will not be rendered into the reflection probe's cubemap.
Clear Flags: Defines whether the cubemap should be cleared. The following options can be selected:
(1) Skybox: Use a skybox when clearing cubemaps.
(2) Solid Color: Use a solid color when clearing the cubemap.
Background: Defines the background color of the cubemap.
Culling Mask: A hierarchical mask that defines what the reflection probes can see. Only layers that are checked will be included in the rendering of reflection probes.
Use Occlusion Culling: Defines whether occlusion culling is enabled to optimize rendering. If this option is checked, reflection probes will use occlusion culling to exclude invisible objects from being rendered.
Clipping Planes: Defines the clipping planes for the cubemap. The near and far clipping planes can be set to limit the extent of the rendering space that the cubemap captures.
11. Skybox: Skybox for rendering scenes
Custom Skybox: Allows you to use a custom material for the skybox background. Material defines the material of the custom skybox. You can drag an appropriate material onto this property and that material will be used to render the skybox. This material should be a material that uses a cubemap as texture (you can use Skybox Shader or Cubemap Shader).
12. Sorting Group: Used to control the drawing order of objects in rendering
Sorting Layer: Defines the rendering layer where the object is located. The renderer determines the drawing order of objects based on the ordering layer. Higher sort layers will be drawn on top of lower sort layers. A different sorting layer can be selected or created from the Sorting Layer drop-down menu in the Inspector panel.
Order in Layer: Defines the order in which objects are drawn in the sorting layer they belong to. Higher Order in Layer values will be drawn on top of lower Order in Layer values. The drawing order can be modified by directly adjusting the value of the Order in Layer field in the Inspector panel.
13. Sprite Renderer
Sprite: Defines the sprite image to be displayed in the sprite renderer. The sprite to be rendered can be selected by dragging the sprite resource onto this property.
Color (color): defines the color of the sprite. The rendered color of the sprite can be changed by adjusting the values of the R, G, B, and Alpha channels. The alpha value controls the transparency of the sprite.
Flip: Allows you to flip the rendering of the sprite horizontally and vertically. The two directions of horizontal flip and vertical flip can be controlled independently.
Draw Mode: Defines the drawing mode of the sprite. The following options can be selected:
(1) Simple: Draw sprites in the default way.
(2) Tiled: Tile and draw sprites in the specified area.
(3) Sliced: Draw sprites according to the nine-square grid cutting method.
Mask Interaction: Defines how the sprite renderer interacts with the Mask component. The following options can be selected:
(1) Visible Inside Mask: The sprite will be visible inside the mask.
(2) Visible Outside Mask: The sprite will be visible outside the mask.
Sprite Sort Point: Defines the sorting point of the Sprite Renderer in the scene. You can choose the following options:
(1) Pivot: Use the Pivot points of the sprites for sorting.
(2) Center: Use the center point of the sprite for sorting.
Material: Defines the material used to render the sprite. Materials determine how sprites look and render.
Additional Settings (additional settings):
Sorting Layer (sorting layer): defines the drawing level of sprites.
Order in Layer: Defines the drawing order within the same sorting layer.
14. Streaming Controller: a component used to manage scene resource loading and unloading
Mip Map Bias: Mipmaps are a set of pre-generated textures used to provide more appropriate texture details when moving away from the camera or render target. A mipmap is a series of downscaled versions generated from the original texture, each half the size of the previous one. This enables smaller textures to be used when rendering objects that are farther away, thereby improving performance and reducing video memory usage.
The Mip Map Bias property allows you to manually adjust the mipmap level offset. Larger offset values will cause lower level mipmap versions to be used, making textures appear blurrier and less scaled. Smaller offset values will cause higher-level mipmap versions to be used, resulting in sharper looking textures and larger scaling.
By adjusting the Mip Map Bias property, you can control the display of texture details while maintaining performance. Farther objects can use a lower level mipmap version, avoiding unnecessary details, while closer objects can use a higher level mipmap version, keeping details clear.