2025 | Unity 6 URP | Environment / Lighting / UI

Experimenting with a Triplanar shader made in ShaderGraph, I used an Emissive map for the ceiling tiles (which emits more realistic indirects) and then baked the lighting for each individual room using a Prefab Lightmapping add-on "PrefabBaker". We then created a script to dynamically lerp between different GlobalVolume profiles and achieve a unique color mapping for each area of our game (Office rooms, Warehouse, Outside) at runtime, creating different ambiances for each area.

By using a blend of Baked Emissive lighting and Mixed Spotlights, we were able to fake Real-time lighting at a reduced cost to performance, allowing us to network prop objects for multiplayer play while eliminating the need for networked lighting.

Using URP's Custom Render Layers, I was able to setup 2 separate light sources for the Interior (Backrooms) and Exterior (Warehouse and Outside) by assigning models to their respective layers. This fixed lighting conflicts between dynamically spawned prefabs at runtime, and allowed for an immersive transition between the Backrooms and the 'real world'.

Using Figma and in-game screenshots, I was able to rapidly prototype many UI mockups and export game-ready assets early-on, which allowed our Lead Programmer more time to implement the various systems required for functional menus and HUD.