Pipeline Integration

This page describes parameters under the "Pipeline Integration" foldout that are shared between all AO modes.

Injection Point [URP]

Defines the point at which AO is rendered in the Universal Render Pipeline.

• Before Opaque: renders AO before the GBuffer pass (Deferred) or the Forward pass (Forward), making occlusion results available to shaders early in the pipeline. This mode is designed specifically for sampling AO in ShaderGraph or custom shaders, and will not apply occlusion to the frame for shaders that don't explicitly sample it.

• Before Lighting: injects AO as if it were URP's native SSAO, letting URP combine it correctly with the rest of the lighting.

• After Opaque: overlays AO on top of the final frame. Offers wider compatibility with custom shaders and manually rendered objects, but sacrifices correct lighting integration — for example, it will occlude direct lighting as well. Only recommended when neither of the above options is viable.

Reconstruct Normals [URP]

Reconstructs normals from the depth buffer. Normals reconstructed this way are flat and represent raw polygonal geometry, without accounting for smoothing groups or normal map details. This option is useful when a custom shader or object cannot write to the normal buffer, or when the normal buffer is otherwise unavailable.