Emission

Emission adds self-illumination on top of the lit color — the glow of LEDs, magic runes, lava, and sci-fi panels. Genesis ships an HDR-ready pipeline with mask channels and an optional pulse animator, so emissive surfaces hit URP’s Bloom cleanly without a post-process volume per material.

When to use it

Glowing details — LEDs, runes, neon signs.
Lava and hot metal — emission driven by Height Gradient.
Magic FX — pulsing emission on cloaks and weapons.
Lightmapping — emissive materials contribute to baked GI.

Emission vs HDR Base Color

Pushing the Base Color past 1.0 also glows under Bloom, but it tints the lit response too. Emission is additive, ignores lighting, and supports masks — use it for things that should glow regardless of scene lights.

How it works

Genesis samples _EmissionMap, multiplies by _EmissionColor * _EmissionIntensity, optionally pulses the result with a sine wave, and adds it to the final lit color. Because the value can exceed 1.0, URP’s Bloom and tone mapping pick it up automatically when the camera has HDR enabled.

Sci-fi panel with a painted glow texture — flat, no bloom.

The same panel: glow regions push through bloom and bleed onto neighboring geometry.

Off

Emission · HDR 4.0 + Bloom

Emission feeding URP's Bloom post-processing. Drag to compare.

Properties

Inspector label	Shader property	Type	Default	Description
Emission Map	_EmissionMap	Texture2D	white	Emission texture. Import as sRGB unless you need linear HDR.
Emission Color	_EmissionColor	Color (HDR)	RGB(0,0,0)	HDR tint multiplied into the map.
Intensity	_EmissionIntensity	Float (0–16)	1.0	Scalar on top of the color. 4+ gives strong bloom.
Emission Mask	_EmissionMask	Texture2D	white	Greyscale mask restricting emission to regions.
Pulse Speed	_EmissionPulseSpeed	Float (0–10)	0.0	0 = static; higher pulses faster.
Pulse Range	_EmissionPulseRange	Vector4	(0.5, 1.5, 0, 0)	Min/max multiplier during the pulse.
Global Illumination	_EmissionGlobalIllumination	Enum	Realtime	Realtime, Baked, or None for lightmaps.

Usage

Add an emission map, or use the base map’s alpha as a mask.
Pick a color and set HDR intensity to 2–8 for bloom.
Confirm the URP Asset has HDR enabled and the camera has a Bloom override.
For pulsing, set Pulse Speed above 0 and tune the Pulse Range.


material.SetColor("_EmissionColor", new Color(0.3f, 0.9f, 1.0f) * 5.0f);
material.SetFloat("_EmissionIntensity", 1.0f);
material.SetFloat("_EmissionPulseSpeed", 1.5f);

Tips & gotchas

HDR must be enabled in three places: the URP Asset, the Camera, and (for builds) Player settings. Otherwise intensities above 1 clip.
The pulse is driven by the material, not a script, so it works on disabled GameObjects and in prefabs.
Set Global Illumination to Baked if you want emission to contribute to lightmaps; otherwise leave it Realtime.
Emission itself is cheap, but Bloom is not. Use Unity’s mobile Bloom or skip it on low-end devices.

Hologram — uses emission for the holo glow.
Hit Effect — flashes emission on damage.
Color Adjustments — final grade alongside albedo.
Height Gradient — drive emission by world Y for lava.