Keywords Reference

Genesis uses URP-compatible shader_feature keywords for every optional code path. The inspector and the Material API set these for you — you rarely touch them by hand — but you need to know they exist to debug variant explosion, batching breaks, and shipped build size.

Variant explosion 101

Every keyword combination compiles a distinct variant. Eight keywords = up to 256 variants. The Feature Configurator strips the ones you don’t ship.

Keyword listing

Inspector label	Shader property	Type	Default	Description
Normal Map	_NORMALMAP	Keyword	—	Sample _BumpMap and apply tangent-space perturbation.
Mask Map	_MASKMAP	Keyword	—	Sample packed metallic/AO/detail/smoothness mask.
Cel Shading	_CEL_SHADING_ON	Keyword	—	Enable cel shading; pairs with _CEL_MODE_* sub-keywords.
Cel Mode: Stepped	_CEL_MODE_STEPPED	Keyword	—	Multi-band cel. Mutually exclusive with _CEL_MODE_RAMP.
Cel Mode: Ramp	_CEL_MODE_RAMP	Keyword	—	Ramp-texture cel. Costs one extra sample.
Rim Lighting	_RIM_ON	Keyword	—	Fresnel-driven rim lighting.
MatCap	_MATCAP_ON	Keyword	—	Sample MatCap by view-space normal.
Specular	_SPECULAR_ON	Keyword	—	Stylized specular highlight.
Translucency	_TRANSLUCENCY_ON	Keyword	—	Wrap-style back-light approximation.
Triplanar	_TRIPLANAR_ON	Keyword	—	World-space triplanar projection. 3x sample multiplier.
Stochastic Sampling	_STOCHASTIC_ON	Keyword	—	Randomized triplanar variant. 9x sample multiplier.
Layer Textures	_LAYER_TEX_ON	Keyword	—	Enable layer textures with blend modes.
Height Gradient	_HEIGHT_GRADIENT_ON	Keyword	—	World-Y-driven color gradient.
Outline	_OUTLINE_ON	Keyword	—	Inverted-hull outline pass.
Dissolve	_DISSOLVE_ON	Keyword	—	Noise-driven clip with edge glow.
Hologram	_HOLOGRAM_ON	Keyword	—	Scan lines + flicker + edge fresnel.
Hit Effect	_HIT_EFFECT_ON	Keyword	—	Color flash blend driven by _HitEffectAmount.
Vertex Animation	_VERTEX_ANIM_ON	Keyword	—	Enable vertex animation; specific type set by _VertexAnimType float.
UV Animation	_UV_ANIM_ON	Keyword	—	Enable UV animation stack.
Stutter	_STUTTER_ON	Keyword	—	Quantize material updates to _StutterFPS.
Depth Color	_DEPTH_COLOR_ON	Keyword	—	Tint by linear depth — useful for water and fog.

Multi-compile vs shader_feature

Genesis uses shader_feature (not multi_compile) for everything except the URP plumbing keywords. This means unused variants are stripped at build time — toggling a feature off in the inspector also strips its variant if no material in your project uses it.

Want to toggle a keyword at runtime that you never set in any material? Use multi_compile_local or pre-create a material variant with that keyword on.

Setting keywords via material.EnableKeyword instantiates the material and breaks batching. See Scripting Materials for safe patterns.

Keywords Reference

Keyword listing

Multi-compile vs shader_feature

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