Unity Shader Graph: Getting Started

Shaders are the backbone to displaying everything. The Shader Graph is Unity’s answer to creating a visual and intuitive way to create shaders quickly and efficiently.

This article is going to walk you through:

• Setting up the shader graph in a Unity 2022.2 URP project
• Explain the different parts of the Shader Graph Editor
• Create a variable within the Shader Graph Editor

First we are going to create a new project. If you haven’t already, be sure to install the 2022.2 version of Unity. Any number after the last “2” will be okay. If you want to be on the exact same version you can install 2022.2.18 but as I said, any minor version will be okay. If you use a 2021 or 2023 version then these articles may still help you but the Unity usually makes some big UI/UX change between these versions so things might look different.

Now that we are set, lets create a new project using the URP template and making sure we are on the 2022.2 version.

Creating a new URP 2022.2 project in Unity

The shader graph should already be installed, but you can always check your package manager. So since we should already be good to go, lets make a blank shader graph.

To make a blank shader graph, we just need to right click in our project window and then go to Create -> Shader…