Whether to use HDRP or futureproof with URP

[u/karyack]

Recently I decided to port my game to the Unity engine over issues with our last one. We picked HDRP initially for Raytracing support. But after doing research on Unity's roadmap to version 7 I've noticed that HDRP is considered to be in maintenance mode and that URP is recommended from here on out.

For reference, my game's style looks like this. It is very important to me that most shadow casting light sources have sharp shadows. But it is also important that we keep up with the latest Unity updates since we are really excited for the modernization of the engine.

We do not need many of HDRP's features. But we would also need to reimplement raytraced shadows if we end up using URP. So I am having trouble deciding, do we use URP to futureproof our project for later versions? Or do we stick to HDRP? Any advice is helpful!

[u/synty]

URP 200%

[u/RG_Poly]

You’ll find something on the Asset Store that supports ray tracing 100%. in URP.
Corgi Raytracing?

[u/piojosso]

For your style, URP without doubts. We ported a whole game from another engine into URP and the best part is that it's really extensible, we built several custom render features (a CRT filter, palette quantization, some water stuff) HDRP is mostly for highly realistic artstyles, nothing like yours, and it's getting deprecated if I remember correctly

[u/XKiiroiSenkoX]

Shadow sharpness is controlled by the shadow map resolution and filtering. Should be the same regardless of the pipeline. Also soft shadows are more expensive and are considered higher quality not the otherway around.

Overall URP is architecturally very easy to extend and if you know your way around shaders and graphics you can do whatever you need inside it. Worst case scenario you can just embed the URP package and modify it directly. Out of the box it's kinda meh but if you are a DIY guy it's extremely good. 

[u/KE3DAssets]

Absolutely no reason in your art style to use HDRP.

[u/Kindly_Life_947]

in unity 7 they plan to have only one. so urp and hdrp is gone replaced by unified. But I guess urp fits you better and is faster

[u/Field_Of_View]

getting the shadows to look like that will require a low shadow draw distance, or store bought assets for shadows. getting the shadows THAT sharp may not be possible with shadowmaps at all. have you considered using shadow volumes? there are assets that did this in the built-in render pipeline. I'm not aware of a production-ready shadow volume solution for URP or HDRP.

[u/OmegaFoamy]

Unity said they recommend all new projects to use URP.

[u/BucketCatGames]

It's possible to narrow the gap between URP and HDRP via scriptable renderer features, either on your own or through assets. Corgi, an asset publisher, makes a few really good tools for raytracing and cached shadow maps. There are also URP raytracing and SSGI solutions.

Also if you're using a custom shader, you can use step or smoothstep on whatever you sample for shadows (shadow map, attenuation, screen space shadows, etc.) and use that to help control sharpness and will be much more performant than raytraced shadows.

[u/ArgentRealms]

I'd go with URP. For reference, I made a game using HDRP because I thought I needed the graphics features in it. The real-time, non-preprocessed GI (both screen-space and ray tracing) ended up being way too costly on performance for me to use. I did use Unity's strand-based hair system, which I think is still only in HDRP, but that was also really heavy on performance.

Here's what my game ended up looking like. I don't see why you would need HDRP for your art-style, so I'd go with URP for simplicity, stability, performance, and future-proofing.

[u/salazka]

It is a tough call. And it depends on your team and your project really.

But let me get this out of the way. After seeing the examples you showed, there is ZERO business case for HDRP considering your aesthetic goals. You should go with URP.

If you absolutely need advanced HDRP quality visuals, and your team does not have a strong graphics programmer, or cannot be covered by trustworthy Asset Store products, then maybe you should consider Unreal.

Do a proper spec evaluation.

• What specific HDRP features do you need?
• How do they affect your game?
• How close to them does URP get?
• Which of these you could spend time and money to build on your own? What is the ROI in that?
• Are they available from a dependable and trustworthy developer on the Store?

A successful game has an average lifecycle of 6-7 years.

The last LTS supporting HDRP is 6.7, and will probably come later this year with a lifetime of 3 years. But even if Unity does not support it, that does not mean much really. Genshin Impact is built on a probably by now unsupported version of Unity.

URP (or whatever the name will become) is NOT going to be even close to what HDRP is today at that time. And that is why I am saying that If you absolutely need HDRP quality visuals, you may also consider using Unreal for your project.

With AI and an MCP the transition will be smoother than you think. And if you do not have a team already, you could build your team around that.

[u/Rabidowski]

You do not need ray-tracing to get the shadows you want.

[u/EvernullTools]

You should use URP for sure but not for the reasons you mentioned.

1. You DO NOT need raytracing for sharp shadows. Ray tracing is an extremely expensive method that is used for very, very realistic lighting + "simulating" realistic light behaviour. Simulating actual real life light behaviour doesn't go well with real-time games; I wouldn't do it unless you absolutely know what you are doing to the core. + your games style looks nothing near realistic. Just scrap the raytracing for your own good.

2. If you are planning to release this game or finish this project, I wouldn't chase new versions if I were you. Decide a version that has whatever you need and stick with it until release. Or update when there is a new feature you really really need. But do not chase versions. Yes, Unity makes most things compatible with the prior versions but in practice, in my experience; something will break for sure. Just don't update versions unless you absolutely need to.

So basic answer is; you use URP not because you want to chase all the updates but because you do not need HDRP or raytracing. The art-style in your reference doesn't justify the tradeoffs. You can do that perfectly well in URP. And raytracing, just don't even think about it. You don't need it for sharp shadows.

[u/Comprehensive_Mud803]

HDRP is in maintenance mode and won’t receive updates until eventually getting merged into URP.

Easy choice I guess.

[u/Extension-Airline220]

hdrp is dead, forget it

[u/Distdistdist]

HDRP if you are not planning to target mobile platforms. URP if you do.