My journey becoming a Unity game developer: Environment & Lighting-Reflection Probes vs Screen Space Reflections

Objective: Showing the difference between reflection probes and screen space reflections.

Screen Space Reflections final result.

Go to Hierarchy->Light->Reflection Probe to add a new Reflection Probe to the scene. In the Reflection Probe, you can adjust the size of the probe by clicking on the Edit Bounding button, and click-n-drag the points on each side of the probe.

Created a new Reflection Probe and adjusted the size of it.

You can edit the probe’s reflections by changing the Type to either Baked, Custom, or Real-Time. Baked will bake all static objects in the scene. Custom will use Baked and Real-Time to bake static objects, while all moving objects will be baked as they’re moving in real time. Real-Time is just as it says, objects moving through the probe will be baked in real time. Plus, you can change the Intensity of the Reflection Probe. Make sure to Bake in any changes made in the Reflection Probe.

Adjustments made in the Reflection Probe’s settings.

Here is the Intensity setting values being changed to show different results. Plus, I changed the Skybox back to the original nightline view. Make sure to Bake in the changes.

Reflection Probe’s Intensity value changes made with Skybox changed and baked.

There is another reflection that is used which gives better results than Reflection Probes and it’s call Screen Space Reflections. To use it, we must install the Post Processing Package. Under Window->Package Manager is where you must install the Post Processing Package. The package is under Unity Registry.

Installing the Post Processing Package from the Package Manager.

I created a Post Processing Object that holds the Post-process Volume. This volume allows us to create a Post Processing Profile, set effects to be Global if we want, and to add different processing Effects. I will show how to set up Post Processing in the next article, but for now let’s add the Screen Space Reflections effect to this scene.

Inside the Post Processing Object under Post-process Volume, click on the Add Effect button. Select Screen Space Reflections, click ON and turn on the settings you would like to use in the scene. If you have on Auto Generate in Lighting, you should see results instantly. If not, click on Generate Lighting button to make the new changes active.

Screen Space Reflections effect added and turn on.

Screen Space Reflections with Reflection Probe turned on and off.

Screen Space Reflections gives a more shiny, glossy, accurate, stunning look to the textures, therefore giving better reflection results to the scene. On the other hand, Reflection Probes are less expensive to use and definitely should be used with Mobile. Consider Screen Space Reflections if you’re creating for Desktop/Console.