Why Upgrade to URP?
The Universal Render Pipeline is Unity's present and future. Unity's 2026 Render Pipelines strategy makes the path forward clear: URP is the only pipeline receiving active innovation. Here is the current state of each pipeline:
- Built-In Render Pipeline (BiRP) — DEPRECATED — Officially deprecated as of Unity 6.4 (2026). Unity has stated it will be removed entirely in a future release. BiRP projects are live services on borrowed time — migration to URP is urgent.
- High-Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) — MAINTENANCE ONLY — HDRP is no longer receiving new features. Unity is only maintaining it with platform support updates (e.g., Nintendo Switch 2). No new rendering research, no new tools, no new shader development.
- Universal Render Pipeline (URP) — THE FUTURE — Unity is concentrating all rendering R&D into URP. This includes dynamic global illumination, physical light units, volumetric rendering, and a unified lit shader.
The message from Unity could not be clearer: URP is the only future-proof choice for any new project, and existing BiRP/HDRP projects should plan migration as soon as possible.
- Cross-Platform Reach — URP runs on every platform: mobile, desktop, console, and XR. BiRP is deprecated. HDRP is desktop/console only with no active development.
- Performance — URP's efficient rendering reduces draw calls, improves batching, and delivers dramatically better GPU performance especially on mobile and standalone XR headsets.
- Scalability — Scale from high-end PC to mobile VR with a single codebase. URP's quality tiers let you tune visuals per platform without authoring separate content.
- Modern Features — URP supports Screen Space Ambient Occlusion, Decals, Volumetric Fog, Temporal Anti-aliasing, and Shader Graph out of the box — with more features arriving every release.
- XR Optimizations — URP has built-in single-pass instanced rendering, foveated rendering, and automated dynamic resolution for XR platforms.
- Full Unity Support — All new Unity features, packages, and Asset Store content are built for URP first. BiRP and HDRP are excluded from future engine development.
Our Migration Process
- 1. Project Assessment — We catalog every shader, material, lighting setup, post-processing effect, and rendering feature in your project to understand the migration scope.
- 2. Shader Conversion — We convert custom shaders from BiRP or HDRP to URP-compatible Shader Graph or hand-coded URP shaders. Built-in shaders are replaced with their URP counterparts.
- 3. Material Migration — We rebuild material property mappings to ensure visual consistency. URP uses different shader keywords and property names, requiring careful conversion.
- 4. Lighting & Post-Processing — We reconfigure lighting settings, reflection probes, light probes, and post-processing volumes for URP's rendering architecture.
- 5. Visual Validation — Side-by-side comparison of before/after renders to catch and fix any visual discrepancies.
- 6. Performance Tuning — After migration, we tune URP settings (render scale, shadow quality, MSAA, etc.) to hit your target framerate on each platform.
Pipeline Status at a Glance (2026)
- BiRP — DEPRECATED, will be removed. Unity officially deprecated BiRP in Unity 6.4. It remains available through Unity 6.7 LTS (supported until ~end of 2028), but will be removed entirely. If you are on BiRP, migrate now.
- HDRP — MAINTENANCE ONLY. No new features. Only Switch 2 support and critical bug fixes. All rendering R&D is focused on URP. Projects starting today should not choose HDRP.
- URP — THE ONLY STRATEGIC CHOICE. Actively developed with dynamic GI, volumetric lighting, physical sky, and a unified shader in the pipeline. Backed by Unity's full engineering team.
What about staying on HDRP? If you have an existing HDRP project that is close to shipping and cannot justify the migration cost, we can help stabilize and optimize it within HDRP's current feature set. However, for any project longer than 6-12 months from release, migrating to URP is strongly recommended to avoid being stranded on a dead-end pipeline.
What does this mean for your project? Whether you are on BiRP or HDRP, migrating to URP is an investment in your project's future. Unity will not ship new rendering features, performance improvements, or platform support for either BiRP or HDRP. Every month you wait is another month your project falls behind.