Outlines & edge detection
Outlines make characters and objects readable and stylised. Techniques here include inverted hulls, edge detection on depth and normals, and Fresnel-based rims. The guides compare cost, quality and compatibility so you can pick the right one for your pipeline. 12 hand-picked Unity guides, tutorials, videos and repos, kept current.
- Zelda Recall Rune in Unity URP
Recreates the Zelda Recall Rune effect by drawing chosen objects to a mask and outlining them in URP.
danielilett.com · Oct 2025 - Cyberpunk: Broken Edges
Looks at broken edges and outline artifacts in Cyberpunk.
simonschreibt.de · Feb 2025 - Screen buffer based depth outline shader
Gist: Depth outline shader using the screen buffer.
gist.github.com · May 2023 - Outline Post Process in Unity Shader Graph (URP)
Draws outlines as a Fullscreen Shader Graph post process by detecting color changes between neighboring pixels.
danielilett.com · Mar 2023 - Toon outline shader | Unity Tutorial
Writes a toon outline shader in Unity.
youtube.com · ~Aug 2021 - Ultra Effects | Part 10 - Dungeon Drawing
Combines depth, color and normal outlines into a sketched dungeon drawing look.
danielilett.com · Mar 2020 - Hull Outlines
Draws outlines with a second hull pass.
ronja-tutorials.com · Jul 2018 - Pixel-Perfect Outline Shaders for Unity
Creates pixel-perfect outline shaders with stable screen-space width.
videopoetics.com · Jan 2018 - Fallout 3 – Edges
Analyzes how Fallout 3 draws edges and outlines on objects, with several updates.
simonschreibt.de · Jan 2013 - Better Outline Rendering Using Surface IDs
Better outline rendering using surface IDs, demonstrated in WebGL.
omar-shehata.medium.com - The Quest for Very Wide Outlines
Ben Golus explores GPU silhouette rendering for very wide outlines.
bgolus.medium.com - 5 ways to draw an outline
Compares several techniques for rendering outlines and highlights, from vertex-based to screen-space.
alexanderameye.github.io