Carve – Silhouette Parallax Occlusion Mapping for HDRP & URP

Requirements

- Unity 6.0 LTS (6000.0) or newer

- HDRP 17.0+ or URP 17.0+ (one package, the right shaders are used automatically)

- URP: Forward, Forward+ and Deferred; Carve Decals need URP's Decal renderer feature

- Shader Model 4.5+ (DX11, DX12, Vulkan, Metal)

- TAA recommended (relief detail is finer than a pixel)

Contents

- Shaders: Carve Lit, Carve Layered Lit, Carve Decal for HDRP (Shader Graph) and URP

(hand-written Carve Lit / Layered Lit writing real depth, Shader Graph decal),

Carve POM sub-graph, example graphs for HDRP and URP, shared HLSL

- C#: runtime (namespace JamzeySt.Carve: Quality Manager, globals, sun, layers),

editor (Carve Hub, Setup Wizard, inspectors, converter, height map generator,

silhouette/pyramid/relief bakers, layer painter), pipeline assemblies via version defines

- Materials: 13 samples and 4 decals for each pipeline

- Textures: 65 original procedural textures (2048, 16-bit height maps), height pyramids

- Meshes: generated demo meshes

- Demo scenes: Showcase, Village (walled town), Minimal, for HDRP and URP

- Documentation: PDF manual (28 pages), README

Tested on

- Unity 6000.0.31f1: HDRP 17.0 and URP 17.0 (fresh template projects, package import)

- Unity 6000.5.4f1: HDRP 17.5 (development project) and URP 17.5

- Windows, DX11, NVIDIA RTX 2060

Not included / limits

- Self-shadowing from the sun (directional light); point/spot lights light the relief but don't self-shadow it

- Carve Decals give parallax depth but can't write depth (engine limit for projected decals)

- URP Shader Graph has no depth offset: graphs built on the Carve POM node in URP don't write real depth

(Carve Lit / Layered Lit in URP do)

- No Built-in render pipeline; XR not verified

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Carve gives flat surfaces real depth. It is parallax occlusion mapping built to hold up where classic POM falls apart: mesh edges are carved into the shape of the relief, props meet the relief at its true depth, and light, shadows and reflections follow every crack. It works on modular kits, curved props and meshes without good UVs, and a scene-wide Quality Manager keeps it inside your frame budget. One package, HDRP and URP.

🪨 Real Depth, Real Outlines

- Carved silhouettes: box and modular edges show the relief's outline instead of a straight line.

- Bumpy outlines on curved meshes: rocks, columns and pipes get uneven edges like real stone.

- Real depth: props, characters and decals meet the carved surface at the right depth; SSAO, fog and contact shadows see it too. In URP as well.

- Depth in centimeters on any mesh, scale or tiling.

- Anti-tiling that keeps the relief intact, detail relief with its own shadows, and up to 4 height-blended layers you paint in the Scene view.

- Carve Decals: cracks, bullet holes, grates and covers that look cut into any surface.

- One click turns the relief into a collider or a detailed mesh.

☀️ Light That Understands the Relief

- Soft self-shadows from the sun, widening with distance like real shadows.

- Relief occlusion darkens every gap; no glowing cracks in wet or shiny relief.

- Cliff shading on steep relief walls instead of stretched texture.

- Cast shadows carry the carved shape, and other objects' shadows bend over the relief.

⚡ Fast by Design

- Auto LOD and pyramid tracing: steps only where they show, close-ups keep full quality.

- Carve Quality Manager: Low / Medium / High / Ultra or your own mix for the whole scene, with a live readout.

- Adaptive quality in Play mode: holds a target frame rate by scaling Carve's own work. Your resolution never changes.

- Built for big scenes: cheap shadow maps and depth prepass, layered grounds that only read the layers painted where you look.

- Built-in cost meter: what Carve costs in your scene, per render pass, in one click.

🧱 Works on Anything

- Triplanar mapping: no UVs needed for rocks, spheres and scans, outlines still carved.

- Modular kits: bake silhouette data for any mesh in one click; the original mesh is untouched.

- The Carve POM node for your own Shader Graphs, with example graphs for HDRP and URP.

🛠 No Setup Headaches

- 13 ready-to-use materials (cobblestone, brick, pavers, cliff rock, pebbles, cracked mud, wood, sci-fi panels, roof tiles, castle stone, fieldstone, plaster, turf), for both pipelines.

- No height map? Generate one from the normal map in one click.

- One-click converter from HDRP Lit / LayeredLit and URP Lit, Unity's POM depth converted to real depth.

- Setup Wizard and health checks with one-click fixes.

- The Carve Hub: one window for materials, conversion, meshes, debug views and GPU cost.

- Three demo scenes per pipeline, including a whole walled town built with Carve, and a 28-page PDF manual.

All textures, meshes and materials are original and procedural; no third-party content.