Troubleshooting

Start by checking the render pipeline and the assigned material. Use a scene copy and one supplied prefab to isolate the problem before changing many controls.

Materials are pink

1. Confirm that Universal RP is installed and its asset is assigned in Project Settings > Graphics and the active Quality level.
2. Import the base package, then Assets/FORGE3D/Planets/SRP Templates/Planets_URP.unitypackage for the Unity 2022.3 workflow.
3. Let compilation finish and read the first shader error in the Console.
4. If you recently reimported the base package, apply the matching URP template again after protecting your custom assets.

Do not use shader menu text Planets HD as evidence that the template is HDRP. See Installation.

The planet is very dark or completely black

Check for an enabled Directional Light and a camera-facing lit hemisphere. Restore a supplied material rather than starting from zero-valued shader defaults. Inspect Scatter Color, Scatter Boost, layer masks, and whether clouds cover the region you are trying to change.

If the whole object is missing, frame it in Scene View and check the Camera’s clipping planes, culling mask and enabled renderers. Large prefab scales can exceed a camera’s default far plane.

The planet is too bright or has lost detail

Confirm Linear color space. Compare with post-processing disabled, a white Directional Light at intensity 1, and deliberate ambient/reflection settings. Reduce the relevant material boost or emission instead of changing all lights at once. On Lava, inspect Magma Glow; on Sun, inspect Boost and the separate Corona contribution.

A setting seems to do nothing

Confirm that you are editing the material assigned to the visible renderer. Check these dependencies:

Setting	Check
Lava Shininess	Specular Color alpha must be nonzero; use alpha 1 to compare
Rim color or power	Its Frensel/Fresnel multiplier and relevant land/water mask
Terrain color	Layer coverage, masks and overlying terrain/cloud layers
Atmosphere glow	Correct shell, active glow recipe and main-light direction; start with a terrestrial atmosphere
Gas speed	A nonzero vector component; scaling a zero vector keeps it zero
Lightning frequency	Watch over time; a frozen frame cannot show cadence
Oceanic land/shore controls	These are bypassed by this URP shader’s water-only color selection

Keep the supplied textures while isolating the cause. An unchanged image under one material combination does not mean every use of that control is inactive.

Clouds are gone but the surface still looks shadowed

Clouds Output controls the visible cloud contribution, while Cloud Shadows shapes a separate texture-based mask. Compare both with zero independently. Clouds Height changes shadow sampling, not a shell Transform. See Surface and clouds.

Cities or lightning are hard to see

For Terrestrial, look at the night side and check the three city textures, CityLight Color, a positive nonzero CityLight Population, land selection and cloud shadows.

For Thunderstorm, inspect animation in Play Mode. Compare Lignting Mask Pow = 10.2 with 2 before raising Lightning Boost. Keep the original maps for this first comparison. See Practical workflows.

Rings look unexpectedly solid, disappear or overlap badly

On Ring Transparent, opacity comes from Detail Map red × Ring Tint alpha. Check both, then inspect Clip. With tint alpha 1, Clip 1 can leave positive samples unchanged; Clip 2 can remove them. Keep Ring Size different from Ring Offset + 1.

The transparent shader writes depth. Check the final view with atmosphere and other transparent effects present. Ring Shadow has a visible white forward surface, so it is not a substitute for an invisible shadow-only material. See Rings, Sun and Corona.

Corona looks wrong after scaling or near geometry

Confirm the corona renderer/material assignment, enabled Depth Texture on the URP asset and camera, and a nonzero Depth Fade. That value is in world units. Revisit it after changing root scale; the published stellar examples use scale 1200.

Inspect the plane arrangement, camera angle, Edge Fade Falloff/Boost, Corona Falloff and overlapping additive layers. Depth input alone does not guarantee an invisible seam at every intersection. Use the supplied Sun arrangement as a comparison point.

A different platform or renderer looks different

Compare first with the Unity 2022.3/URP 14 setup in Requirements. Check graphics API, quality pipeline override, texture imports, depth, lights and environment reflections. Test additional renderer features one at a time. See Performance and Technical reference.

For support, include the product/package version, Unity and URP versions, graphics API, target platform, first relevant Console error and a short reproduction using a supplied prefab. Use the FORGE3D contact form for direct support.