Bioluminescence

Bring your fantasy worlds to life with this advanced bioluminescent shader designed for magical mushrooms, ethereal jellyfish, alien creatures, and deep-sea organisms. Now available for both URP and HDRP.

WebGL Demo

Bioluminescence shader combines physically-based rendering with specialized effects that capture the otherworldly beauty of luminescent life forms. Whether you're creating an enchanted forest floor covered in glowing fungi, an underwater realm populated by drifting jellyfish, or an alien planet teeming with strange bioluminescent fauna, this shader delivers stunning visual results with artist-friendly controls.

The vertex animation system simulates organic movement without requiring skeletal rigs or blend shapes. Three distinct wave modes cover everything from gentle mushroom cap breathing to the hypnotic undulation of octopus tentacles. The animation automatically scales to any mesh size, so you can use the same material across your entire ecosystem.

Real-time subsurface scattering reveals the translucent quality of thin organic membranes, showing light bleeding through caps, bells, and fins. The iridescence system adds that magical rainbow shimmer seen on soap bubbles and beetle shells. Pulsating emission with flow animation creates the living, breathing quality that makes bioluminescent creatures so captivating.

The HDRP variant adds physically-based refraction (Planar, Sphere, Thin), native Diffusion Profile support for subsurface scattering, transparent depth prepass with backface rendering, and a custom foldout-based material inspector that automatically manages all HDRP-specific settings.

Built for Unity 6 with full support for both URP and HDRP render pipelines. Takes full advantage of modern rendering features including Forward+ clustered lighting, proper shadow casting with animated geometry, GBuffer pass (HDRP), motion vectors (HDRP), and SRP Batcher compatibility for optimal performance. The package includes both pipeline variants with shared models, textures, and scripts — simply delete the folder you don't need.

Perfect for fantasy RPGs, underwater exploration games, alien world builders, psychedelic experiences, and any project that needs organic creatures with that special magical glow.