Procedural Heat Distortion (URP)

Procedural Heat Distortion (URP) is a lightweight, production-ready heat haze and refraction shader for Unity’s Universal Render Pipeline.

Easily add realistic heat shimmer above fire, lava, engines, or desert ground using simple mesh-based distortion zones. No complex setup. No custom render passes. Just assign the material and adjust a few parameters.

Perfect for:
• Fire heat haze
• Desert mirage effects
• Lava shimmer
• Engine exhaust distortion
• Environmental refraction
• Cinematic heat waves

The effect works by procedurally distorting the camera color behind a mesh using animated noise. This allows for localized, physically convincing heat shimmer without full-screen post-processing.

Included Preset Materials

The package includes 6 ready-to-use materials:

• Strong – High intensity heat distortion
• Subtle – Light ambient shimmer
• Desert Mirage – Wide, soft ground mirage effect
• Turbulent – Chaotic, aggressive distortion
• Lava Heat – Heavy, rising thermal shimmer
• Exhaust – Focused, directional engine distortion

Simply drag a preset onto a quad or mesh and you’re done.

Key Features

• Local mesh-based heat distortion (not full screen)
• Procedural animated noise (no flipbooks required)
• Vertical fade for realistic rising heat effect
• Adjustable strength, scale, and speed
• Works in both 3D and 2D (via quad or sprite mesh)
• Optimized for URP
• No runtime allocations
• Clean, minimal C# controller

Why This Asset?

Many heat distortion solutions rely on complex renderer features or global post-processing. This asset keeps things simple and modular:

✔ Drop-in ready
✔ Lightweight
✔ Easy to customize
✔ Production-friendly

Ideal for indie developers and small teams who want professional heat shimmer effects without heavy pipeline configuration.