Runtime API

The runtime API is available through the HTraceAO.Runtime assembly and is used by all supported render pipelines.

HTraceAOSettings

Namespace: IPGames.HTraceAO.Runtime.Data.Public

public class HTraceAOSettings

HTraceAOSettings exposes the profile currently used by HTrace AO.

Member	Type	Access	Description
ActiveProfile	HTraceAOProfile	get	Returns the active global profile, or null when no profile has been registered yet.
SetActiveProfile(HTraceAOProfile profile)	void	Static	Sets the global profile used by HTrace AO. Pass null to clear the active profile.

The runtime resource reference is internal. Assign a profile through the HTrace component in the Inspector, or replace the active profile at runtime with SetActiveProfile.

using IPGames.HTraceAO.Runtime.Data.Profile;
using IPGames.HTraceAO.Runtime.Data.Public;
using UnityEngine;

public sealed class HTraceAOProfileSwitcher : MonoBehaviour
{
    [SerializeField] private HTraceAOProfile QualityProfile;

    public void ApplyProfile()
    {
        HTraceAOSettings.SetActiveProfile(QualityProfile);
    }
}

SetActiveProfile changes the global reference immediately. An enabled pipeline component can register its serialized profile again during its lifecycle, and the URP Volume workflow rebuilds the active profile from the blended Volume settings.

using IPGames.HTraceAO.Runtime.Data.Profile;
using IPGames.HTraceAO.Runtime.Data.Public;
using IPGames.HTraceAO.Runtime.Globals;
using UnityEngine;

public sealed class HTraceAOQualityController : MonoBehaviour
{
    public void ApplyHighQualityGTAO()
    {
        HTraceAOProfile profile = HTraceAOSettings.ActiveProfile;
        if (profile == null)
            return;

        profile.GeneralSettings.AmbientOcclusionMode = AmbientOcclusionMode.GTAO;
        profile.GeneralSettings.Intensity = 1.5f;
        profile.GTAOSettings.Resolution = GTAOResolutionMode.Full;
        profile.GTAOSettings.SliceCount = 4;
        profile.GTAOSettings.StepCount = 32;
        profile.GTAOSettings.Denoising = GTAODenoisingMode.SpatioTemporal;
    }
}

The URP Volume workflow rebuilds the active profile from the blended HTraceAOVolume. In that workflow, change the Volume parameters instead of writing the corresponding ActiveProfile fields. See Universal Render Pipeline.

HTraceAOProfile

Namespace: IPGames.HTraceAO.Runtime.Data.Profile

public class HTraceAOProfile : ScriptableObject

Field	Type	Description
GeneralSettings	GeneralSettings	General mode, intensity, output, and pipeline-integration settings.
SSAOSettings	SSAOSettings	SSAO visual, quality, masking, and debug settings.
GTAOSettings	GTAOSettings	GTAO tracing, quality, masking, denoising, and debug settings.
RTAOSettings	RTAOSettings	RTAO tracing, culling, denoising, and debug settings.
DebugSettings	DebugSettings	Internal diagnostics exposed for development builds. These fields are not part of the stable gameplay-facing API.

CopySettingsFrom(HTraceAOProfile) is an Editor-only utility and is unavailable in player builds.

GeneralSettings

Namespace: IPGames.HTraceAO.Runtime.Data.Public

Member	Type	Range or values	Availability
AmbientOcclusionMode	AmbientOcclusionMode	SSAO, GTAO, RTAO	RTAO is not available in the Built-in Render Pipeline integration.
Intensity	float	0–4	All pipelines. The property clamps assigned values.
DirectLightOcclusion	float	0–1	All pipelines. The property clamps assigned values.
Fadeout	float	0 disables fadeout; positive values are distances in meters	All pipelines.
OutputDithering	bool	true, false	Used by the HDRP output path.
OutputDitheringAnimate	bool	true, false	Used when output dithering is enabled.
HBuffer	HBuffer	Multi, Depth, Normal, MotionMask, MotionVectors	Selects the buffer shown by a main-buffers debug mode.
InjectionPoint	URPInjectionPoint	BeforeOpaque, BeforeLighting, AfterOpaque	Available in URP.
ReconstructNormals	bool	true, false	Available in URP.

Changing AmbientOcclusionMode at runtime is supported. URP recreates the required render-pass set when the mode changes; HDRP enables the matching custom pass.

SSAOSettings

Namespace: IPGames.HTraceAO.Runtime.Data.Public

Member	Type	Range or values	Notes
DebugModeSSAO	DebugModeSSAO	None, Depth, AmbientOcclusion	Selects the SSAO debug output.
Thickness	float	0–1	The property clamps assigned values.
Radius	int	1–4	The property clamps assigned values.
ExcludeCasting	RenderingLayerMask	Any rendering-layer mask	Available on Unity 2023.3 or newer.
ExcludeReceiving	RenderingLayerMask	Any rendering-layer mask	Available on Unity 2023.3 or newer.
ExcludedIntensity	float	0–1	AO strength on excluded receivers.

GTAOSettings

Namespace: IPGames.HTraceAO.Runtime.Data.Public

Tracing and Quality

Member	Type	Range or values	Description
DebugMode	DebugModeGTAO	None, MainBuffers, AmbientOcclusion, TemporalDisocclusion	Selects the GTAO debug output.
Thickness	float	0.05–1	Virtual object thickness.
WorldSpaceRadius	float	0.1–5	Maximum occluder-search distance in meters.
ScreenSpaceRadius	int	1–256	Minimum search coverage in screen pixels.
SliceCount	int	1–4	Number of tracing directions.
StepCount	int	8–32	Number of steps per direction.
Resolution	GTAOResolutionMode	Full, Half, Quarter	GTAO rendering resolution.
TracingMode	GTAOTracingMode	HorizonSearch, VisibilityBitmasks	Occlusion evaluation algorithm.
DepthFormat	GTAODepthFormat	R16	Internal GTAO depth precision.
ThicknessMode	GTAOThicknessMode	Linear, Uniform	Used by Visibility Bitmasks.
UseAttenuation	bool	true, false	Enables distance attenuation during evaluation.
VisibilityBitmasks	bool	Read-only	Returns whether TracingMode is VisibilityBitmasks.

Denoising

Member	Type	Range or values	Description
Denoising	GTAODenoisingMode	None, SpatialOnly, TemporalOnly, SpatioTemporal	Selects the enabled denoising stages.
UseSimpleRejection	bool	true, false	Uses the simpler temporal history-rejection path.
TemporalRejection	float	0–1	Temporal rejection strength.
SampleCountTemporal	int	0–12	Number of temporally accumulated samples.
ReprojectionFilter	ReprojectionFilter	Linear, Bicubic	Temporal-history sampling filter.
UseNormalWeightingTemporal	bool	true, false	Uses normal differences during reprojection.
SpatialFilterType	SpatialFilterType	Disk, Box	Spatial filter implementation.
FilterRadius	float	0–1 input	Normalized disk-filter radius. The getter returns the internal remapped radius.
FilterAdaptivity	float	0–1	Reduces filtering in high-contrast occluded areas.
BoxPassCount	int	1–3	Number of box-filter passes.
DoubleSampleCount	bool	true, false	Doubles spatial-filter sample taps.

Rendering-layer Masks

The following members are available on Unity 2023.3 or newer.

Member	Type	Range	Description
ExcludeCasting	RenderingLayerMask	Any rendering-layer mask	Excludes matching renderers from casting GTAO.
ExcludeReceiving	RenderingLayerMask	Any rendering-layer mask	Excludes matching renderers from receiving GTAO.
EarlyOutExcludedReceivers	bool	true, false	Skips work for excluded receivers.
ExcludedIntensity	float	0–1	GTAO strength on excluded receivers.

RTAOSettings

Namespace: IPGames.HTraceAO.Runtime.Data.Public

RTAO requires a supported Unity version, graphics API, and ray-tracing-capable device. The class can still be present in assemblies where the mode itself is unavailable; check the current pipeline requirements before selecting it.

Tracing and Quality

Member	Type	Range or values	Description
DebugMode	DebugModeRTAO	None, MainBuffers, AmbientOcclusion, TemporalDisocclusion, ShadingRateVisualization, HardwareRayTracingScene	Selects the RTAO debug output.
DebugSceneMismatch	bool	true, false	Highlights raster/ray-tracing scene mismatches in the RTAS debug view.
WorldSpaceRadius	float	0.1–5	Maximum ray length in meters.
MaxRayBias	float	0.001–0.05	Maximum ray origin offset.
SpecularOcclusion	float	0–1	Used by HDRP native RTAO integration.
TracingMode	TracingMode	NativeRayTracing, InlineRayTracing	Both modes are available in supported HDRP versions. URP uses inline ray tracing.
RayCount	int	1–8	Rays traced per evaluated pixel.
SampleRebalancing	bool	true, false	Stochastically redistributes ray work.
CullBackfaces	bool	true, false	Excludes backfacing triangles from inline ray hits.
CullAlphaCutout	bool	true, false	Excludes alpha-cutout geometry from HTrace's RTAS.
CullingMask	LayerMask	Any Unity layer mask	Excludes layers from HTrace's RTAS.
Resolution	ResolutionMode	Full, Half, Quarter, Adaptive	RTAO rendering resolution.

Screen-space Pretrace and RTAS Culling

Member	Type	Range or values	Description
ScreenSpacePretrace	bool	true, false	Traces screen-space depth before hardware ray tracing.
PretraceMask	RenderingLayerMask	Any rendering-layer mask	Available on Unity 2023.3 or newer.
PretraceSamples	int	8–24	Screen-space ray-march step count.
PretraceDistance	float	0.1–1	Maximum screen-space pretrace distance in meters.
PretraceThickness	float	0.05–1	Virtual depth thickness used by pretracing.
CullingMode	CullingMode	None, Sphere, SolidAngle	HTrace RTAS culling method.
CullingDistance	float	1–10000	Sphere-culling distance.
MinSolidAngle	float	0.01–180	Solid-angle culling threshold.

Denoising

Member	Type	Range or values	Description
Denoising	RTAODenoisingMode	None, SinglePass, DoublePass	Selects the spatial/temporal denoising path.
SampleCountTemporal	int	8–16	Number of temporally accumulated samples.
StaticRejection	float	0–1	Rejection strength for static occlusion on moving receivers.
DynamicRejection	float	0–1	Rejection strength for occlusion cast by moving objects.
ReprojectionFilter	ReprojectionFilter	Linear, Bicubic	Temporal-history sampling filter.
UseNormalWeightingTemporal	bool	true, false	Uses normal differences during reprojection.
DisocclusionBoost	bool	true, false	Adds samples in areas without valid history.
FilterRadius	float	0–1 input	Normalized spatial-filter radius. The getter returns the internal remapped radius.
ContactOcclusion	float	0–1	Strength of the short-range contact pass.
ContactOcclusionDenoise	bool	true, false	Denoises contact occlusion.
ExcludeReceiving	RenderingLayerMask	Any rendering-layer mask	Available on Unity 2023.2 or newer.
EarlyOutExcludedReceivers	bool	true, false	Available on Unity 2023.2 or newer.
ExcludedIntensity	float	0–1	RTAO strength on excluded receivers.

Runtime Safety

• Read ActiveProfile only after the pipeline-specific HTrace component has enabled.
• Treat the active profile as a single global settings source. Multiple enabled HTrace components can replace the global reference with whichever component registers last.
• Prefer changing existing settings objects. Do not replace GeneralSettings, GTAOSettings, RTAOSettings, or SSAOSettings while a frame is rendering.
• Properties with documented ranges clamp assigned values. Public fields such as Fadeout and enum fields do not perform validation.
• Select a non-debug mode before shipping. Debug modes replace or alter the visible output.