Fast Blur is a performance-optimized, high quality fullscreen blur effect for Unity’s URP. Easily added as a post-processing override, it delivers smooth, adjustable blur – ideal for UI and VFX.
Fast Blur – High Performance Blur Post Processing Effect for URP v1.1 (28 Jul 2025)
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Description
Fast Blur is a performant, high-quality fullscreen blur effect built for the Universal Render Pipeline (URP) in Unity 6. Designed as a post-processing override, it integrates seamlessly with Unity’s Volume System and delivers smooth, adjustable blur effects – perfect for UI backgrounds, cutscenes, and in-game VFX.
✨ Key Features
???? Performance-Conscious Design
Delivers a substantial performance improvement over traditional blur techniques like box or Gaussian blur, while still providing high visual fidelity.
???? Iterative Blur Algorithm
Combines multiple downsampling and upsampling passes with smart interpolation to deliver high-quality results with fewer samples and lower performance impact.
????️ Volume-Based Control
Fully compatible with Unity’s volume system. Adjust blur intensity smoothly at runtime using post-processing volumes.
⚙️ Renderer Feature Integration
Easy setup as a URP Renderer Feature – just add it to your Renderer Asset and configure your volumes.
????️ Flexible Applications
Ideal for blurring UI backgrounds, creating atmospheric effects, or enhancing transitions with minimal setup.
⚡ Smarter Blur for Real-Time Projects
While any fullscreen blur effect has a performance cost, Fast Blur is engineered to minimize that impact – offering one of the most efficient blur solutions available for URP. It’s a practical choice for developers who want polished visual effects without the steep overhead of conventional blur methods.
Technical details
Fast Blur has been exclusively designed for Unity 6 or higher and the Universal Render Pipeline. It has been implemented as a URP Renderer Feature, using Unity’s new Render Graph system. The effect is fully compatible with Unity’s Volume system and can be controlled using a post-processing override.
Requirements
Unity 6 or higher
Universal Render Pipeline (URP)
Features
Fullscreen post-processing blur effect
Integrated as a URP Renderer Feature
Volume override with adjustable intensity
Efficient multi-pass blur algorithm (downsampling & upsampling)
Designed for real-time performance
Fast Blur’s down- and upsample blurring approach is based on the iterative Dual Blur method presented in “Bandwidth-Efficient Rendering” by Marius Bjørge at SIGGRAPH 2015. In our implementation of the technique, we have introduced a custom interpolation system for smooth intensity transitions, making it ideal for dynamic real-time effects.
In the screenshots, we compared fast blur to a common two pass gaussian blur implementation with 32 samples on a 4K output.
