UI Toolkit Shadows, Outlines & Glow v1.3.5 (14 Apr 2026) provides glow, outlines, and soft shadows for UI Toolkit elements. The glow and outline effects use two customizable colors—when the same color is selected, it creates an outline. The glow is not a bloom shader effect but a simple vertex color effect, as UI Toolkit does not support shaders. Real box shadows can be achieved by wrapping elements in the Shadow control, or shadows can be emulated effectively using non-destructive glow manipulators. The workflow is non-destructive and does not require changes to existing UI hierarchies; components can be added to any UI element directly in the UI document. For shadows, the custom "Shadow" control must be used. Animation presets are available to enhance UI visuals, and full vertex-level customization is possible with coding (examples provided). Custom glow attributes allow property control via USS. Handy features include inheriting border colors (with tinting), splitting glow width per side for shadow emulation, and storing glow configurations and animations in Scriptable Object assets for easy reuse and script modification. The resource includes comprehensive examples and documentation available at Kamgam/UIToolkitGlow/Examples. It supports URP, HDRP, and Built-In rendering pipelines without requiring custom shaders—instead, it generates geometry using vertex colors. Full source code is provided, with clear instructions on usage and licensing. The asset supports Unity 2021.3 and later versions, including all LTS releases; earlier versions are not officially tested.
