UI Toolkit Shadows, Outlines & Glow v1.3.6 (27 Apr 2026) introduces a powerful set of visual effects for UI elements, including glow, outlines, and soft shadows. The pack enables developers to apply glow and outline effects using two customizable colors—when the colors are identical, the effect becomes an outline. It's important to note that the glow is not a Bloom shader effect, as UI Toolkit does not support shaders; instead, it uses a simple vertex color approach.
For realistic box shadows, users can wrap UI elements in a dedicated "Shadow" control, or alternatively, emulate shadows effectively using non-destructive glow manipulators. The solution supports a non-destructive workflow, meaning no changes to existing UI hierarchies are required—components can be added directly to any UI element via the UI Document.
Animation presets are available to enhance UI interactivity, and full vertex-level customization is possible with some scripting (examples provided). The resource includes custom USS attributes that allow per-property control over visual settings.
Additional handy features include inheriting border colors (with tinting options), splitting glow width independently on each side (useful for shadow emulation), and storing glow configurations and animations in Scriptable Object assets for easy reuse and script-based modification.
The package is fully compatible with URP, HDRP, and the Built-In Render Pipeline, relying on geometry generation and vertex colors rather than custom shaders. Full source code is provided, promoting transparency and developer accessibility. The plugin supports Unity 2021.3 and later versions, including all LTS releases, though earlier versions are not officially tested.
A comprehensive set of examples and documentation is available in the Kamgam/UIToolkitGlow/Examples repository.
