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Sprite Stencil Overlay Breakdown (Cyanilux)

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Description

Sprite Stencil Overlay Breakdown is a February 2020 Cyanilux post (updated March 2024) for Unity URP. RenderObjects and stencil overrides add a checkerboard overlay on the player when Infront sprites occlude them, like a dithered behind-object cue.

It sets Player and Infront layers, builds a Sprite Unlit graph with Fraction, Step, and Lerp, removes Infront from default masks, then adds RenderObjects passes that write stencil 1 for Infront and re-render the Player with Equal compare and a material override.

Intermediate users on URP need Shader Graph and transparent queues; notes cover 2D Renderer features from 2021.2+, Filtering Layer Mask limits, and Sprite Mask alternatives.

Sections from Layer Setup through Render Player Overlay use annotated screenshots; free on cyanilux.com.

Widely linked in Unity shader circles as a practical URP stencil tutorial for 2D sprite visibility.