Wait... why can Unity URP handle this many real-time lights? Dev Vlog 35

In this dev vlog I dive into my latest experiment with vehicle lighting in Unity using the Universal Render Pipeline (URP). Each car in my simulation now features between 4 and 6 fully functional lights, including headlights, taillights, brake lights, and indicator lights. With over 20 vehicles driving around simultaneously, I wanted to see how far I could push Unity’s real-time lighting system—and the results are surprisingly smooth.

I didn't use any baked lighting or fancy optimizations. Instead, I naively added all the Light components I needed—Unity’s URP handled the performance impressively well, even with dozens of real-time point lights and spotlights active at once.

For the police vehicles, I implemented a simple but effective flashing light system using a single light source that dynamically changes its position (transform) and toggles between red, blue, or off in sync—giving a convincing emergency light effect with almost no overhead.

This video showcases the outcome in motion, running fully in the Unity Editor with real-time lighting and URP rendering features like volumetric fog, bloom, and shadows enabled.

As always: Ask me anything in the comments!
Prototype Everything!