Why do my reflections show partial scenes after refresh?

Time Slicing renders the cubemap's six faces across multiple frames (Individual Faces option). Between the first and sixth, the cubemap has new content on some faces and old content on others. Reflective surfaces show the seam.

Should I use All Faces At Once?

For full visual quality at refresh, yes. The cost is a single-frame spike (six camera renders). For game scenes that refresh rarely (after a level transition), the spike is fine. For continuous refresh, accept the cheaper sliced look or use baked + Custom probe types.

Is there a way to hide the in-between?

Use double-buffered probes: render to a hidden cubemap, then swap when complete. Unity doesn't expose this directly; HDRP's Reflection Probe Cache approximates it. URP requires custom code.

Fix: Unity Reflection Probe Time Slice Showing Incomplete Faces

Quick answer: If reflection refresh quality matters more than the per-refresh cost, set Time Slicing = All Faces At Once. The probe takes a one-frame spike but never shows mixed-state cubemaps. Reserve Individual Faces for ambient probes that refresh continuously.

A door opens. Your floor reflects the new view of the room across six frames, with three faces showing the old room and three showing the new. The seam is visible on chrome surfaces. Time Slicing did exactly what it was configured to do.

The Symptom

Realtime probe refreshes show clear discontinuity in reflections for ~6 frames after RenderProbe. Reflective floors look stitched together from two scenes. Once all faces complete, normal again.

What Causes This

Realtime Reflection Probes have a Time Slicing option:

All Faces At Once — six camera renders in one frame. Spike, no seams.
Individual Faces — one face per frame across six frames. Cheaper, visible seams during transition.
No Time Slicing — render every face every refresh frame. Heaviest.

The Fix

Pick based on use case:

Realtime Probe (level transition / one-shot):
  Refresh Mode:    Via Scripting
  Time Slicing:    All Faces At Once
  Resolution:      256

Realtime Probe (continuous refresh, ambient):
  Refresh Mode:    Every Frame
  Time Slicing:    Individual Faces
  Resolution:      128

For an event-driven probe (door opens), All Faces is correct. The frame-time spike happens once when the door opens; players don’t notice a single stutter, and the reflection updates cleanly.

Hide the Refresh Frame

If even the spike is too much, render the probe behind a curtain. Trigger probe refresh at the start of a fade-out, swap the visual at fade-in. Players never see the stutter or the stitched cubemap.

Custom Probe Type

For fully controlled refresh, use ReflectionProbe.Custom and write the cubemap yourself with RenderToCubemap or asset-loaded textures. Then you control timing entirely.

Verifying

Trigger the probe refresh while looking at a chrome surface. With All Faces At Once: clean swap. With Individual Faces: 6-frame seam. Choose based on which is the worse experience for your game.

“Spike or seam: pick one. Event-driven probes want the spike.”

Related Issues

For probe not updating, see probe runtime. For light probe seams, see light probe seams.

All Faces. One-frame stutter. Reflections clean.